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Panama City Baseball
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Thanks to the Bay County Public Library Local History Staff and The News Herald
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Used with permission from the Panama City News Herald, original publication date:
Sunday, August 24, 1997 Baseball left quietly, not with a roar
EDITOR’S NOTE: Final part in a series of what it would take to bring minor league baseball back to Bay County. In Part IV, Todd Leskanic looks back at the days of the Alabama-Florida League and Lions Park. by TODD LESKANIC, The News Herald It’s been over three decades since Lions Park was torn down and replaced by a dress factory. That’s what happened in 1966, five years after professional baseball left Panama City and its last trace vanished as the walls of Lions Field came down. « I think to a certain extent it was sort of surprising that even though not much time had passed, it was almost so far back in people’s memories that it (the history) was almost lost, » said Ken Brooks, author of the book [The Last Rebel Yell], a history of professional baseball in the area. Smitty’s Barbecue and Home Accents (U.S. 231 and State 77) now stand on the spot that was once reserved for a farm boy’s first step toward the majors in the Class D leagues. « The old Lions Park, I played in so many games there over the years, » said former Panama City ballplayer Bill Brightwell. « It was a very good playing field. The facilities themselves were not very good but as far as the playing field, it was excellent. » |
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According to a newspaper article in a 1926 edition of the Panama City Pilot,
the park cost about $10,000 and took just six weeks to build. It was completed in late February 1926 under the original name of Colins Stadium. It was later known as Pelican Park and as Lions Park. The Lions Club helped rebuild the park after it burned down. The original purpose of the stadium was to house the Newark Bears, a Class AA team, for spring training. A 1966 article in The News Herald said the park was also used for wrestling matches, high school football and various special events. The Harlem Globetrotters appeared at the park, and Jesse Owens once raced a horse around the bases. The grandstand held 2,500 people and according to the Pilot, the field dimensions were « considered larger than the average ballpark in places of about the same population as Panama City. » Brooks said segregation was in full swing at Lions Park, with separate bleachers and separate entrances and exits for blacks. |
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Downtown in the 1950’s
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« It was the 1950s before there was even a restroom for blacks at the stadium, » Brooks
said. Brooks said the Alabama-Florida League was never integrated. « There were black ballplayers in Panama City and they had there own team, » he said. « The black Pelicans in the 1930s and the Black Fliers in the 1950s. It mirrored what was going on in white Panama City. |
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Unfortunately, it was difficult to find anything out about them because the newspaper
didn’t cover the events. » The original Panama City team changed names (Papermakers, Pilots, Pelicans) and affiliations numerous times and folded after the 1939 season. The semipro Panama City Spartans, later the Seahawks, occupied the ballpark before the Fliers were established in 1951. Oddly enough it was the semipro teams that helped rebuild the ballpark after it burned down, using blocks recycled from a shipyard housing project for the outfield wall. « We all had our own jobs and just played in our spare time, kind of like the old town teams, » said George Thomas, who played for the Seahawks around 1950. Spartan/Seahawks center fielder Tom Haney remembers it the same way. « Our team was strictly fun and entertainment, » he said. « There was no money attached to it. We weren’t trying to make any money. One year I made $100. That’s the way I remember it. » While the semipro teams were playing for fun, the Fliers were chasing the majors. Brightwell, now 71, was a first baseman/pitcher in 1955 for the Fliers, then a Detroit affiliate. |
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That summer Panama City won the Alabama-Florida League title. But Brightwell’s
recollection of the old days wasn’t clouded by romantic boyhood dreams. « Baseball was a ragged game in the D leagues, » said Brightwell. « You had a school bus worn out 20 years before the team bought it. Some of the teams didn’t even have dressing facilities at the ballpark. « Once we made a trip to Donalsonville, (Ga.). One of the guys drove his car and we got the other side of Marianna and there wasn’t a bridge there. We crossed the river on a ferry. They put two cars on the ferry and you’d go across. That shows you what the minor leagues were like. » Frills weren’t part of the game and players didn’t demand many. Brightwell hit .328, knocked in 101 runs and won 12 ballgames as a pitcher that year for the Fliers. Bill Adair was a player/manager for the Fliers that season and Bob Johnson played third base. Adair eventually became the third base coach for the Chicago White Sox, Johnson a utility infielder for the Baltimore Orioles and five other big-league teams. Some fans remember the Fliers. Tom Etheridge said he spent most of his summer nights as a boy at Lions Park. « I wouldn’t miss a ballgame, » said Etheridge, who owns a cabinet shop here. « I lived in Millville and we’d ride our bicycles and walk there. You had to pay to get in but we’d either climb over the fence or we’d sell peanuts and cokes. » Unbeknownst to the Fliers, 1955 was the peak of baseball in Panama City. They reached the .500 level just once more before their final year of existence in 1961. One year after the Fliers ceased operation, the entire Alabama-Florida League folded. |
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Semi-pro players Jack Creel (l) and Paul Manis (r)
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Semi-pro players Paul Manis (l) and Ray Dunn (r)
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A 1922 Panama City Semi-pro Team
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Semi-Pro Players at Lion’s Park:
(l to r): Unknown Player, Tom Haney, Horace Smith |
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Soon after, the minor league system was reorganized and Class D baseball was
abolished. Cities and towns such as Panama City, Graceville, Crestview and Tallahassee have been without professional baseball ever since. « I think the beach and television just killed it, » said Brightwell. « There were just too many other things to do. » Brightwell returned in 1958 as a player/manager but the Fliers finished 37-84 and last in the league. That would be the final year of Brightwell’s 12 years in professional baseball, most of which he spent in the Dodgers chain. He topped the .300 mark as a hitter in each campaign. « I just got tired of it, » he said. Current Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox played for the Fliers in 1961. He hit .304 with 17 home runs as a second baseman. But even an eventual major leaguer like Cox (1968 Yankees) couldn’t save the Fliers. � 1997 The News Herald |
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Semi-pro player Jake Belin
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An unknown player
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An unknown player
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C:\AFLweb\afl profiles index.cpg
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