AFL focus on Pensacola, FLorida

The Panhandle Coast of Florida and Alabama, known by many as
the « Redneck Riviera » is famous for it’s military bases
and the sugar-white sand of it’s beaches. In the middle part of
the last century, the coast was also a baseball hotbed. Panama
City, Fort Walton Beach, Mobile, and Pensacola had long traditions
of supporting minor league baseball. Pensacola especially had
been successful, supporting a Class B team in the Southeastern
League for most of the 1930’s, 40’s and early fifties. In 1949,
Bob Hefferman pitched a perfect game for the Southeastern League
Pensacola team against Montgomery.The Southeastern League collapsed
in 1951 and Pensacola was left without a team. In 1957, AFL President,
Sam Smith needed to do something about the tiny backwater franchises
of Crestview and Donalsonville, and the once-strong AFL stalwart,
Dothan. In the greatest positive franchise change in league history,
Smith replaced those three cities with the relatively large cities
of Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, and Pensacola. A
Pensacola businessman named Fred Davis bought the new AFL team
and named them the the Dons. Their home was tiny Admiral Mason
Park, built right on Pensacola Bay, which held only 2,000 patrons.
While the salt-breezes were welcome at the park, when the wind
was blowing the wrong way, the stench from a sewer treatment plant
across the street would mix with the hot, humid evening air, giving
the park an « atmosphere » that the fans could do without.
There was virtually no place to park around the stadium, but even
with these distractions the 1957 AFL Dons drew a healthy 43,882
fans, best in the league that season. The Dons were not a strong
team, but they had a couple of good arms in future major leaguers
Bo Belinsky and Marshall Renfroe. In 1958, the Dons started to
climb out of the bottom half of the league and made the playoffs,
bowing to Selma in the first round. More importantly, the Dons
signed a development agreement with the Baltimore Orioles. Jim
Lehew lead the Pensacola staff and league legend Nesbit Wilson
batted .396 with 24 home runs. Once again, the Dons lead the AFL
in attendance, topping the 50,000 mark. In 1959, Fred Davis decided
to get out of the baseball business while he was still on top.
He sold the franchise to Joe Panaccione (pictured right), a former minor leaguer who owned a tavern
near the ballpark. Panaccione brought in former major leaguer,
Fred Waters, to work as the Dons’ pitching coach and to develop
the promising group of pitchers on the Pensacola staff. The Orioles
had a good crop of arms in Pensacola, three of them future Orioles
and one on his way down: Bo Belinsky and Jim Lehew were back,
along with promising left-hander, Steve Barber, and former bird,
George Wereley. Added to the mix was the legendary fireballer,
Steve Dalkowski. Dalkowski’s fastball was so vicious that, despite
the fact that he couldn’t pitch a strike to save his life, he
was always considered a potential star. Behind the plate was a
strong field leader by the name of Cal Ripken, Sr. Despite the
talent, the Dons were once again quickly eliminated from the playoffs
by Selma. In 1960, the Pensacola team became a White Sox farm
team, and changed their name to the Angels. Joining the team was
former Dothan manager, J.C. Dunn, who asked Fred Waters to not
only coach the pitchers, but to take the mound himself. Waters
had a good season, but the Angels barely made the playoffs and
their attendance suffered because of it. The 1960 Angels drew
half of what the 1958 Dons did. Nevertheless, the playoffs evidently
breathed new life into the team. The Angels were hot at the right
time and when the smoke had cleared, they were the playoff champs
of the league. In 1961, former major leaguer Archie Wilson became
the new manager, and the Washington Senators became the new major
league affiliate. The Pensacola team
took on the name of their major league big brothers and became
the Senators. This was due more to economics than to loyalty:
In a money-saving move, the Pensacola Senators were given a set
of used Washington Senators uniforms to wear. The heavy wool flannel
uniforms must have been a real « treat » for players playing
in the humid steam bath of the Panhandle. The ’61 team boasted
future Senator infielders John Kennedy and Eddie Brinkman. In
1962, the Senators finally had the right mix of players and won
what would be the final AFL pennant race with 79 wins against
38 losses. The Fort Walton Beach Jets were a distant second, 22
games behind. The new manager, Wayne Terwilliger, had a great
pitching staff with Fred Waters pitching and coaching for a third
straight season. Waters went 11-2 with a league-leading 1.42 ERA.
The other big arms belonged to future Washington Senators Bob
Baird, Barry Moore, and Don Loun. The Senators season was a dream
come true for Pensacola baseball fans, but the dream was about
to turn into a nightmare: In the 1962 winter meetings, the league
folded due to problems with fielding black ballplayers. Not only
did the league leave Pensacola, professional baseball left too.
Admiral Mason was not a classy park and although Panaccione pushed
the city for a new park to attract another team , the city was
not interested. There hasn’t been a pro team in Pensacola since
the Senators won the final season of the AFL. Admiral Mason Park
was torn down in the early 1980’s and the city saw no reason to
replace it. Fred Waters stayed around though, coaching high school
baseball. This was truly the end of an era, not only for the AFL
but for the mix of beautiful beaches, lots of Florida sun, and
Class D baseball.