The Arizona State League was formed in 1928—the four-team league had teams in Bisbee, Miami, Tucson, and Phoenix.
There seemed to be little information about Phoenix Senators second baseman Roy Counts in local papers. Counts had spent the previous two years in the outlaw Copper League with the Fort Bayard (NM) Veterans where he was a teammate of banned White Sox pitcher Claude “Lefty” Williams, but otherwise little was written about Counts.
The Fort Bayard Veterans in Juarez, Mexico after a 1926 game, Claude “Lefty” Williams is sixth from left, Roy Counts is 14th (with arms crossed)
The Arizona Republic said after an April exhibition game with the barnstorming House of David club, that Counts and third baseman Henry Doll:
“(H)ave been working out in good style and appear in perfect condition. Both are fast fielders and have wicked pegs to the initial sack.”
On May 20, the Senators beat the Tucson Waddies 11-0. Counts was 1 for 4 with no errors in five chances at second—it was his final professional game.
Roy Counts, 1928
Roy Counts it turned out was not really Roy Counts.
Roy Counts was actually Laster Fisher—an Arkansas born fugitive who had previously played professional baseball under his given name.
Fisher—his unusual first name a result of his mother’s maiden name, Lasater—was born in Mulberry, Arkansas on October 8, 1901, and broke into professional ball with the Salina (KS) Millers in the Southwestern League in 1922. Fisher played third base and shortstop, he hit .269. In October, the Minneapolis Millers purchased his contract.
That same month, Fisher was arrested in Salina for passing a bad check for $10.50 at a local restaurant. Whether he was only charged with the writing the one bad check was unclear, but The Salina Evening Journal said his father, “Settled all claims against his son.”
Despite the brush with the law, Fisher spent the spring of 1923 with Minneapolis but was farmed out to the Clarksdale Cubs in the Cotton States League before the season began. In mid July, he joined Minneapolis, he appeared in 69 games—67 at shortstop—he hit 273 and committed 34 errors in 365 total chances.
The Minneapolis Star said of Fisher’s performance he was, “not of the double A caliber yet.”
He was let go by Minneapolis and signed by the Tulsa Oilers in the Western League—according to The Houston Post he was the first player to arrive at Tulsa’s spring training camp in Marlin, Texas—Fisher appears to have been let go before the season started.
In May, The St. Joseph (MO) News-Press said:
“Lester [sic] Fisher, former Tulsa Western League shortstop, who was reported missing a while back with a drive-it-yourself car…(was) returned to Tulsa and sentenced to five years in the penitentiary. Fisher is only twenty-two years old and gave promise of being one of the best shortstops in the Western League. He told the judge who sentenced him that at the time he stole the car he was drunk, and when he got sober he was afraid to return it.”
Fisher had driven the rented Maxwell automobile to Greenwood, Mississippi, and according to The Greenwood Commonwealth left the car in that town; he was later arrested in Leland, Mississippi and returned to Oklahoma.
After entering the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester, Fisher joined the prison baseball team. On May 13, 1925, according to The Associated Press, Fisher “Kept running after a game in Holdenville.”
His three year run over, Fisher was returned to prison in Oklahoma. He never returned to pro ball.
He moved to Texas after his release and was working as a maintenance man at the Victory Baptist Church when he died of congestive heart failure on July 5, 1959.
Baseball History Daily 