VFW takes its lumps while Rotary and Legion dominate



Part 3 of a four-part series

In the spring of 1952 my chance to play Little League baseball finally arrived, and I was drafted by manager Morris Beadles Sr. of the VFW. The VFW was my dream team, so I was proud to wear the white uniform with red numbers and red letters. Incidentally, the color of the Rotary’s letters were black, the Legion’s blue and the Lions’ green.

My brother Tommy was now too old to play, as were some other key players. Still, the VFW had a pretty good nucleus returning, including shortstop Joe Roberts and Billy Webb, a mainstay at first base who would register a sizzling .649 batting average to lead the league in ‘52. John Kirby King, Douglas Dillard, Morris Beasley and Jimmy Boaz were other “veterans” returning.

Unfortunately, super hurler Allen Sutton moved away, otherwise we might have won the pennant again. As it was, we (VFW) played better than .500 ball, but weren’t particularly strong in the pitching department. The Rotary, led by manager Lonnie Stoner Sr., finished in first place, giving them two pennants in the first three years of the league. Lonnie Stoner Jr. recalls that when the league first began, players were using heavy bats, and his dad found some lighter and shorter bats for the Rotary and let all of the teams use them.

Billy Webb, a 12-year-old, was a good friend of Tommy and sort of took me under his wing. We would walk or ride our bikes together to practices from north Stonewall Street all the way across town to Robins Field (now known as Mulberry Park) near the pajama factory. To a little eight-year-old guy, it seemed like five miles, but was probably only a mile or a mile and a half.

Starting in 1952, all of the games were played at night. I was probably a typical eight-year-old in that I spent most of my time in right field, but I also was the backup second baseman. One night Jimmie Smith, our regular second baseball, was the victim of a bad hop that bloodied his nose, so he had to come out. I was brought in from right field to take his place.

Due to my small size and a pretty good batting eye, I was walked quite frequently, but in 23 official at-bats I garnered only one hit for an .043 batting average. Thus, I finished a mere 600 percentage points behind Webb (I knew all of the batting averages because my brother Tommy was the official scorer).

Ironically, my lone hit was off 12-year-old Joe London of the Rotary, one of the best and hardest-throwing hurlers in the league. I think I just happened to swing my bat at the right time and right place and cracked a sharp line drive to left center.

McKenzie’s all-stars won at least one tournament game, but then were beaten by a team that used illegal players, according to Lonnie Stoner Jr. Coaches and players of that team had forged the players’ birth certificates, and were later found out and disqualified.

I remember many more details and players from the 1953 season when I was nine. To say that the VFW had a rebuilding year in ‘53 would be a gross understatement - we won only three games out of 18 to finish in the cellar. Not only did we lose Webb and Roberts, but Jimmy Boaz, a 12-year-old, chose not to play, and another 12-year-old, Douglas Dillard, moved away or at least was gone most of the summer. That may have left us without any 12-year-olds, and most of us were a lot younger.

The Legion, which ultimately won the pennant, had a great team, as did the Rotary, which was managed by my oldest brother, Sam. The Rotary had a first baseman named Frank Henderson who led the league with a .648 batting average, just one point below Billy Webb’s the previous year. Ronnie “Red” Lawrence was a good pitcher and infielder, and Jackie Burns was an outstanding infielder. Jimmy Brewer was another good infielder.

Everett Blackburn was a big, left-handed batter for the Rotary. He was inconsistent and struck out a lot, but he hit the longest homerun I ever saw in Little League. It went way beyond the cars parked behind the fence in right field; I would estimate that it went 100 feet beyond the fence.

Interestingly, Tommy Putman was listed as being a member of the Legion on the 1951 roster list published last week, but definitely was the catcher for the Rotary in ‘53, a very good one at that. The ‘51 roster listing could have been a mistake, or he could have switched teams, which happened a few times for various reasons.

I recall that I was really upset when the Rotary picked up a Trezevant boy, Joe White, a 12-year-old who was a smooth centerfielder, good hitter and pretty good pitcher. The VFW was really hurting, yet somehow my brother managed to get White on his team. Being very competitive and emotional, I cried after every loss, and in my mind the other team - even the one coached by my brother - always cheated.

One of my favorite stories pertains to my pitching debut in 1953 against the Lions, the only team we beat, and I assure you that I haven’t embellished it in any way. Basically, when Ray Cunningham pitched for the Lions, we lost, and when he didn’t pitch, we won, so we split the series 3-3.

I was brought in as a relief pitcher to start an inning, and walked the first three batters on 12 pitches. Then, Cunningham stepped to the plate. He was a strong 12-year-old who ultimately whacked 12 home runs in 18 games that year. I’m not sure whether I finally got the ball over the plate, but regardless he ripped my first pitch over the left field fence for a grand-slam homer.

I settled down after that and actually pitched pretty well the rest of the game. So well, in fact, that when the next game against the Legion rolled around, several of my teammates chanted, “Let Paul pitch, let Paul pitch!” Mr. Beadles relented, so I took the mound.

The Legion had a murderous row of hitters, and they were big and strong. The lineup featured Gene York, Kenneth Brevard, Bobby C. Melton and three outstanding players from Trezevant, Kenny Watkins, Joe Pat Weatherford, and Jerry Akins. York, in particular, scared me to death. He was a big, quiet country boy with a mild demeanor, but as a pitcher he threw rockets, and as a batter he hit vicious line drives.

Miraculously, at the end of three innings we trailed only 1-0 and I looked like the second coming of Dizzy Dean. But then, all of a sudden I couldn’t get anybody out, the Legion hit line drives all over the field - and some out of the park - and we ultimately lost 32-0. It would be two years before I was allowed to come anywhere near the pitcher’s mound again. Despite the VFW’s 3-15 record, though, I took solace in the fact that I batted .300, which wasn’t bad for a nine-year-old.

In 1954, when I was 10, one night Gene York came after me with a line drive, and I wasn’t even playing. The occasion was the only all-star game I can remember being played in McKenzie. We were hosting Huntingdon, and York was the batter. I wasn’t on the all-star team, but was sitting on the ground down the right field line fairly close to first base. What I was doing there in the first place, I don’t know. Why I was even allowed to sit there, I don’t know.

Anyway, York smashed a screaming line drive that hit me, let’s say, in a very vulnerable spot, a place where you least want to get hit. James Milraney, manager of the Legion, rushed over to check on me. I think I was embarrassed by the location of the injury and didn’t want to reveal that to the crowd, so I basically waved him off and didn’t even move to a safer place. Maybe I was unable to move; regardless, I was hurting for several days.

At the same game, Huntingdon officials were complaining that the distance from the pitcher’s mound to home plate wasn’t exactly right and that the distance between bases wasn’t correct either. Ralph Winsett, in addition to being the McKenzie High School football coach, was a key official in the Little League and also umpired a lot. After some measurements, the Huntingdon critics proved to be right. Ultimately Winsett took a shovel, dug up the mound and moved it to the proper place, the bases were adjusted, and the game began.

In ‘54 I batted only .278, but all of the VFW youngsters had gotten another year of experience, so I believe we won about half of our games. We were helped by the addition of Chester Reynolds, a sandy-haired, 12-year-old southpaw pitcher and first baseman who gave us some maturity and stability.

Through thick and thin, the VFW players who were my age stuck together, which set the stage for the following two years when we would win consecutive pennants.

Some players for the Lions that I recall during that era were: Charlie Herron, Hugh Scarbrough, Leon Colbert, pitcher Billy Perritt, Phllip Merritt from Trezevant, Tommy Fields, Larry Ridley, Butch Trevathan, Larry Black and Ralph “Butch” Dickson. The Lions manager during most of that time was Tom Fields.

(Next week: The VFW wins two straight pennants. Paul David Campbell is editor and general manager of the Buffalo Reflex in Buffalo, Missouri, and can be contacted at paulc@buffaloreflex.com.)

Part 1 Little League Baseball Fever Claims McKenzie in 1950
Part 2 VFW Goes Undefeated in Second Season
Part 3 Author finally gets to play Little League in 1952; brothers are manager, scorekeeper
Part 4