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“FENWAY'S BEST PLAYERS”  |
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Cecil Carlton "Tex" Hughson was born on February 9, 1916, in Buda, Texas and grew up in Kyle in Central Texas, 20 miles south of Austin. There he was exposed to the rugged life of a cattle rancher and farmer by his father, who operated the family-owned Hughson Meat Company. After graduation from Kyle High School, he pitched at the University of Texas at Austin. Tex lettered in baseball in 1937 and compiled an 8-2 record, earning First Team All-Southwest Conference honors. In June 1937, he was signed by the Red Sox. Tex went to Moultrie of the Class D Georgia-Florida League and got his feet wet in 1937. In 1938, he starred for the Canton Terriers of the Class C Middle Atlantic League, compiling a league-leading 22-7 with a 3.93 ERA, while striking out 129. He finished the 1938 season with the Red Sox-owned Rocky Mount team in the Class B Piedmont League. In 1939, Tex moved up to Class A ball at Scranton in the Eastern League, but finished 1939 and played in 1940 for the Louisville Colonels of the then Double A American Association, the minors’ highest classification. Tex so impressed Joe Cronin, he him to the Red Sox in 1941. In April 1941, the 25-year-old made his major league debut in relief for the Red Sox in a 12-inning contest against the Washington Senators at Fenway Park. Then he spent some time back with Louisville, but was back with the big-league club in July to make his first start. He compiled a 5-3 record, and a 4.13 ERA in 12 appearances and 61 innings in his first season. His eight starts included four complete games. Tex emerged as the ace of the Red Sox in his breakout 1942 season, in which the Red Sox won 93 games, their most since 1915. Tex had a career-best 22 wins, against only six losses, leading the American League and tied the Cardinals’ Mort Cooper for the major league lead. He also led the league in complete games, innings pitched, and 113 strikeouts. His ERA was an exceptional 2.59. He was named to his first of three All-Star teams in 1942 and was named to The Sporting News All Rookie team. He was also selected to The Sporting News Major League All-Star Team. The Red Sox progress was dramatically affected from 1943 through 1945 by World War II and the military draft, probably more so than any other major-league team. Only Bobby Doerr, Jim Tabor, and Hughson remained in 1943 and 1944 from the 1942 starting team. His 20 complete games led the league. It is thus no surprise that the Red Sox fell to 68-84, 29 games back of the Yankees, but Tex was selected to his second All-Star team. He dominated again in 1944, compiling an 18-5, 2.26 (career-best ERA) record keept the Red Sox in contention for the AL flag. Selected to his third and final All-Star team, Tex was the pitcher of record in the AL’s loss at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. In August 1944, he pitched his final game before leaving the team for military induction. After the game, the Red Sox stood in second place, 6 1/2 games behind the St. Louis Browns. With the loss of Tex, coupled with the further loss within a couple of weeks of both AL Most Valuable Player Bobby Doerr and catcher Hal Wagner to the military, the Red Sox folded, losing 29 of their final 50 games, including 10 in a row in September, as the Browns won their first and only American League flag. At the time of his induction into the military, Tex was in the prime of his career. Originally intended for induction into the Navy, he wound up in the Army. Much of his war effort was directed toward improving the military morale through baseball at postings ranging from Texas to Hawaii to the Marianas Islands in the Pacific. Tex, by his own admission, fought World War II with a bat and a glove. in January 1946, the Red Sox received great news in the form of Ted Williams being put on the inactive list by the Marine Corps, Dom DiMaggio being released from the Navy, and Tex being mustered out of the Army Air Forces. With their return, along with Doerr, Pesky, Jim Tabor, and Wagner, the Red Sox busted out of the gate and never looked back, winning 41 of their first 50 games, and opening up a 10-game cushion over the Yankees. Tex won the April season opener in Washington. He and 1945 rookie sensation Dave Ferriss teamed up to become the Red Sox’ first pair of 20-game winners since 1935. Ferriss won 25 games to lead the Sox and Tex was 20-11 with a 2.75 ERA in a career-high 35 starts. His 172 strikeouts also established a career high. The Red Sox won the American League pennant by 12 games over the Tigers with the Yankees a distant third, 17 games behind. Tex faced off against the St. Louis Cardinals in Game One of the 1946 World Series at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. Tex was removed after the eighth inning for a pinch-hitter and his line was seven hits and two earned runs over eight innings with five strikeouts and two walks. Earl Johnson closed out the contest with two hitless innings and got the win. Tex didn’t fare well in his second start of the Series, Game Four at Fenway Park. He was knocked around for six runs, three of them earned, on five hits with one strikeout in two-plus innings of a 12-3, 20-hit Cardinals win. His third and final appearance of the 1946 Series came in Game Six in St. Louis. Intended to be saved for a possible Game Seven, Tex came on in relief of starter Mickey Harris in the third with the Sox trailing 3-0. He scattered two hits over 4 1/3 innings, striking out two and walking one in the Red Sox’ 4-1 loss, which evened the Series at three victories apiece. After their Game Seven loss to the Cardinals in 1946, the Red Sox saw no reason why they couldn’t return to the World Series in 1947. But injuries to the previous year’s big three of Tex, Ferriss, and Harris thwarted the Red Sox’ repeat pennant aspirations. Each of the three developed a sore arm in the spring. The physical troubles began in May, he became hindered in his pitching efforts by numbness in the tip of the middle finger of his pitching hand. In September, in the first game of a doubleheader, he was removed from the game in the fifth with numbness and circulatory trouble in his arm. He was sent to a specialist, who determined that surgery was necessary. This surgery was performed at a time when orthopedic surgery was relatively primitive and long before the days of arthroscopic surgery. Apparently an overdeveloped muscle had cut off circulation in his pitching arm, an injury similar to that later experienced by both J.R. Richard and Whitey Ford. Tex’s season was over. He was 12-11 with a 3.33 ERA in 29 games and 189 1/3 innings, with 13 complete games and 119 strikeouts. The 1947 Red Sox finished in third, 14 games behind the Yankees. Hughson had offseason surgical procedures on his shoulder and his elbow, and the nerve in his right shoulder responsible for the numbness was severed. Still recovering, Tex made slow progress in the spring of 1948. New manager Joe McCarthy was reluctant to put his trust in the rehabbing Sox ace. After pitching in two innings of relief against the Browns in May, Tex was optioned to the Austin Pioneers of the Class B Big State League, 30 miles from his San Marcos home. In July, he was recalled by the Red Sox and used exclusively in relief, 19 1/3 innings pitched in 15 games, winning three and losing one with a 5.12 ERA. Of his 29 appearances in 1949, only two were starts, one each in in April and May. He was 4-2 with a 5.33 ERA in 77 2/3 innings, finishing 17 games. McCarthy used Tex sparingly in relief for a period, then overused him causing his elbow to swell up. His final major league appearance came in the final game of the season. The Sox sold him to the Giants. and Tex refused to report. He didn’t want to live in New York, and didn’t want to start pitching in a new league. So Tex decided to retire. After retiring from baseball, Tex became a successful real estate developer in San Marcos. His development of family ranch land was called Hughson Heights and included a tribute to Fenway Park in its Fenway Loop. In 1952, he founded Little League Baseball in San Marcos and in 1954, while serving as the vice president of the San Marcos School Board, successfully moved to integrate the local high school He was one of the first to introduce the French Charolais breed of cattle through the family-owned Hughson Meat Company, founded by his father in 1946 and in which the family remained involved in ownership into the 1970s. Tex was inducted into the Longhorn Hall of Honor in 1970 and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1987. On November 2002, he was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame. Tex Hughson died of kidney failure at Central Texas Medical Center at the age of 77 on August 6, 1993.
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