The Texas League's first baseball season in 1888 took place during a turbulent political, economic, and cultural time in Texas. Amid the millions of acres of wild and rural Texas frontier boomed the cities of Galveston, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Austin, where the new state capitol building had just opened. The Texas economy was transitioning from its legendary cattle drives as those cities competed for diverse business. In this cauldron Texas cities used whatever means they had to compete for population and business from other parts of the country, welcoming urban activities and entertainment typically reserved for cosmopolitan Eastern cities, such as professional baseball.
The Land of Sand and Cotton uncovers key elements in the come-up of baseball in the state, such as important games in the newly formed Texas League, racial tensions and the semipro Colored League, the pivotal Major League barnstorming tour, financial struggles during the season, and outside political influences. The Land of Sand and Cotton tells the origin story of Texas baseball, which culminated in Major League franchises and World Series championships in both Houston and Dallas–Fort Worth. A much different game was played in 1888, when there really might have been cowboys, gunfighters, longhorns, and horses around every corner.