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AFL Emails from Fans & Historians – Page 2
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Tommy Rodgers: I was in Birmingham, I think it was 1953 or 54, in the bleacher stands down the
left field line of Rickwood Field, just above the box seats which, as I recall, went almost to the wall in left. At any rate, I was near the visitor bullpen and a man was holding a small child in his arms at the end of the box seats. The child was saying, « bawplayah, bawlplayah, give me a ball! » A pitcher warming for New Orleans motioned for the child to come forward and he took him in arms and carried him into the dugout. One of the other players said, « What’cha got there Lee? » Later the child scrambled back with a ball. I made a point of looking up the player’s name. It was Lee Anthony. I have never forgotten that memory, one of several I have of Rickwood Field. I had never heard of Lee Anthony since until reading about the Troy Trojans on your 1938 season page. At any rate, I thought it was an elegant action by the New Orleans Pelican pitcher. I also read on your page how there was an effort was made to form a minor league in North Alabama in 1948. I didn’t know that, but I do remember that about 1950 (in the fifth grade) I wrote to SPORT magazine and suggested that there should be a professional league in North Alabama, east Mississippi, and southern Tennessee which I suggested should be called « The Farming League ». I suggested that there be teams in towns like Decatur, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Pontoc, Tupelo, Pulaski, and Columbia, Tennessee. |
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Earl Johnson, Mayor of Andalusia, addressing the 2000 reunion: I grew up here (in Andalusia) as a young boy hearing
tales of you guys, many of you were my heroes growing up. Many of you were baseball coaches, guys like Chick Earle and Marvin Walker, and you were wonderful inspirations to us here in Andalusia, as the rest of you were in your home towns. I was too young growing up to go to some of the games here but I heard stories about the games, particularly about Belair Crudup and Robert O’Neill. One of them would get on the first base side of the dugout and the other on the third base side and they both had very loud voices. They learned to whisper in a saw mill! Well, they would comment on every pitch from the opposing side and every call from the umpire. That was great entertainment, I understand. You players have left a great tradition here in Andalusia and it’s wonderful to have you back with us. We still remember you guys and we still talk about you. We sit around the coffee table or the domino table and talk about the baseball team and some of the good times that people remember here. |
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Thomas Hale: I grew up in Chipley, Fl in the 1950’s. Chipley is 12 miles south of Graceville.
I was 8 years old in 1957 when I first became a baseball fan. I do not remember how often we went to Oilers games but we went a lot. I would always run the bases after the games. Also after the games we would go to Circle Grill to eat. My first baseball experience was with the Oilers. Because of that I have become a lifelong baseball fan. I remember Sportsman’s Park so well. In the outfield the light poles were in play. The Oilers were a Cincinnati farm team and the park was some what like Crosley Field. The home dugout, 3rd base was built like a chicken coop. The 1st base dugout was always full of water so the visiting teams often sat of the roof. The park was also the home to the Graceville High School football team. |
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Hank Utley: Scott, just found your web site – it is very good and I am sure it will get even
better- I am writing about Virgil Trucks who jumped his contract at Andalusia in 1938 and had a brief cup of coffee here in Concord, N. C. in the independent Carolina League that lasted only 3 years. He played under the name of Aitkins and Akers. I picked up the story in the book about the Alabama-Florida League – The Last Rebel Yell and also the local papers. My book- « The Independent Caroilna League, 1936-1938, Baseball Outlaws was published in 1998 and won awards and national recognition from the N. C. Society of Historians, SABR, Elysian Fields, and also from » NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Social Policy Perspective » out of Canada. It was written as a social and cultural history of the piedmont N. C. textile towns and it also has league statistics in the notes. Also, I spoke at the annual « Symposium on Baseball History and American Culture at Cooperstown in 1998. |
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Bill Williamson: Through John Skilton’s pages I came across your Alabama-Florida League site – what
a great one it is too!! I’m looking forward to the updates as they come in. I’ve been a SABR member for about 15 years and try to get to the local chapter meetings when I can and have attended 3 national conventions. I always gravitate to the minor league forums and discussions and have done some research on the Central California of 1910 and 1911 and on the Winter Leagues here in Los Angeles in the 1920s and 30s.Finding your site has been of great interest because as a kid I always checked out the low minor league stats in the Baseball Guide first – the A-F L among them. A player who seemed to do well every year no matter where he played was Nesbit Wilson. Don’t know much about him personally, but his record is impressive. The late Jack Graham and Jose Perez told me a few years ago that they remember playing winter ball against him in Mexico and he was quite a hitter down there too. Do you know if Wilson is still alive? |
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Joe Moran: I stumbled onto your AFL site today. As a child, I lived in Pensacola, and my first
exposure to baseball was watching the Pensacola Senators (and later, Angels) at Admiral Mason Park. I was only 8 when the league folded in 1962, but I still had many opportunities to see games. Just some random memories: One night, Fred Waters, pitching for Pensacola, struck out the side on nine straight fastballs. As a promotion once, the Pensacola team allowed a marathon runner to circle the warning track throughout the game. The manager of the Selma Cloverleafs once had such a violent argument with an umpire that the Pensacola Police Department was called to take him away. I clearly remember the segregated entrances, drinking fountains, and bleachers. Black fans had to sit in a small section down the third base line. A few of the scorecards sold at the stadium were stamped with blue stars on the advertisements. If your card had a star, you won a prize from that advertiser. I once won a free shrimp dinner at the Old Firehouse Restaurant. Lou Abrahams was the Senators best hitter. My Dad called him « tippy toes » because of the way he circled the bases after hitting a homer. John Kennedy and Ed Brinkman both played in Pensacola during the final years. Both went on to careers in the majors. Wayne Terwilliger gave me a baseball one night after a game. I had his major leage card (the same one shown on your cards page) which I asked him to autograph. |
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Dale Frazier: What an absolute thrill it was to discover your wonderful site. Although
I have no connection with the league or the area for that matter, it brings back memories of my youth when I devoured the minor league section of The Sporting News in the 50’s and 60’s. I grew up in Hawaii, a long, long way away, but the names of the cities and teams intrigued me to the point that visiting some of the towns in Alabama and Florida became an obsession. I was able to visit some of those cities long after the league had folded and viewed some of the old ballparks that were still standing. Your site takes me back to a time in minor league baseball that will never be recaptured and I appreciate your hard work in keeping the memory of this wonderful era alive. |
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Art Malone: I have a good friend who played for the Graceville Oilers I believe in 1956, the
summer after his freshman year at University of Alabama. He is Robert E. Moorer from Selma. I believe he is a relative of Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, former Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff. Bob is a practicing attorney in Birmingham. I grew up with the Dothan Browns under Whitey Ries. My first cousin was nicknamed Whitey because he was such a fan. His younger brother was a part-time color announcer. |
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Lee Casey: Recently I’ve developed an interest in the old Alabama-Florida League. Your
site has quickly become a favorite. I’ve got two boys, ages 10 and 12, and they’re both fairly decent ball players, and I’m trying to show them that there was some fine baseball played in these parts in years past. There’s also been a slight increase in interest in minor league ball lately with the single « A » Savannah teams’ interest in re-locating here in Panama City. I’ve got a question for you. My dad insists that Haywood Sullivan (former member of the Boston Red Sox and past quarterback of the Florida Gators) played for the Graceville Oilers. I told him that I found no mention of him in your archive. He said that perhaps Sullivan played as an « unpaid » player prior to attending U of F where he undoubtedly must have played some college baseball as well. I was wondering if you could clear that up. (To answer Lee’s question, Haywood Sullivan did play in Graceville, but not for the AFL Oilers. He played on a semi-pro team there) |