1948-1949 Eagles, South Hill town teams - (Memorial Park)
This was part of an ongoing series devoted to the forgotten years
of baseball 1936-1953 in La Crosse and South Hill, Virginia called
‘Play Ball’ compiled from interviews and information from previous
baseball players, families and local business owners.
BY: BARETTA
TAYLOR, SOUTH HILL ENTERPRISE
Root- Root- Root for the home team and
its community for its efforts in changing the way we looked at baseball and a
better way for playing the game. The year of change for our South Hill baseball
diamond and its fans was truly the year of 1948. This year would bring great
change thanks to our community and its baseball players. The team wouldn’t be
known as just the ‘South Hill team’ anymore, as the club had selected a name,
they would be called the Eagles. Maybe it was because the balls that the team
hit went so high in the air they flew with the Eagles, or in this year we were
soaring to new heights, or maybe it represented the national bird and symbol of
the United States of America or being that many of our players had just came
back from military service or were still in the military playing for uncle/coach
Sam. Whatever the reason for the selection of this name, it would not remain in
years to come. The interested South Hill Community baseball crowd would meet on
January 6,1948 at the South Hill High school auditorium to discuss raising about
$15,000 to grade the existing field and to install lights at the park. Also in
the discussion was a plan to build a grandstand that would seat 600, and two
bleachers that would seat 200 each. Also during the time of construction, locals
including Jack Rainey, and barely a teenager at the time, Frank Nanney, along
with numerous other South Hill students and community helped volunteers put up
the fence. Mr. Nanney and classmates were allowed to leave school early by Mr.
Charles Morgan, Principal at the time, to do the volunteer work. Mr. Lawrence
Crowder, former owner of South Hill Lumber Company, donated some of the lumber.
Mr. Crowder told the committee that they could pay him back a little at the time
when money was available. Mr. Crowder’s house was located directly behind
centerfield.
The citizens formed a
non-profit stock company at $10.00 a share. In April, the organization took on
the name Memorial Park with Herbert McAden as president. This would pave the way
for the Old Southside Minor League summer teams that had players from top
colleges and universities such as UVA, Duke, N.C, State and others. Most of
these players would later go professional and were seasoned veterans, local and
professional.
The 1948 Eagles team
played their first scrimmage game on May 23 with Pete Boaz of Richmond as the
team’s manager. Team members included Doc Murphy, Wiley Warren, G.W. Taylor,
Pete Smith, Bill Hamlin, Gerald Simmons, Coleman Allen, Earl Rowley, Flint
Nichols, Babe Freeman, Joe Brown, B.J. Montgomery, Jimmy Brooks, Burke Howerton,
Butcher, Ferguson, Stacie, Hastings, Inge, White, Jack Craig, Coghill, Hughes,
Lewis, and Crowley. They posted a 38-22 record with top batters being Woody
Slayton .381 Wiley Warren .345 Tom Inge .337 Coghill .320 and Babe Freeman with
a .316 season average. The Eagles won their opening game at Victoria. 11-0 when
Pete Smith of Lawrenceville and the University of Richmond pitched a no hitter.
They then lost to Victoria 9-6 and then winning their first two afternoon games
at home against the Richmond Athletic Club 12-1 and 11-7. The big event everyone
had been waiting for finally came on June 18 when the town park was dedicated
with the first night game in the history of the town. The Eagles defeated the
Lacrosse Scrappers 4-1 with approximately 1,200 fans in attendance made possible
by the communities love for the game and being able to come to games after work
instead of trying to make a game before dark. The following baseball article was
printed in the South Hill Enterprise in September of 1948, South Hill’s baseball
team the Eagles won two of three games over the La Crosse Scrappers to win the
four-game series, three games to one. After winning the first game 2-1, the week
before, South Hill won the next two games before La Crosse salvaged a win in the
final game. Childress was the winner of game two as South Hill pounded out 14
hits in the 7-3 victory. Inge and Howerton had home runs. Inge had three hits
while Slayton, Howerton, Hamlin and Freeman had two hits each. Southpaw Jimmy
Brooks pitched South Hill to a 3-1 win to guarantee the series edge. Brooks
struck out ten while giving up seven singles. Freeman, Wheeler, and Slayton had
two hits each for South Hill.
La Crosse won the final
game, 6-1, as Taylor was the winner and also knocked in two runners. Eugene
Evans of The La Crosse Scrappers was the only player to have two hits in the
game. This League would in the next few years advance to independent semi
professional baseball to be the topic of my next article the South Hill Twins.