Rockets Baseball

The McAlester Rockets were a championship winning Class D minor league baseball team that competed in the Sooner State League from 1947 through 1956.  McAlester had hosted minor league baseball before, with earlier teams like the Miners and Diggers.

But the Rockets arrived just as a postwar boom and small-town baseball came together. The Sooner State League was part of a national return to minor league play, and McAlester was in it early. The league operated in Oklahoma and north Texas and featured franchises in towns like Ada, Ardmore, Duncan, Lawton, Paris (TX), and McAlester.

The Rockets’ name came from the nearby McAlester Naval Ammunition Depot, called the "rocket plant" by locals. 

Home games were played at Jeff Lee Stadium, a WPA-era ballpark built in 1937. It hosted everything from Rockets games to high school football and civic events.  

The team won three league championships in its 10-year run: 1947, 1950 and 1952. 

Though the Rockets remained strong into the early 1950s, their final seasons saw a steep drop-off. In 1956, they finished last, and the franchise was shut down at the end of the year. The league itself dissolved just one season later. Minor league baseball was always fragile—teams came and went, travel was long, and profits non-existent. 

Few players made it to the majors from Class D. For most, this was the pinnacle of their baseball careers. The McAlester Rockets are long gone, but their championships are still part of Oklahoma’s baseball story.

Every Shirt Tells A Story. See the shirt here. 

Photos from Oklahoma Historical Society