Synopsis
In 1954, Joe Bauman moved to Roswell, NM and purchased the new Texaco station on the road to Ruidoso. Locals knew of him. He had played first base for the Class C Longhorn League Artesia Drillers, forty miles away. He hit 50 home runs in 1952 and 53 more in 1953, the most in organized baseball both years.
His signing in 1954 with the Roswell Rockets, also in the Longhorn League, gave fans high hopes for the team. When he hit ten home runs in the first eleven games of the season, they asked, “Can he break the record?” Babe Ruth hit 60 homers in 1927, but the record they were interested in was 69, held jointly by minor leaguers Joe Hauser, 1933, and Bob Crues, 1948. Fans thought Big Joe had a chance. By July 4, he had hit 36!
As the season wore on, belting 70 proved difficult. Opposing pitchers preferred to walk him rather than risk a hit. Four games were lost to rain and were not rescheduled. And the pressure was getting to him. Roswell sport writer Bucker Lanier wrote, “The eyes of the United States are on Roswell at present… If Joe does break it, pictures of him will be on the sports pages of every paper in the U.S.”
As the season wound down and the record seemed unlikely, the question was, “Does Big Joe still have time?”