Continental Baseball League

History and memories of the CBL From 2007 Through 2010

las cruces vaqueros 2010 logo continental baseball league

Las Cruces Vaqueros

This page is dedicated to the Las Cruces Vaqueros independent professional baseball team.  It began play in 2010, the last season of the Continental Baseball League.  The team went on to play several more seasons in the Pecos League.

 

Articles

 

 

Images

2010 las cruces vaqueros baseball card set

This image is from a completed listing already finished on eBay.  It is of the baseball card set for the 2010 Las Cruces Vaqueros, and the players listed are as follows:

Bobby Brown Manager

Sean Kramer Pitching Coach

David McWatters Assistant Coach

Shane Weldon P

Adam Kramer P

Aaron Guinn P

Rich McNeal P

Henry Fuentes OF

Mitch Saum C

Eddie Browne INF

Brian Ramirez INF

Thad Henderson OF

Ricky Thomas INF

James Lilley OF

Seth McKinney OF

Miguel Gomez Hitting Coach

Jeff Banegas Hitting Coach

Tyler Blum P

Frankie Duran P

Erik Draxton P

Hunter Haggerty P

Brandon Kelly P

Johnny Noland P

Kelyn Schellenberg P

Jeff Williams P

Tress Diaz C

Adam Corjea C

Danny Gonzalez INF

David Von Osteen INF (card says Von Ostrand)

Eric Stephens INF

Here is the link to the card set from Beckett:  https://www.beckett.com/search/?set_id=8909837&result_type=59

** Update (Jan 8, 2022).  A few weeks ago a sports card collector named Dave Sosidka posted all of the images pertaining to the 2010 Las Cruces Vaqueros baseball card set.  Link to his profile is here:  https://www.tcdb.com/Profile.cfm/Dave%20Sosidka

All of the cards share a common “back”, but the front of each card is unique to the specific player.  Here is the list of images for each card’s front/back:  https://www.tcdb.com/Team.cfm/tid/7081/col/1/yea/2010/Las-Cruces-Vaqueros?sCardNum=&sNote=&sSetName=&sBrand=

The images below will feature the fronts of each card in the set as well as the one common “back” shared on all cards:

 

Videos

Recap of regular season before 2010 CBL championship local TV news report:

Here is a video clip about an exhibition game between the Vaqueros against the El Paso Diablos who were in the American Association at the time:

This video is from March 2010 when the Vaqueros had their first open tryout:

 

Content From Original Las Cruces Vaqueros Website

This content is copied/pasted directly from the old Las Cruces Vaqueros’ website (this page).  All credit goes to the Vaqueros, Andrew Dunn, the Pecos League and any/all people who updated that website regarding the 2010 team’s results.

2010 Season

The Las Cruces Vaqueros were founded by Andrew Dunn in July 2009 and began play in May 2010. The Vaqueros were in the Continental Baseball League Dunn had operated the Coastal Kingfish League Team in 2009 and was granted the Las Cruces Market for 2010 season. When the team was announced there was supposed to be an 8 team league with teams in Pueblo, Abilene, Alexandria, Monroe, and Big Bend. By the time the season started it was Las Cruces and Big Bend. Dunn agreed to bring the Coastal Kingfish back for the 2010 season and the Continental Baseball League agreed to operated the 4th team which Dunn named the Desert Valley Mountain Lions. This turned out to be a great thing for the Vaqueros. Very limited travel. The Vaqueros played hard and established a fan base. It would have been extremely difficult for the Vaqueros to travel to Louisiana with very limited sponsors in their inaugural year. Both teams made in through the season despite having to play against two travel pay to play teams in the Desert Valley Mountain Lions and the Coastal Kingfish. The Continental League was formed in 2007 and Las Cruces was supposed to be one of the charter cities in 2007 owned by the Chancellor of NMSU, he left NMSU to goto another college and the team fell apart. In 2010 we were excited to bring Professional Baseball to Las Cruces for the first time. We were in league that had problems but we are excited that we established a name and we are ready for the season to start. Alpine and Lass Cruces tied with idenitical records but true to form the Continental League made the Vaqueros travel to Big Bend to play the Championship Series the Vaqueros lost 2 games to 1. The Vaqueros promoted 7 players to higher independent leagues but had nothing left for the playoff run. Bobby Brown was the field manager, Sean Kramer was the assistant coach, Holly McWatters from the El Paso Diablos was the GM. At the conclusion of the season the Vaqueros ownership received a slew of complaints about the way the team was run. We realize our local management staff was well under par for a professional level team and we have made big changes to correct this. Hiring El Paso people to run a Las Cruces business did not go well with the fans or the community.

2010 Vaqueros Games

Game 32 Vaqueros 11 Kingfish 3
Game 31 Vaqueros 5 Kingfish 4
Game 30 Mountain Lions 7 Vaqueros 4
Game 29 Vaqueros 15 Mountain Lions 5
Game 28 Vaqueros 9 Mountain Lions 5
Game 27 Vaqueros 9 Mountain Lions 5
Game 26 Vaqueros 7 Mountain Lions 6
Game 25 Mountain Lions 6 Vaqueros 4
Game 24 Mountain Lions 6 Vaqueros 4
Game 23 Vaqueros 16 Mountain Lions 3
Game 22 Vaqueros 11 Mountain Lions 3
Game 21 Vaqueros 9 Mountain Lions 5
Game 20 Vaqueros 11 Coastal Kingfish 2
Game 19 Vaqueros 16 Coastal Kingfish 10
Game 18 Vaqueros 9 Coastal Kingfish 5
Game 17 Vaqueros 9 Coastal Kingfish 8Lammar Guy HR, Eric Stephans HR
Game 16 Vaqueros 3 Big Bend 2
Game 15 Vaqueros 13 Big Bend 12
Game 14 Vaqueros 11 Big Bend 10
Game 13 Big Bend 12 Vaqueros 5
Game 12 Vaqueros 10 Kingfish 2 Series Finale.
Game 11 Vaqueros 12 Kingfish 10 Series Finale.
Game 10 Kingfish 5 Vaqueros 3 Series Finale.
Game 9 Vaqueros 4 Coastal Kingfish 3Vaqueros outlast Kingfish is a tight Thursday Night Contest. Lamar Guy made his Vaqueros debut with a 6th inning homer and a bases loaded walk to end the game in the 9th inning.
Game 8 Big Bend 6 Vaqueros 3 HR Fuentes L Erik Nyquist The Cowboys answered in the seventh with a two-run double from Darryll Stanfieldoff Vaqueros reliever Erik Nyquist. The Cowboys racked up 11 hits in the game, loading the bases against starter Andy Williams and Nyquist. Closer Brandon Kelly replaced Nyquist on the mound with no outs and runners on second and third. Kelly retired the next five hitters he faced before Cody Ross hit a solo shot in the ninth
Game 7 Big Bend 8 Vaqueros 2 L Haggerty
Game 6 Big Bend 6 Vaqueros 5
Game 5 Vaqueros 14 Big Bend 7 W Romero
Game 4 Big Bend 5 Vaqueros 2 Vaqueros drop Series Finale Big Bend 5-2
Game 3 Big Bend Cowboys 13 Vaqueros 5 Vaqueros drop Saturday Night Game.
Game 2 Vaqueros 6 Big Bend 1
W Gorman Romero (1) Jason Wysung infield fielder’s choice scored Justin Lucero in the 4th inning. Cory Morales 8th innning single drove in two runs..Gorman Romero pitched 7 innings allowing 1 run..Catcher…Mitch Saum 3 run homer in the 9th broke the game open…
Game 1 Vaqueros 6 Big Bend 4
Las Cruces Vaqueros win first ever game! Thad Henderson’s pitch hit homer carries Vaquero’s to first ever victory, Cory Morales play excellent defense and had two hits.
W Haggerty (1) S Brandon Kelly First HR Thad Henderson
First Vaqueros Starter Shane Weldon
First Vaqueros run Mitch Saum

The first ever Vaqueros Game at Alpine, Texas. The Vaqueros did not have their hats in time for the game thus they had to wear Coastal Kingfish Hats. CB. The Vaqueros won their first two games beating Alpine in Alpine on Thad Henderson’s home run. Shane Weldon was first ever starting pitcher. The Vaqueros worn all powder blue Milwaukee Brewers style uniforms.

In 2010 the CBL had committments for an 8 team league, Alexandria, South Louisiana Pipeliners, Tyler, Monroe in the East, Abilene, Pueblo, Las Cruces and Big Bend in the West…The South Louisiana Pipeliners owner Dave Angrone wrote the league an NSF entry fee check and vanished. This caused a domino effect that should have completely ended the league. Alexandria the league’s best market with drew and entered a team in the Texas Collegiate League. Tyler and Pueblo withdrew all together, Monroe’s owners joined the Yuma Scorpions and withdrew from CBL, Bay Area Toros filed bankruptcy. Abilene never had a stadium… This left two teams Big Bend and Las Cruces. Andrew Dunn and Ron Baron decided to continue operations and move forward. With all of the efforts and promises made to both cities, the Kingfish were brought back to life and the Desert Valley Mountain Lions were born, by having both teams it allowed limited travel and a 4 team all Western League. With all the work Baron did to keep the league alive, there was no future and limited promise outside of the West. With Ron Baron being based in Dallas he decided this would be his last year, but it is important to understand that without Ron Baron Las Cruces would have never had pro baseball… No league would have went into Las Cruces as an experiment. The City of Las Cruces should always be thankful of Ron Baron and his league despite all of the problems it had… The Continental Baseball League was a bridge for the new upstart Pecos League of Professional Baseball Clubs. The Las Cruces Vaqueros will play games in 2010 at Apodaca Park in Las Cruces.

Ron Baron and Andrew Dunn announcing formation of the Vaqueros in Las Cruces, New Mexico
Apodaca Park in Las Cruces, NM
Ticket from 2010 CBL game between Desert Valley Mountain Lions and the Las Cruces Vaqueros

We found an online magazine of El Paso Scene (August 2010).  Had the CBL not folded its 2010 (and final) season early then here is the likely remaining regular season schedule for what would have been August 2010:

Continental Baseball League games
—The league includes the Las Cruces Vaqueros and the Big Bend (Alpine, Texas) Cowboys. Las Cruces Vaqueros — Home games are 7p.m. at Apodaca Baseball Complex in LasCruces. Sunday game times vary. General admission: $6. Information: (575) 680-2212 or lascrucesvaqueros.com. Vaquero home games:

  • Aug. 5-8
    — Desert Valley Mountain Lions
  • Aug. 12-15

— Big Bend Cowboys
Big Bend Cowboys — Home games are 7 p.m.(2 p.m. Sundays) at Kokernot Field in Alpine,Texas. Tickets: $6.50 bleachers; $7.50 chair-backs; $11 box seats. Information:(432) 249-0682. bigbendcowboys.com.
Cowboy home games:

  • July 29-Aug. 1
    -— Las Cruces Vaqueros•
  • Aug. 5-8
    — Coastal Kingfish

We found a page on the old Las Cruces Vaqueros’ website which had several photos from 2010. These include photos of fans in the stands in Las Cruces, players from the Vaqueros and Big Bend Cowboys and Desert Valley Mountain Lions, and more. The page did NOT include a photo credit, so if you are the photographer then please contact this website to let us know so that we can give you proper credit including a link to your website and/or social media property if you wish.

  • Norm Dettlaff/Sun-News Vaqueros first baseman David VanOstrand fields grounders Wednesday during practice at the Mayfield High School baseball field.
  • Robin Zielinski/Sun-News Las Cruces Vaqueros Pitcher, Richard McNeal, pitches to his Desert Valley Mountain Lion opponent during top of the first inning on Sunday at Apodaca Park.
  • Robin Zielinski/Sun-News Adam Kramer kicks and fires toward home plate as the Las Cruces Vaqueros hosted the Coastal Kingfish on Thursday night at Apodaca Park. The two teams will be in action throughout the weekend, with tonight’s game starting at 7 p.m., as well as Saturday’s. Sunday’s contest gets under way at 5. For results of Thursday’s game, log on to www.lcsun-news.com and go to the Sports section.