The Kilgore Drillers were a minor league baseball team that played in the

Lone Star League The Lone Star League was the name of three American minor professional baseball leagues located in the state of Texas during the 20th century. The leagues operated from 1927–1929 (as a Class D circuit), 1947–1948 (Class C) and 1977 (Class A) ...

from 1947 to 1948 and the

East Texas League The East Texas League was a Texas–based minor league baseball league that existed between 1916 to 1950. The East Texas League played as a Class D level league in 1916 and from 1923 to 1926. The league became a Class C level league from 1936 ...

from 1949 to 1950. Based in

Kilgore, Texas Kilgore is a city in Gregg and Rusk counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United Sta ...

, it was the city's last professional baseball team. Joe Kracher managed and played for the team in 1947, 1948 and 1949, leading the club to consecutive league championships in '47 and '48 (the team lost the league finals in '49).

Fred Baczewski Fredereric John "Lefty" Baczewski (May 15, 1926 – November 14, 1976) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Cincinnati Redlegs and Chicago Cubs. After some time in the independent minor leagues, Baczewski was purc ...

also played for the team in 1948 and the 1949 club featured

Merv Connors Mervin James Connors (January 23, 1914 – January 8, 2006) was a professional baseball player who played 52 games as an infielder in the Major Leagues from 1937 to 1938 for the Chicago White Sox. Hit three home runs in successive at-bats and ju ...

and

Jerry Fahr Gerald Warren Fahr (December 9, 1924 – February 12, 2010) was an American professional baseball player, a right-handed pitcher who played in the minor leagues from 1947–1956, with the exception of a five-game Major League trial as a relie ...

. The 1950 club, managed by Al Kubski, lost in the first round of the league playoffs. Connors played for the team that year, as well.BR Minor page
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References

Baseball teams established in 1947 Baseball teams disestablished in 1950 1947 establishments in Texas 1950 disestablishments in Texas Defunct minor league baseball teams Defunct baseball teams in Texas Gregg County, Texas Rusk County, Texas East Texas League teams {{Texas-baseball-team-stub