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Pensacola Baseball
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Thanks, Gary Hong
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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 1955, AFL President, Sam Smith came calling and worked out a deal to have Pensacola join the AFL. Unfortunately, their ballpark was in dire condition, and funds could not be raised to upgrade it. The Pensacola investors were forced to withdraw from the AFL without every playing a game. That franchise was later awarded to Donalsonville, Georgia. That solution was only temporary. By the 1957 season, the league |
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realized that they needed to upgrade from the tiny backwater franchises like Crestview
and Donalsonville. They had also lost an original franchise: The once-strong AFL stalwart, Dothan. In the greatest positive franchise change in league history, Smith replaced Crestview, Dothan, and ironically, Donalsonville with the relatively large cities of Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida, the city which had lost out to Donalsonville two years earlier. |
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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. |
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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, 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. In 1960 Angels drew half of what the 1958 Dons did. Nevertheless, the playoffs evidently breathed new life into the team. |
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the Angels were hot at the right time and when the smoke had cleared, they were the
playoff champs of the league. The Championship brought some attention to the team, which would bring about another change in affiliation. 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. |
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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. Pro baseball left Pensacola after 1962 and took a 40-year hiatus. 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. In 2002, Pensacola finally had professional baseball again, bcoming the home of the Southeastern League Pensacola Pelicans. Whether the new league is a |
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success or not is yet to be seen, but Pensacola, Montgomery, and Selma are all once
again playing pro baseball against each other, and maybe a new era in Pensacola baseball has begun. |
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Dons owner,
Joe Pannaccione |