April 2000 Issue

Features
Play Ball, Y’all
Meet eight Texas teams that are bringing America's pastimethe gimmicky, anything-goes minor league versionto a stadium near you.
The Sins of the Father
For Tom Cherry, the precise place where loyalty to his dad ends and a larger obligation to society begins lies deep in the woods of East Texas, at the intersection of history and conscience, where the truth about a church bombing during the struggle for civil rights in the South
Can Doodle
From the fabulous, furry Gilbert Shelton to the hypercaffeinated Shannon Wheeler, these celebrated Texas cartoonists will surely draw you in.

Shrake’s Progress
The Borderland, Bud Shrake’s epic novel about the early days of the Republic of Texas, is the crowning achievement of a life that is itself the stuff of legend.
Miscellany
The Inside Story
Perhaps he heard a voice whisper, “If they build it, you will come.” Whatever the reason, contributing editor John Morthland was happy to spend much of the early part of the year visiting the state’s new minor league baseball diamonds for this month’s guide to the eight Texas teams in
State Fare
You get a spicy stir-fry; Dallas' Abacus gets your gratitude. Call it a squid pro quo.
Columns
Straight Shooter
Rashard Lewis may have left his Texas hometown for the NBA at a frighteningly young age, but he's no Leon Smith.
The Sundance Kid
Fresh from a victory tour of the film festival circuit, UT's Paul Stekler is ready for action. And lights. And camera.
The King of Clubs
The longtime impresario of the coolest chain of nightlife spots in Texas remembers well what it was like to be a Cellar dweller. Me too.

Hot Sauce
How the Stubb's barbecue empire outlasted the death of its namesake—and proved that spice guys sometimes finish first.
Reporter

A Twist at the End: A Novel of O. Henry
HI, SAYLOR Austin’s grisly past.IN AUSTIN IN 1885 the talk of the town was the series of unsolved ax murders of eight people — most of them maids or young mothers — by unknown fiends who were dubbed the Servant Girl Annihilators. Today Steven Saylor’s fictional take on the crimes

God’s Favorite: A Novel
Panama’s deposed dictator Manuel Noriega has disappeared from the world’s radar screen, but Austin’s Lawrence Wright shines a klieg light on the despot’s bizarre tenure in God’s Favorite: A Novel (Simon and Schuster). The former Texas Monthly contributing editor brilliantly fictionalizes Noriega’s fall from grace, complete with chilling depictions of
Adolph Hofner and the Pearl Wranglers
CDs by Adolph Hofner and the Pearl Wranglers, Sister Seven, and Bob Dorough.

Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush
FOR THE BRIEFEST OF MOMENTS in Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush (Random House), the authors allow that political expediency is not George W. Bush’s sole call to arms. Witness his aggressive pursuit of a school funding initiative. That moment aside, Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist

Toad of Titicaca
HAVING MADE HIS NAME AS A producer, Austin’s Gurf Morlix has finally stepped up to the plate with his solo debut. These eleven originals reflect the music of the artists he’s worked with (Lucinda Williams, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Robert Earl Keen) and the influence of his Southern California cronies Dave

Chris Rybak
TAKE A LANKY 22-year-old kid in a cowboy hat who cites Flaco Jiménez and Myron Floren as major influences alongside Hank Williams, Garth Brooks, and George Strait, and you just know there’s a whole lotta polka in his country soul. And that’s precisely what Chris Rybak’s self-titled CD is all

Too Much Coffee Man
HEARD OF BOB DOROUGH? The former Plainview resident’s early work never caught on with the record-buying public, yet many unsuspecting fans know him as the anonymous voice behind such animated Schoolhouse Rock vignettes as “Three Is a Magic Number.” Too Much Coffee Man, Dorough’s sophomore effort in his late-in-life jazz

Wrestling Over Tiny Matters
EVER SINCE SISTER SEVEN moved from Dallas to Austin in 1991 and became one of Texas’ most consistently popular and hardest-touring bands, their curse has been that of every post-Dead “jam” band: great improvisational players don’t often fare well in sterile studios, and rubbery funk grooves rarely add up to
Studio City
Oh, Canada: You've taken film business away from Texas. Can an Austin soundstage get it back?
Charles Barsotti
I was born in San Marcos at my grandmother’s house in 1933, but I grew up in San Antonio. I did most of the kid stuff you do when you grow up in Texas, like play sandlot baseball. I read all the comics — Li’l Abner, Captain Marvel, and all
Web

Stir-Fried Squid Pasta
1/2 cup good quality oyster sauce 2 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons sesame oil (for frying) 3/4 pound squid, either cut in half-inch rings or cut in half lengthwise and scored vertically 2 Thai chiles or 1 serrano chile, minced 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced 2 shallots, thinly sliced 1/2 pound

The Borderland
PART ONE: TOWARD THE LITTLE PIGEONI am busy and will only say how da do, to you! You will get your land as it was promised, and you and all our Red brothers may rest satisfied that I will always hold you by the hand.—letter from Sam Houston to