2011 Alpine 06 Cowboys Season Recap - A New League and a New Identity in Alpine
The 2011 season represented one of the most important transitions in the history of professional baseball in Alpine. The previous summer had ended with the Big Bend Cowboys winning the Continental Baseball League championship, but by the spring of 2011 the Continental Baseball League was gone and a completely new chapter of independent professional baseball was beginning in West Texas and New Mexico.
The Pecos League was founded by Bob Ward and Andrew Dunn after the final stages of the Continental Baseball League had effectively become a two-team operation. Rather than allow independent baseball in the region to disappear, Ward and Dunn created a new league with a much broader footprint and a structure designed around the smaller markets of West Texas and New Mexico.
The creation of the Pecos League represented a major step forward. Instead of trying to continue under a shrinking Continental League structure, the new league established teams throughout the region and created a new opportunity for independent professional baseball in communities that otherwise had few professional sports options.
The first sign that the Pecos League was becoming something larger came before the regular season even started.
In the lone spring training game before the inaugural Pecos League season, the Roswell Invaders faced the El Paso Diablos at historic Cohen Stadium in El Paso. Roswell defeated the Diablos, giving the new Pecos League an opportunity to take the field against an established independent professional baseball organization in one of the most recognizable baseball venues in the region.
For a league that was just beginning, playing at Cohen Stadium represented an important moment. It showed that the Pecos League was moving beyond the limited two-team operation that had existed at the end of the Continental Baseball League and was attempting to establish a real regional professional baseball circuit.
Alpine became one of the cornerstone markets of that new league.
Baseball would remain at historic Kokernot Field, the Cowboys name would remain, and the community would continue to have professional baseball. But almost everything surrounding the team was about to change.
The Big Bend Cowboys era was over.
In its place came the Alpine 06 Cowboys.
The change was more than simply putting a new league name on the schedule. The organization began establishing an identity that was specifically connected to Alpine. The Cowboys had previously played under the Big Bend name and had become recognizable for their red-and-green color scheme. By the time the Pecos League arrived, those colors had become jokingly associated with the "Christmas tree Cowboys."
That look was finished.
Gone were the red and green uniforms and the old Big Bend identity. The beginning of the Pecos League gave Alpine an opportunity to establish a completely different image for professional baseball at Kokernot Field. The Alpine 06 Cowboys were born, creating the foundation for the Cowboys identity that would continue to develop over the following years.
The "06" was an important part of that new branding. Alpine is located in Brewster County, and the 06 identity gave the club something that was distinctly local. Rather than being a regional Big Bend team, the Cowboys were becoming Alpine's team.
That transition came immediately after one of the greatest accomplishments in the franchise's early professional history. The Big Bend Cowboys had captured the 2010 Continental Baseball League championship. Normally, a championship would provide momentum heading into the following season. Instead, the league itself disappeared, forcing Alpine to begin again in a completely different environment.
The Pecos League offered that new beginning.
Bob Ward and Andrew Dunn took what remained from the final Continental League setup and built a league designed specifically for markets such as Alpine, Roswell, Las Cruces and other communities throughout New Mexico and West Texas. What had previously become a limited operation now had multiple clubs, regional rivalries and a clearer identity of its own.
For Alpine, that meant professional baseball survived.
The newly created Pecos League included Alpine along with clubs throughout New Mexico and West Texas. Among Alpine's primary opponents were the Roswell Invaders, Las Cruces Vaqueros, White Sands Pupfish, Ruidoso Osos and Carlsbad Bats.
The first Pecos League season was different from what Alpine had experienced in the Continental Baseball League. Travel was different, rosters changed, the league operated differently and the Cowboys were no longer defending a championship within the same organization. Everyone was essentially starting over.
Even with those changes, Alpine immediately established itself as a competitive Pecos League club.
The Cowboys opened their new era at Kokernot Field in May and quickly demonstrated that professional baseball in Alpine had survived the collapse of the Continental Baseball League. Alpine remained competitive throughout the summer and stayed in the playoff race during the Pecos League's inaugural season.
Throughout the year, the Cowboys experienced the inconsistency typical of a first-year independent league, with stretches of wins followed by difficult road trips, but they did enough to qualify for the inaugural Pecos League postseason.
That alone represented an important accomplishment. A year after winning a championship in a league that no longer existed, Alpine had changed leagues, changed its identity, changed much of its organization and still reached the playoffs.
Waiting for the Cowboys in the first round were the Roswell Invaders.
Roswell had already played an important role in the beginning of the Pecos League by defeating the El Paso Diablos at Cohen Stadium in the league's lone spring training game. By the end of the regular season, the Invaders had also developed into one of the strongest clubs in the new league.
The first postseason meeting between Roswell and Alpine immediately provided a preview of a rivalry that would become one of the defining matchups of the Pecos League's early years.
The series was played in Roswell and opened badly for Alpine. The Invaders overwhelmed the Cowboys 19-4 in the first game, leaving Alpine facing elimination almost immediately.
The Cowboys responded in Game 2.
Alpine edged Roswell 6-5, extending the series and giving itself an opportunity to advance. It was exactly the type of response the Cowboys needed after being dominated in the opener. Instead of allowing the first game to end their season, they forced a deciding game.
Game 3 became a high-scoring battle. Alpine fought throughout the night but ultimately fell to the Invaders 11-9. Roswell won the series two games to one, eliminating the Cowboys in the first round of the Pecos League playoffs.
For an organization that had celebrated a championship only one year earlier, a first-round playoff exit was certainly disappointing. There would be no second consecutive championship and no storybook beginning to Alpine's Pecos League history.
But the most important development of the 2011 season was not necessarily what happened in the playoffs.
The biggest success was that professional baseball in Alpine had survived and that an entirely new league had successfully begun.
When the Continental Baseball League disappeared after the 2010 season, Alpine easily could have disappeared from professional baseball with it. Instead, Bob Ward and Andrew Dunn helped create the Pecos League, and Alpine became one of the franchises that formed its foundation.
Kokernot Field remained a professional baseball venue and Alpine remained one of the smallest communities in the United States with its own professional team.
Just as importantly, the organization created a new identity that belonged specifically to Alpine.
The Big Bend Cowboys had served their purpose and had gone out as champions. But the Pecos League era required something different. The organization became the Alpine 06 Cowboys, moving away from the old regional branding and creating an identity tied directly to the community.
And the Christmas tree Cowboys were gone.
The red-and-green combination that had defined the Big Bend years was replaced as the organization began developing the look that would eventually become associated with the modern Alpine Cowboys. It was a visual change, but it also symbolized something larger.
This was no longer the Continental Baseball League team trying to continue from the previous season.
This was a new franchise identity playing in a new league with a new future.
The 2011 season therefore occupies a unique place in Alpine baseball history. It followed a championship but was not really a championship defense. It continued professional baseball at Kokernot Field while simultaneously beginning an entirely new era.
The Cowboys reached the playoffs in the Pecos League's inaugural season and pushed Roswell to a deciding third game before falling 11-9. On the field, the season ended earlier than Alpine wanted.
Off the field, however, something much more important had been accomplished.
The Alpine 06 Cowboys had been established.
The Pecos League had been established.
What had started after the final two-team days of the Continental Baseball League had grown into a new regional professional baseball league. Its first spring training game had already taken Roswell into historic Cohen Stadium against the El Paso Diablos, and its inaugural season had created new rivalries and preserved professional baseball in communities such as Alpine.
The Big Bend Cowboys had won the final Continental Baseball League championship in 2010.
The Alpine 06 Cowboys began something different in 2011.
It was the beginning of the Pecos League era at Kokernot Field, the beginning of the modern Alpine Cowboys identity and the beginning of a league that would carry independent professional baseball forward throughout the region.
