Small-town Texan wins 1940 batting championship

Debs Garms went two for four on Aug. 25, 1940 in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ win over the Boston Bees and raised his league-leading batting average to a lofty .378. Garms was born in 1907 in the West Texas hamlet of Bangs a few miles west of Brownwood and named for his parents’ socialist hero Eugene Debs. Like most boys his age, he grew up playing baseball on the dusty sandlots in tow...

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