The Amazing Tale of Mr. Herbert and

His Fabulous Alpine Cowboys Baseball Club

By DJ Stout

Introduction by Nicholas Dawidoff 

In 1947 a wealthy cattle rancher built one of the most beautiful baseball fields in the world in one of the most unlikely spots in the world, the remote high desert town of Alpine Texas.

Herbert Kokernot Jr., or “Mr. Herbert” as he was called, built the ballpark for his beloved semipro baseball team The Alpine Cowboys. He also happened to own the sprawling 320,000 acre O6 Ranch, one of the largest and most famous ranches in the far West Texas region of the Big Bend. A private man, and generous to a fault, Mr. Herbert loved his community and ranching but he loved baseball even more. So in 1946 he bought a rag-tag team of local ballplayers called The Alpine Cats and changed their name to The Cowboys. He was a Texas cattleman after all.

Mr. Herbert’s “baseball” cowboys were successful right out of the shoot and once he tasted victory he never looked back. He began recruiting top baseball talent from around Texas and the Southwest who he would routinely reward by handing out crisp fifties and hundred dollar bills for homers and strikeouts. He paid his players well and he provided them with lodging and spending money so that the majority of what the boys earned from baseball could go towards college. Many of his players like Norm Cash and Gaylord Perry went on to play in the big leagues and any signing bonuses they received was theirs to keep. “I sell my cattle not my ballplayers”, Kokernot said. From 1946 to 1961 the Alpine Cowboys Baseball Club captured the heart and soul of the Big Bend region and they began to be known (with a bit of Texas bravado) as “The Nation’s Most Popular Team”.

Award winning book designer and author DJ Stout, whose father played for the Cowboys from 1952 to 1954, tells the heart-warming story of The Alpine Cowboys, for the first time in book form, through beautifully reproduced photographs, rare archival imagery and memorabilia. Internationally acclaimed writer and baseball expert Nicholas Dawidoff contributes the introduction. The book published by The University of Texas Press will debut in the Fall of 2010.