1926

Sam Langford was born on May 21, 1900, in Briggs, Texas. He attended school, leaving high school just before he turned 18 to join the United States Navy in April 1918. He served until June 1920 and was placed in Newport, Rhode Island, serving as a pharmacist’s mate in the Navy.

It was after returning home to Texas that the 20-year-old began to play baseball professionally, after he’d been spotted by a baseball scout while playing for a Navy team at the Brooklyn Naval Yard. He began his pro career in 1921 with a West Texas League (Class D) ballclub, the Mineral Wells Resorters.

In 1922, the West Texas League strengthened, adding new clubs in Lubbock and Amarillo. Sam’s 21 home runs led the league and he hit for a .340 average.

The New York Yankees invited him to spring training in 1923, but didn’t add him to the roster. Instead, he joined the Charleston Pals, which moved to Macon, Georgia. He wound up the season in Class A, with the Atlanta Crackers.

The 1924 season was split between Des Moines (Western League, 23 games) and Peoria (Three-I League). In 1925, he was with the Des Moines Demons for the full year, and hit for a .339 average. He was chosen as the all-star centerfielder in a vote of league managers and in September, the Boston Red Sox purchased his contract.

Sam trained with the Red Sox in New Orleans and earned some raves, but in his only game he finished 0-for-1 with a run scored, which was his major-league line for 1926, because the Red Sox released him one week later. He ended up with the Columbus Senators (Double A). 

Most of 1927 was spent back in Des Moines, where he hit for a furious .409 pace in 149 games. The Cleveland Indians secured his name on a contract and he played his second big-league game in September. In 20 September games, he was 18-for-67 for a .269 BA.

He was back with the Tribe in 1928 and appeared in 110 games, hitting .276. By September he was no longer playing regularly, getting only seven at-bats after August. They were his last at-bats in the big leagues. 

Sam began the 1929 season in the Pacific Coast League playing for the San Francisco Seals, but spent most of the year in the Texas League, playing for the Shreveport Sports, and there he hit .349.

In 1930, he spent the full year with the Atlanta Crackers, then it was Dallas in 1931 and 1932. His final year was 1933 and was split between Dallas and Oklahoma City.

The Langfords moved to Plainview in 1933 and spent the next six decades there. He worked for Arch S. Underwood, who ran an extensive network of cotton warehouses and compresses, and then for 42 years served as manager of Panhandle Compress and Warehouse.

For many years he played baseball locally. For ten years, he served on the board of the Central Plains Regional Hospital, for which he had helped raise funds, and in the 1950s he helped organize the West Texas-New Mexico Baseball League that brought minor-league ball to Plainview for seven years.

Sam Langford died at Methodist Hospital in Plainview, Texas, on July 31, 1993 after a long illness, at 92.