In the middle of the Great Depression, nine brothers from a small 
town in the Texas Hill Country played a baseball game they would 
never forget—the All-Brothers Baseball Championship in Wichita, 
Kansas. The Deike Brothers from Hye, Texas, would take on the 
Stanczak Brothers from the Chicago suburb of Waukegan, Illinois, in 
a game staged as a promotion by a coffee company.

    Veteran Texas author Carlton Stowers relates the little-known true 
story of Texas' greatest all-brothers baseball team, a story that 
includes former President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who sometimes 
filled in before the ninth Deike brother was big enough to play. LBJ 
claimed to have mailed his first letter at the post office in Hye and 
later swore in a Postmaster General there.

    But only the brothers were allowed on the field when the Deikes 
squared off against the Stanczaks. No ringers were allowed, and the 
brothers had to bring their birth certificates to confirm their identities.

    The game itself would be secondary to the thrill of traveling 
outside Texas for the first time—a week-long trip each way in two 
Model A Fords; of watching the great Satchel Paige pitch in a semi-
pro tournament; and of having real uniforms for the first time. "I 
think we all grew about a foot taller," recalled Victor Deike, "the first 
time we put them on."

    "The story of the amazing Deike Brothers baseball team," writes 
Bob St. John, "recalls those pleasant, youthful memories of weekend 
afternoon games played on makeshift fields."

_________________________________________________________

CARLTON STOWERS is the author of thirty books, primarily in the 
fields of sports and true crime. He has won the Mystery Writers of 
America's Edgar Allan Poe Award twice, the Violet Crown Award, 
and he is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.


Number Nine: Texas Heritage Series


What people are saying about this book

"A great story—a fascinating read about a time when baseball—and
life—was purer."—James Yasko, Manager of Visitor Education, 
National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum, Cooperstown, NY

". . . a neat little book, a pleasant trip back into a yesteryear time 
wellworth the taking . . . it represents the living spirit of community 
and the resourcefulness of a very difficult time of survival and 
progress, the sinewy stuff of what history is really all about."
—Manhattan Mercury

"The greatest untold baseball story I have ever read."—Mike 
Shropshire, author of Seasons in Hell

"A trip back to yesterday well worth the taking."—Bob St. John, 
author of Landry: The Legend and the Legacy