"These leagues and teams provided both entertainment and employment opportunities. Factory workers and miners worked hard all week and then faced limited entertainment options on the weekends. Local teams played two or three games a week, with each game becoming a major social event. Holidays were particularly festive; on Labor Day and the Fourth of July, for example, companies might sponsor a cookout before the games. Industrial leagues also provided lucrative employment opportunities for young athletes, who were hired by the company to do odd jobs during the week and essentially paid to play baseball on the weekends. Many players earned good incomes by the standards of the day. If they stayed with the company, rather than joining a professional team, they often had a job for life.
Other players used the industrial league as a stepping stone to minor league baseball, and from there to the major leagues. One reason that so many major-league ballplayers came out of the South and out of Alabama during the first half of the twentieth century was that these leagues enabled teenagers to play with grown men and against good teams, a perfect recipe for developing young talent.
Because some industrial league players were former professionals who had returned to the security of a job near their homes, the level of competition sometimes rivaled that of the major leagues. Some teams might have two, three, or more ex-major league players on their squad. Further, former pro players often took jobs managing the local teams. Whereas playing for such a team would be viewed as a demotion for modern players, that stigma did not exist before 1950; companies often paid higher salaries than many players could make in the major leagues."
Etc.
Lots of good info.
"The industrial teams, in turn, provided a feeder system to the major leagues for white players and to the Negro Leagues for African Americans. For African Americans, in particular, the industrial leagues were considered the Negro minor leagues. Negro Leaguer Elmer Knox, a native of Anniston who became a member of the Atlanta Black Crackers, got his start in the steel industry. Knox reportedly said that the steel industry was responsible for developing more players that any other industry in the country."
"The industrial teams, in turn, provided a feeder system to the major leagues for white players and to the Negro Leagues for African Americans. For African Americans, in particular, the industrial leagues were considered the Negro minor leagues. Negro Leaguer Elmer Knox, a native of Anniston who became a member of the Atlanta Black Crackers, got his start in the steel industry. Knox reportedly said that the steel industry was responsible for developing more players that any other industry in the country."
"Some critics cited industrial-league and company-sponsored baseball as examples of corporate paternalism in which companies used the sport as a way to manage their workers' behavior and manipulate their attitudes toward work. Some also labeled it as a modern form of slavery or a form of welfare capitalism, arguing that the companies financed the teams rather than paying higher wages to workers with little education. Others disagreed, arguing that the teams had a positive impact by increasing employee identification with that company and providing entertainment for the workers and their families. The large crowds that attended the games, which were often larger than those of the minor league Birmingham Barons, demonstrated their popularity.
During its existence, industrial baseball was an integral part of many Alabama communities, leading many companies to develop teams that rivaled professional teams in terms of both talent and salaries, and the players became heroes to the other workers in the company. The popularity of the industrial leagues waned as the integration of the major leagues led to a decline in both talent and local interest, and national broadcasts of major league games offered a higher profile alternative for fans. Some remnants of the industrial leagues remain in the form of city recreational teams, although many shifted to playing softball."
Birmingham Amateur Baseball Federation
1935
1937
1938
1939
1940
1937-5-13 Italian Day will be held sometime this year. This event used to draw 6K-7K.
1940-3-06 Has dim pic of Sunny Jim Downey shaking hands with Paul Florence, president of the Birmingham Barons. Barons have offered use of Rickwood Park to amateurs and the national tournament.
The Birmingham Barons will match any pro offer made to local amateurs. Six have recently signed with Atlanta.
Listing of some of the 32 teams that have applied for BABF membership for this season so far. Sloss are 3x city champions.
1940-6-17 Pinson club has three Chandler brothers - Mose, Noah, and Bill - three Goodwins, two Rickles, two Thompsons, and two Dardens. (Includes brothers of MLB Ed Chandler, who was from Pinson.)
1940-7-14 News + gossip. Player deadline is 7-15. List of players signed. Three teams have given up ghost - their players are signed.
1940-9-01 National tournament will be held at Birmingham. To get teams to come James A. Downey, Jr., president of both BABF and NABF, has promised to underwrite meet. Will take $5K+ to bring tournament out of red. 24 teams will compete. Two are from Birmingham district - one representing BABF, and one representing Jefferson County. As many games as possible will be held at Rickwood, home of Barons.
1940-9-01 VERY GOOD. Pic + profile of James Asbury Downey Jr, AKA "Sunny Jim." Will retire from amateur baseball organizing after season. Is head of both Birmingham Amateur Baseball Federation and National Amateur Baseball Federation. The first Southern president of NABF, he oversaw the first national tournament held in the south - Birmingham, Sept 07-15.
In 1928 Birmingham sent first team to national tournament - Sloss team went to Cincinnati and made it to semi-finals.
From 1926 to 1929 Birmingham City League grew from 17 to 30 teams. During that time Downey was secretary and Cosper was president. In 1930 Cosper retired and Downey replaced him. He was promptly elected to the National Federation of Amateur Baseball Clubs board of trustees. In 1930, the Municipal and City Leagues merged into Greater City League.
"Sunny Jim has been the guiding force behind amateur baseball in Birmingham since, with the exception of 1931, when he stepped out for business reasons."
In 1934 he consolidated the various independent leagues into the Birmingham Amateur Baseball Federation - the largest organization of its kind. When Sunny Jim assumed the presidency of the City League, there were five leagues with six teams each. Today the BABF has ten class A leagues, 60 class A teams, and a number of Class C teams. All told there are about 2K players playing under BABF.
Twice since 1928 Birmingham's representatives have placed second in national tournaments. The Sloss club did so in 1934 and Jordan Park did likewise in 1939.
1940-6-23 (Post-Herald) Some lines
1940-9-01 Empire team
Birmingham
1940-1-28 Westfield amateur team had Riggs Stephenson, Joe Sewell, Red Holt, etc.
Birmingham City League
Birmingham City League
1919
Robinson, John B. 1919 Westfield TL - wicked spitter
Mabors, Jack p 1-25 1919 Trolley Dodgers
1919-9-07 Pics and profiles of Westfield's five pitchers: Lefty John B. Robinson, a lefty with a wicked spitter. Avondale product - got start in baseball thru Gordon Hickman, old-time SOUA p. Played with the A.E.F. Base Section 2 team in WWI - was 7-1. Is an excellent class C manager.
Jess (Bearcat) Wolfe has "played in nearly every hamlet in the south. Jess is a medium-sized right-hander with a good spitter and a nimble mind. From Lumpkin GA - broke into semi-pro ball with Columbia AL in 1909. With Americus in 1910. Won 13 straight for Savannah (SALL) in 1914. [Jess's pro career is seriously overhyped.] Pitched for Pratt City in 1917 and 1918. Joined Westfield at the beginning of this season and is 14-2 (including games with other teams.)
Allen Sells is from Atlanta. Has ten years of experience with fast amateur and semi-pro teams, and had a tryout with the Atlanta Crackers in 1913. He is a tall right-hander with plenty of speed and curves. He has had a bad arm most of the year and hasn't been used much, but recently threw a one-hitter and may have rounded into form.
Oscar Vines has been pitching superb ball for 14 years - none have a wiser head than he, the hardened right-hander. Broke in as a pitcher in 1904 and played around Hamilton AL until 1907. He entered the army in 1908 and was stationed at Fort Monroe, "where he proceeded to make a 'rep' for himself." In 1910 he won 24 games and led the team to a championship. Pitched briefly for Norfolk in pro ball and broke even. [?] Pitched for Birmingham College in 1912 - rejoined baseball after a few years' break in 1915 with the Bessemer Rolling Mills Tigers. Was 12-1 for them in 1915 and 12-3 in 1916. Throws right and weighs about 175 pounds.
Glenn Moseley is a "great big right-hander with plenty of curves and a good spitter." Plenty o' pro experience.
1919-8-09 Boxes. Trolley Dodgers won 15th straight game.
Pic of Homer "Tris" Norton, American Steel & Wire Co. outfielder. He is "one of the greatest outfielders developed in Birmingham" and "from a family of excellent ball players." A "finished fielder as well as one of the most dangerous pinch hitters in semi-pro ball."
Pic of J.A. (Biscuit) Cook, American Steel & Wire southpaw who was the first pitcher to beat Westfield in the Western Division of the City League. On Sunday "he had a good change of pace and mixed his curves with a fast and slow one." Cook came to Birmingham from the Marion Institute and has been pitching for the Wire Makers for two years. It looks like he'll be ready for the SOUA next season.
1919-9-27 Atlanta Journal. Westfield 4, Atlantic Steel 0. Atlantic Steel 4, Westfield 1. Fairly good crowd. Glenn Moseley shutout Atlantic Steel in the first game of the doubleheader as "his spitball broke wonderfully." Red Holt with Westfield. Atlantic Steel of Atlanta are champions of Georgia. There is an ancient rivalry between Birmingham and Atlanta.
Birmingham Y.M.C.A. Industrial League
1957
Veale, Bob 1957 24th St. Red Sox Struck out 16 ACIPCO batters in 7 innings. Line.
T.C.I. League (Manufacturing Division, Mining Division)
TCI = Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company Used convict labor until 1910s, then model villages for workers.
1940
Carnes, Carl "Prince" 1917 Ensley Indians
Glazner, Whitey 1917 Ensley Indians
Walker, Ernie uncle of Dixie & Harry Walker 1917 Ensley Indians
Vines, Oscar pitcher 1917-5-20 oldest pitcher in league
three pitchers 1917
season runs 4-28 to 9-08 - schedule
1917-6-27 quotes from TCI folks
1917-8-18 3.5K ATT at double-header - Pratt City will play Ensley in next ten days
Glazner reportedly threw a no-hitter in TCI 1940
Chattahoochee Valley League / Chattahoochee League
1919
1920
1923
1927 Lanett
1935 Riverview
1936 Fairfax Towelmakers
1937
Milner, Holt "Cat" became pro 1920 VG in low/mid minors 1919 Riverview Pitched - won 16-0 - collected five hits. Three brothers in line-up. Box is from 1936 flashback - somehow did not appear in original 1919 article.
1937 Riverview Rabbits Won game with double in 13th
Minogue, James p 1937 Riverview
Schuessler, Zack p imported from CSTL for post-season 1936 Lanett
West, Ralph p on loan from SOUA for post-season
Smith, Bob 1920 West Point ss in 1920 - converted to pitcher in major leagues when he was 30 and had 13-year career on the mound
Its five core textile towns were Langdale, Lanett, Fairfax, Shawmut, and Riverdale.
Langdale named after William and Thomas Lang, English textile makers who supervised the company in its early days.
"As each mill was established, a mill village sprang up nearby. Schools and community centers, largely paid for by the company, added social and physical spaces to the fledgling villages. The company contributed one dollar for every two dollars raised by church congregations for building projects. Recreation programs, starting with baseball leagues around 1914, expanded into mill-funded recreation departments. Other supported extracurriculars included Boy and Girl Scout programs. "
" Shawmut also became the company's first planned mill village community. Designed by a landscape architect, the community was centered on a public park surrounded by communal buildings, which included a school, library, auditorium, and two churches. Each building owed its existence, at least partially if not wholly, to the West Point Manufacturing Company. Shawmut's original 227 mill houses, predominantly single-family homes with a number of duplexes, ranged in size from three to six rooms, with each cottage having a front and back porch."
" The many amenities the company was providing and its practice of refusing work to anyone associated with labor unions created goodwill between the company and its employees. These efforts fended off the larger unionization efforts that emerged across the southern textile industry, embodied in the General Textile Strike of 1934, and kept the unions out of its five core mills."
(1927-5-05) West Point. "The strong Dunson Mills team of LaGrange has consented to take a place in the C.V. League, which will eliminate the necessity of an idle Saturday on the schedule for any of the teams."
1927-5-20 (Columbus GA) Most of the of the local HS Red Jackets will play with Perkins' Mill, but a few will play in the Chattahoochee Valley League
1927-9-21 Lanett. Fairfax and Lanett will fight in best-of-five championship series beginning 9-22.
1928-4-26 West Point. Directors and managers of each team listed. The season opens on 5-05.
"All players in the league must be 'home boys' according to the rules adopted, and the term 'home boy' means that the player must hold a job either with the mill in the town with which he plays or must work in the town and must have held the position for 30 days prior to his first league game. This means local talent and no employment of professionals."
1931-6-11 West Point. Schedule.
1931-6-28 Birmingham. Lanett tied with Langdale for first in the first half; swept a doubleheader to win the best-of-three playoff.
1932-5-04 Lanett VDTN. Schedule, talk. League games rained out.
1933-3-30 West Point. There will be no need for off-days this year as there was in the five-team league of last year. Hogansville A.C. has become the team's sixth league, giving every team a Saturday game.
Lanett team talk.
1933-5-25 West Point. Schedule.
1936-8-29) (Opelika AL) Final stats for Pepperell's Dragons, who finished 17-33 in league.
1936-9-04) (Atlanta Journal) "The indefatigable Erwin Lehmann," Langdale Mills superintendent, persuaded Eddie Moore of the Atlanta Crackers to lend him Ralph West for the championship series.
"THE BASEBALL INTEREST in the Chattahoochee Valley is remarkable. Every play-off game has been before a capacity audience. Thursday the Langdale park was packed and jammed, the overflow extending to the left- field fence and right-field fence along the foul lines. There must have been 3,000 people on hand.
As matters stand now Fairfax and Langdale have each won a game in the play-off series, which is a three-out-of-five affair. Fairfax eliminated Riverview in two straight games and Langdale put Lanett out, two straight. The third game of the series is scheduled for today at Langdale, and the fourth game at Fairfax."
1936-9-06 (Columbus GA) The Fairfax Towelmakers beat Langdale to win the championship series three games to one. 1800 attended the final game - 9000 for the four-game series.
NVG team pics of Fairfax and Langdale, and a picture of Calhoun (Langdale MG) shaking hands with Mason (Fairfax MG).
"the rivalry and the partisanship was keen to the very finish. The series has drawn remarkable crowds during the four games and interest in the results has run high throughout the Valley."
1937-3-25 West Point. League schedule. Talk. Fairfax has Ernie "Doc" Wingard. He was 14 for 31 last year with Langdale. Review of Fairfax roster.
Admission to league games will be 25 cents this year.
1937-4-21 Lanett VDTN. Fob James = Lanett Panthers' MG.
Talk.
Review of some former pros in league.
"Cat Milner had a great pitching prospect lined up over Thomaston, Ga. way. He went over to get this find sometimes a few days ago. When he arrived, he had quite a bit of trouble finding the rookie who was down in the bottoms pushing a couple of plow handles. After talking with him and his father, everything was settled. The lad went home and packed his clothes. Then mama, who had been across the way visiting, came in. That really settled things. No, sir, her boy wasn't going to leave home; so he might just as well unpack. Which he did. Cat lost a good pitcher. Mama kept her little boy at home. He couldn't have been a bit over twenty-three or twenty-four years in this worid. (Reminds us of "Lil' Abner.")"
"Whitey Harris is at it again. Remember the time that Whitey went through the fence at Fairfax and caught a ball that was slated for a triple. This was again brought to mind Friday when Whitey charged back into the center-field fence and made a one handed catch of Red Waldrops hard smash. But this time the fence didn't give. It handed him a hook to the head and busted a shank, and a complete K. O. with no technical charges. The important part, though, was that Harris held to that ball for the put out.
Langdale seems to have a kid coming up that is going to cause some batters a little trouble later on. We speak of Peck Sands, a high school twirler from LaFayette Lanier High. He went in as relief man against Dixie Mills of LaGrange, Saturday, and pitched eight in- nings. The only thing that Otis Davis' team could get off him was three hits."
Shawmut has a new outfielder from L.A. named George Lowinger.
"If one ever wants to really hear how baseball was played in the old days, one should get in touch with Lefty James, of Fairfax. This feller can sure hold you spell bound. He can enumerate for hours on little stories of the boys of the old baseball school. When you are feeling depressed, look Lefty up. He lives down around Fairfax and is good for a laugh a minute."
1937-5-20 Lanett. Talk. Sam Mason, Fairfax MG and HS athletic director, is getting married to Loneta Pinkard, Fairfax school teacher. "Sam came to Fairfax two years ago and since that time has won many friends in the Valley."
"Bruno [Nix] has collected quite a few ball players down in Tiger Town who are delivering the goods. His boys seem to regard Bruno as a manager who knows his business and they listen to him."
Riverview batting averages.
1937-5-26 Introducing. (Some inaccuracies. Accounts of players' pro seasons especially imaginative.)
Three Fairfax players were hurt in an "automobile wreck" last week; they will be out for the season.
1937-6-02 Lanett Valley Daily Times-News. Introducing: Player bios from around the league.
1937-6-03 Lanett.
"The Panther Park will be second to none in this section as the outlay for the plant runs into approximately eight thousand dollars. The field will be lighted so as to give the players and the fans a good view of the baseball when it is being thrown by the players and when the batsmen connect for those thrilling hits. In other words, the officials of Lanett Mill baseball club are spending plenty of money in order that the fans may get only the best in the way of athletics.
"Both the Mill team and the Bleachery will use the park for night games during the season. Manager Joe Palm plans to bring some of his league games under the arcs."
"Baseball Is Fast." On the heavy strategizing of league managers like Bruno Nix and Joe Palm.
Lists the games scheduled for the week.
"At a meeting of the directors of the Chattahoochee Valley Baseball league last week it was agreed by the directors that the ban on hiring new players would be removed. It left the league wide open. In other words if a team so desires they may get the entire Cracker, Giants, Dodgers or any other team down to play and it will be perfectly legal as far as the rules are concerned.
Players coming into the Valley and if they are able to make the grade immediately become legal when they don a uniform.
President Robert Rearden stated that the move was made to allow some of the weaker clubs to strengthen without the players having to sit on the bench over a period of time, that it would allow the teams to strengthen up at any time.
Inasmuch as the schedule calls for a practice session of eighteen weeks, before the real grind, it is useless to have such a rule. The league uses the Shaughnessy system and the first four teams play off for the championship."
1937-6-03 Lanett Chambers County News. Contin. Larry Gilbert, New Orleans Pelicans manager, sent two pitchers to Brunner Nix, Shawmut manager, for seasoning.
1937-8-12 Lanett CCN. Good talk.
1937-8-19 Lanett CCN. Page presenting Shaughnessy play-off schedule - best wishes from the different team sponsors - sundry advertisements.
1937-11-24 Lanett. The Riverview basketball team will play in the Georgia-Alabama Textile Basketball League. Cheese Goggans is its manager - Raymond "Red" Waldrop is captain and guard. Etc. Waldrop is from Alex City AL.
The Langdale team also has C.V. baseball players.
1947-8-27 Lanett VDTN. NVG pic of Riverview team, which won the "Florida trip offered by the recreation department for company team in Chattahoochee Valley League with the highest percentage of wins during the season..."
VG pic of Lamar "Bud" Williams, star baseball pitcher and outfielder and softball pitcher for Fairfax. In one week he threw a no-hitter - the first in Valley softball - and won two games in the CVL. Batted .300 in baseball.
Solid pic of Fairfax team, which led the first half with a 10-4 record.
VG pic of Dan "Nig" Frazier, Fairfax 2b-ss-lf. Just sixteen years old, he hit .500 (26 for 52) with 20 runs scored, 16 RBIs, and just four errors made. Set league records with fifteen consecutive times on base and eight consecutive hits.
1977-6-10 Opelika-Auburn.
"Brunner Nix is the solid waste supervisor for the Walker County Health Department, and he lives in Jasper. What has he got to do with baseball?
In his youth, in the decade prior to World War II, Nix was one of the many journeymen ballplayers who traveled the country in those days, playing baseball for hire in burgs that today do well to support a Little League program. He alighted for several years in the Valley, playing in a seven-team semi-professional group called the Chattahoochee Valley League.
"THE WEST POINT MANUFACTURING Company (WPMC) sponsored the league for the entertainment of its employes," [Nix] recalled, vaguely at points. Each manufacturing town in the Valley was represented by a team: Lanett (which had two teams, one for the mill and one for the bleachery and dye works), Shawmut, Langdale, Riverview and Fairfax. The only non-WPMC team was from Opelika, representing Pepperell Mills. Of course, the two companies since have merged to become West Point Pepperell.
Understand now, the league was not created for employe recreation, although a few of the players were locals who worked in the mills. The teams were composed mainly of ex-professionals and top college talent hired by the company to produce a local pennant race each year just for the entertainment of the mill workers, who, then as now, were the nucleus of the textile towns along the Chattahoochee.
"Back in those days, when the employes got off from their work, they didn't have any other place to go except to a show (WPMC also maintained six theatres in the Valley at that time) or a ballgame. They would look forward to getting off and seeing a game; this is what made them happy," Nix said.
It cost about 15 or 25 cents to get into a game, Nix remembered unsurely, "and the stands were always full. West Point Manufacturing didn't make any money off the games. Above the gate receipts, the company spent thousands of dollars to give the employes this entertainment.
"The league was a great thing for the company; it kept people's minds off their worries. They never had any labor problems."
PLAYERS GOT FROM $25-$75 per week, and if they were, in today's vernacular, superstars, they sometimes received their board as well, which was only $5 per week otherwise, Nix said.
Many of the players came in just for the season and stayed in local establishments such as the Shawmut Hotel, which, if mentioned, would produce only puzzled faced or snickers from many present-day residents of the little town.
Others stayed in private homes during the baseball season, a custom particularly prevalent in Lanett.
The pay was good for that Depression era, Nix said, and the league even attracted some talent from the majors because of the money.
The best way to describe the community status of the ballplayers, Nix said, laughing, was "heroes. The ballplayers were all just heroes. The people would get so excited during the season, they would do anything for a ballplayer; he could get anything he wanted."
Nix came to the Valley first in 1934, when he played for Lanett Mill, nicknamed-naturally-"Pan-
thers." In '35, Nix moved to the Atlanta Crackers of the old Southern League and moved again that year to play in the Piedmont League at Portsmouth, Va.
NIX, A CATCHER, returned to Lanett in 1936, stayed through the winter of '37 and went to the Shawmut as a player-manager that year. In 1938 and '39, he played baseball in Andalusia, where his career came to a war-speeded end. The CV League, said Nix, was "one of the best semi-pro leagues in the country."
Teams from the league, which existed from about 1934-'37, often played outside opponents such as the Auburn University baseball team, the University of Alabama, major- league farm clubs from the Alabama-Florida League and independent, semi-pro teams from other communities.
1977-6-10 Contin. Shawmut, behind the pitching of Virgil Trucks who went to the Detroit Tigers, defeated the Atlanta Crackers in a spring exhibition game. The win, Nix recalled with sudden clarity, was 3-2 in a game played while Atlanta was journeying back from its spring camp in Daytona Beach.
Besides Trucks, who was one of the most important players to come out of the league, Nix had a right-handed pitcher named John Paul Tipper, an Auburn University pitcher who, before coming to Shawmut, pitched the Tigers past the St. Louis Cardinals in an exhibition match.
Nix' younger brother Clarence came to Shawmut with him - the pair was orphaned at an early age -and played football at Lanett High School and later played baseball for the Detroit Tigers.
Billy Hitchcock played for Langdale; his brother Billy managed the team, and Fob James Sr. managed the Lanett Mill club, Nix laboriously remembered. "That was a long time ago," he explained with a chuckle.
Joe Parmacina, a former player for Birmingham and Atlanta, managed the Lanett dye works team. James' team had Hal Finney, a player from the Philadelphia Athletics. Nix had Charlie Gilbert, who left the CV League, to eventually play for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Like Gunnels, who went on to the Southern League, Jesse Bates, Stumpy Clark, a pitcher named Hornburg, and a local boy named Osmos Lanier, who still lives in Shawmut, Nix recalled, anxious to rattle off as many names as possible
and bring back the old memories.
"I ENJOYED my baseball, in the Valley," said Nix, a native of Walker County," I had so many friends there. No other town compared with Lanett and Shawmut."
Baseball is still very close to Walker, and this spring he motored to the St. Petersburg, Fla., area to visit the Clearwater camp of the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa camp of the Cincinnatti Reds and watch them play exhibition ball. On his return, he paid a rare visit to his remaining baseball connections in the Valley.
"It's gonna tear the game apart," he said of baseball's major league salary demands of today. "Ain't nobody worth a million dollars. Nobody."
"I wish baseball could get back the way it was, but I guess there's too much else to do."
1919-6-07 Atlanta Constitution. All lines.
1919-6-19) Lanett VDTN. Lines - standings.
(1927-5-05) West Point. Spare boxes for all games.
1931-6-11) West Point. Boxes, standings.
(1937-5-12 Lanett VDTN. Local box - talk.
(1937-6-02 Lanett. All boxes.
1920-9-04 #1 champ series * West Point 2, Lanett 1.
1920-9-15 #3 * West Point 7, Lanett 0. 3K ATT - "largest crowd that ever witnessed an athletic event in this section of the country." Summary of West Point's season.
latter two dates are news dates
1936-8-29) (Opelika AL) Langdale 6, Lanett 3 in semi-finals.
1936-9-04) (Atlanta Journal) #2. Langdale 11, Fairfax 4. Box has no subcategories.
1936-9-04 (Atlanta Journal) VG pic of Ralph West, Atlanta Crackers pitcher on loan to Langdale , receiving congratulations from the young son of the superintendent of the Langdale Mills. Manager "Mink" Stevenson and catcher "Chick" Barranco look on. ()
MG:
1920
Lanett: Robinson
West Point: Carl Eubanks
Dixie Amateur League
1933
1934 Dothan
1935
George, Charles "Lefty" p from St. Louis solid in SOUA 1935 Ozark Cardinals won 9th straight
Hutson, Don of U.AL. football star 1935 Troy Trojans
Singleton, Lonnie/Lonny of, good in SEAL 1933 Montgomery RP
Suydam, Jack .385 1936 OHSL 1935 Dothan Boll Weevils
1933-6-19 Special meeting will be held at Troy tavern. Rumors of financial difficulties for certain clubs are unwarranted as every park is playing to beneficent crowds.
1933-7-25 Some of brightest stars listed.
1935-5-14 Three players from Lakeland FL of the Orange Belt League arrive in Dothan to play with the Boll Weevils. They had helped Lakeland win their first three games of the season. They heard of Dothan's team on Bill Howell's recommendation. Bill Loper is blond - won 25 out of 30 games for Lakeland last year. He is 21. Pete Hooten hit .315 last year for Sylvester GA. Erwin Durfee, who lives in New Orleans, played 100 games last year in unorganized baseball.
Paul Tubbs is Dothan manager.
1935-5-17 Many University of Alabama players are with the Troy Trojans; listed. Happy Cambell is Troy manager.
1935-6-19 Don Hutson signs with Knoxville, to report after Dixie Amateur League closes.
1933-6-25 Montgomery. Local box. Standings.
1935-6-05 Dothan. No boxes - only descriptions. Bill Loper is a "smooth working curve ball twirler"
(1935-6-24 Troy. Local boxes. 1300 ATT. Standings on page 4.
Don Hutson made an incredible catch in the outfield. Jesse James-type robbery. Discussion of two blacks discussing play.
(1935-6-28 Dothan. All lines, standings. Don Hutson out for at least ten days with foot injury suffered sliding into second.
(1935-7-17 Ozark. Local lines and talk.
Game ads - schedule through end of season.
1935-8-04 Dothan. Brick Owens described as hog-calling Ozark outfielder. Play-offs will begin 8-12.
1935-8-06 Dothan. Box. Don Hutson is leaving for Chicago where he will play in the college-Chicago Bears game of 8-29. Union Springs won after traveling 96 miles by bus. Lefty George pitcher.
1935-5-30 Troy. Pic of Don Hutson in U.AL. uniform.
Dixie Amateur League (Montgomery City League)
Dixie Amateur League (Montgomery City League)
1943 5-04 standings
1951
Parks, Woodford "Woody" p 1951 Langston "Old Man River of local semi-pro ranks"
Chapman, Ben 1943 Acme Roofers
1943-6-18 All-Star team listed, with small stats
1948-7-08 All-Star team listed, with small stats
1951-4-30 All boxes
Geneva County League (amateur)
1915
1915-7-31 Dothan. Seven players who have been playing for Elba are now in Dothan to play (GASL) - listed with full names.
Montgomery City League
1932
Singleton, Lonnie/Lonny of, good in SEAL 1932 Independents (formerly Orange Crush)
1932-5-21 Rosters cut down to 15 men league-wide. Rosters for Coca Colas and Independents listed, with a number of full names.
Montgomery Independent League
1930 Trojans
1931 Trojans
1932 Trojans
1933 Aces
1933-9-03 Championship preview. The Aces' star pitcher is a southpaw named A.C. "Bud" Dennison. He is 20 years old and weight 195 lb. Eligible players listed, with full names. Admission is 25 cents for the grand-stand.
1935-9-07 Preview for 2nd game of championship series between McDade's Tinners and the 111th Motor Repair Aces. The Aces are weakened, as two of their stars have left for school football practice.
1936-8-09 Night baseball will be ushered into Montgomery on Tuesday with Aces-Pirates game. Two of the best amateur hurlers in the state, "Bratch" Bratcher and Bud Dennison, will face each other. Dennison has a 4-3 record on the season.
1933-6-18 Dennison either won both games of double-header or saved the first and won the second.
1933-6-25 Montgomery. All lines. Dennison won both ends of a doubleheader for the Aces yesterday, as the newspaper implies is his wont. He k'd 14 and allowed 2 hits in the first game and relieved in the fifth in the second game with his team down by one, singling in the go-ahead run himself.
1933-9-10 Championship double-header. Dennison relieved in 1st game (Aces lost) and won the second. Boxes.
Hardwick, George "Dude" p 1932 Dadeville at third
1924-6-12 Russell & Bernard Lewis playing summer ball & making headquarters in Alexander City. Visited home in Holtville.
1925-4-09 Wetumpka, hometown paper. Playing 1st season with University of Alabama varsity. Is making good as a pitcher. His friends back home remember how well he used to pitch for S.S.A.S. Foreign newspapers calling him Jim Lewis.
1927-7-06 The Moulders are 7-6 and have a team average of .366. Batting. Bernard is leading with .500.
Moseley, Glenn "Red" p (also in GA) 1903 Enterprise in field in 28-4 win v. Coffee Springs 1904 Victoria played rf - brother Francis in center - beat Elba 13-8 and 24-4. 2 same positions in 7-4 defeat of Clintonville. 1910 Brockton Beat Enterprise 4-3 in ten innings - k'd 10. 1910 Enterprise beat Coffee Springs 8-2 - 15K - largest crowd ever for a ball game in Enterprise. "Every seat in the grand stand and bleachers was filled to an overflowing capacity and fully 150 or 200 people were standing."
1910-8-11 Enterprise. Glenn Moseley of Victoria accepted position at Enterprise Ten Cent Variety Store. Has moved here with his family and lives on West Charley Street.
Searched "Moseley" 1900-1910 Coffee County AL - looked thru top 35 pages. More about unrelated guy A.R. Moseley
1916-6-02 "Glenn Moseley is going good this year. He has the steam and is using his slow balls to advantage."
1916-7-22 Has thrown 31 consecutive scoreless innings for Dothan in Dixie League - season closes today. Dothan has clinched pennant.
Singleton, Lonnie/Lonny of, good in SEAL 1932 Tuskugee Independents pitched and won. " " Bulldogs valuable member of Young's Ice Cream in Montgomery City League
Fittery, Paul 1927 Lanett champions of GA-AL - "McHenry's long drive into to the colored bleachers"
Fittery, Paul 1927 Lanett champions of GA-AL - "McHenry's long drive into to the colored bleachers"
1914-5-06 opening day - "the colored people were jammed in their section"
1915-6-20 Jack Nabors has thrown 47 consecutive scoreless innings
https://www.newspapers.com/search/?query=%22father%20rafferty%22&p_province=us-al&p_city=montgomery
Woody Parks - career lasted from 1922 to 1955.
https://www.newspapers.com/search/?query=%22father%20rafferty%22&p_province=us-al&p_city=montgomery
Woody Parks - career lasted from 1922 to 1955.
http://drmiraculous.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-old-man.html Great post! Has good info about Dixie Amateur League.
1964-12-02 Pic + profile. Once won a game while unconscious.
1967-8-04 Profile w/pic. Might have made majors if he didn't make banking his career. Is now vice president of the First National Bank of Montgomery.
Woodford H. Parks. Born 1904-1-16 in Bloomfield KY. (This means he made pro debut at 39.)
1982-7-08 One of four Montgomerians reappointed to Governor's Commission on Physical Fitness.
1982-7-08 One of four Montgomerians reappointed to Governor's Commission on Physical Fitness.
1984-3-07 Pic.
1991-2-10 One of '91 inductees into Montgomery Sports HOF. Says he won over 500 games.
Has some other interesting guys.
Fr. Rafferty
Birmingham Barons
Fr. Rafferty
1939-5-28 Pic of Rev. with his four clubs. Rev. M.F. Rafferty is priest at St. Bernard Catholic church in Inglenook, where he lives. Started several years ago with four junior teams. As some of his players began to age out he was granted a senior team in the BABF.
1939-6-20 "Give every neighborhood in Birmingham a Fr. Rafferty and you could dismiss the police force so far as the boys are concerned." Described as Irish.
1939-6-25 W/Pic. Today, Sunday, will be Father Rafferty Day at Rickwood Park. He is a Catholic priest but his clubs are filled with members of all faiths. His senior team, the Orioles, have four denominations on its roster. Sponsors four teams.
1939-6-26 Pic of Rafferty receiving trophy from Downey. His Orioles lost 7-1.
1939-8-13 Fr. Rafferty Athletic Field is being built. W/ pic.
1939-12-10 There was much sorrow when Rafferty was assigned to Huntsville, but he is picking up where he left off. Has already organized three basketball teams.
1940-3-06 Burst of cheering when telegram from Rafferty read out at BABF meeting.
1942-3-08 In Huntsville has team with players even smaller than his Tiny Mites team - they're called the Chicken Mites.
1946-3-25 Has received a number of applications for the Gaels - stresses that they will have to play faster ball now they are playing in the Dixie League.
1946-3-26 Pic + profile. Montgomery's first "Sportsman of the Week." Fr. Malcom Joseph Raffert, pastor of St. Andrew's Catholic Church. In Huntsville his teams were named the Cavaliers. A number of southern college football and baseball players began athletic careers with his Orioles. His teams in Montgomery are called the Gaels. In 1945, the Senior Gaels won the Independent League championship. His six championship trophies in office: five from Orioles and one from Gaels.
1946-5-19 Dixie League opens today. St. Andrew's Gaels will play Draper Prison.
1946-8-13 Was assistant manager of Montgomery American Legion team, which lost in state finals.
1948-3-05 Birmingham Barons GM, Eddie Glennon, is close friend - going to check out a promising Gael.
1953-3-03 Came visiting to Birmingham. Is member of Montgomery Park and Recreation Board. Manages Big Gaels, Little Gaels, and Civitan Club in Little League. His most famous graduate is Dusty Rhodes of Vols.
1954-9-30 Dusty Rhodes played with 1946 Gaels of Dixie League. Fr. Rafferty is the one who brought him to attention of Larry Gilbert, owner-manager of Nashville Vols.
1954-12-02 Pic of Rafferty, of Montgomery, with Dusty Rhodes. Fr. Rafferty was responsible for Rhodes' early baseball tutelage in Montgomery.
1964-10-07 Pic + profile.
1968-7-07 Tribute in Montgomery Advertiser.
1968-7-08 Tribute in Montgomery Advertiser.
Birmingham Barons
https://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Slag_Pile_Field
After 1886 the property was owned by the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TCI) . The park earned its nickname for the piles of furnace slag outside the outfield fences, which served as free seating for those who didn't want to pay to sit in the bleachers.
The field and a few wooden bleachers were leased, in 60-day terms, to the first owners of the Birmingham Barons, who played there from the mid-1880s until the completion of Rickwood Field in 1910.
The field and a few wooden bleachers were leased, in 60-day terms, to the first owners of the Birmingham Barons, who played there from the mid-1880s until the completion of Rickwood Field in 1910.
http://www.birminghamprosports.com/birminghambaronsmain.html
http://www.birminghamprosports.com/birminghambaronshistory.html
Has news and pics of managers - layout of Rickwood Field, 1949. List of SOUA champions.
http://www.birminghamprosports.com/birminghambaronsphotos.html Team pics
http://www.birminghamprosports.com/birminghambaronsroster.html has uniform numbers for some seasons
Abbeville
(1924-7-24 Four boxes, play by play for one game.
(1924-7-24 Four boxes, play by play for one game.
Clanton
1931-10-08 Pic of Broadus Connatser, MLB, who lives in Clanton. He just returned home. Connatser, Bruce
1934-6-21 Clanton's got a good club. Roster listed, with full names. Bull Watkins is with them.
1939-5-18 Old Faithful Bull Watkins Makes Comeback And Pitches For Clanton. Beat Pelham 22-3.
1945-9-06 The Clanton team has lost only six of 37 games for the season. Bull Watkins has won 17 out of 23 games.
1946-7-21 (Birmingham) Clanton has 48-year-old pitcher Bull Watkins - has been pitching for 31 years.
1946-9-19 Team pic. List of scores. Lost 11-0 to ACIPCO. Roster listed, with full names.
1946-9-26 Bull Watkins is selling two male beagles.
1947-9-18 Bull Watkins Appreciation Day was held 9-07 at Clanton Ball Park. Watkins has been pitching for Clanton for the last 25 years.
"Just to show their appreciation, some 70-odd dollars was made up for the pitcher besides numerous gifts such as radios, tables, haircuts, and the like."
1948-9-09 "Bull" Watkins Appreciation Day is on the 15th. Wallace"Bull" Watkins is 50 years old and has been pitching for Clanton for 30 years. He estimates he has won 470 games. He is married and has four children. W/ pic.
1948-9-23 Clanton A.A. thanks Clanton fans for attendance all year & for Bull Watkins Appreciation Night
1949-4-21 Bull Watkins selected as Clanton manager. "He is recognized as the 'Old Man of Baseball' in Chilton County." He is known for his willingness to give his all.
1950-6-15 Bull Watkins pitched for Thorsby and beat Jemison 4-0.
1952-7-03 On 7-06, Bull Watkins will bring his Lomax team to play Clanton.
1952-7-10 Clanton beat Lomax 14-10.
1954-4-29 Ball players requested to meet at Thorsby to organize a team. "We are expecting players from the vicinity of Jemison, Thorsby, Lomax, Alabama Mills, and Clanton. The team will wear Lomax uniforms and be managed from Lomax the same as last year.
"Lomax had a winning team last year, playing 36 games, won 25, lost 11.
" 'Bull' Watkins will be at this meeting in person. Y'all come."
1955-3-17 Lomax will hold meeting. Coach Bull Watkins will not be able to attend on account of poor health. Lomax had 22-13 record last year.
1957-4-11 Bull Watkins is Thorsby manager. Putting 22 players through practice.
1957-9-12 Had a mediocre team most of the year but put together a good enough lineup to beat the Clanton Stars 14-1.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/552290377/?match=1&terms=%22bull%20watkins%22
https://www.newspapers.com/image/552290377/?match=1&terms=%22bull%20watkins%22
No comments:
Post a Comment