Dothan after school was done to play the games and make the road trips.
SP:
What position did you play?
SW: I played a little
bit of everything. Whatever they needed.
SP: Did you ever pitch?
SW:
Yeah, I tried that a couple of times. I didn’t do
too well, but I tried it. I remember I pitched in Fort Walton Beach one
night and we were getting beat pretty bad. They had a manager down there
named Chuck Quimby and he used a black bat. That was the first time I ever
saw anybody use a black bat. Quimby hit one 9 miles off of me! I
think they’re still looking for that one in the ocean. The next day, Fort
Walton had to come to Dothan to play. Quimby called me over and he pulled
out this wad of money and he said, « This is what they gave me for hitting that
home run ». I grabbed a handful of that money and ran into the dugout.
I figured I earned some of it!
That’s the type of thing we’d do all the
time.
SP: Were the opposing fans tough on you guys?
SW:
No, the fans were just great. We never did have any problem
with fans while I played in the league, even the opposing fans. The ones
who came were really interested in baseball. I played some in the old Flint
River (semi-pro) League. That’s where we had a bunch of college boys
playing during their summers off from school. There was money involved in
those games, big money. They were paying these kids big money to play and
the fans expected them to produce.
SP: What were road trips
like for you guys?
SW: Well, the first year at Ozark, we traveled
in two station wagons. Chase drove his personal car and the rest of us
piled into those station wagons. Equiptment and everything, and no air conditioning
either.
SP: Did the Eagle owners provide those station
wagons?
SW: Yeah. Everybody drove a little bit.
One guy might drive half the trip, then another would take over and so on.
We couldn’t have but 15 players on the roster, so we’d have seven
in each of the wagons and we were just fine.
SP: It must have
been a little rough on those hot days.
SW: Ooh Yeah!
SP:
You’d get to know each other pretty well.
SW: And
in all directions!
SP: Did you know Chase Riddle when you both
were at Troy?
SW: Yeah, I met him there. There was a fellow
at school named Milton Bolling when we were there. He played shortstop
with the Boston Red Sox. Fred Hatfield was there too. He played
with Boston and also Detroit. A guy named Kenny King was there and
Bob Odenheimer, Leon Hilyer too (all three played in the AFL). Troy was blessed
with some pretty good athletes.
SP: So all these guys when
to Troy College and they didn’t have a baseball program?
SW:
They had baseball my freshman year, then they dropped it. That’s when,
let me see, I think 5 of us ended up going to Ozark to play ball there with
Chase. Leon Hilyer and Billy Myers went over to Headland.
SP:
Were most of those teams made up of just local college kids?
SW:
No, each team had a veteran player and some of the teams were
affiliated with pro teams. The year I was in Dothan, we were connected
with the St. Louis Cardinals. When we were at Ozark, they had a couple home town
boys. Russell Harris was one of them. He was a good high school
pitcher and Chase brought him on the team. He had a bunch of wins that year (Harris
tied the league record of 27 wins). We had another boy there by the
name of Deveroe (Hillary) Stanton. Deveroe and Russell just about carried
the whole ball club that year. The were both big winners, but after them,
we’d use anybody that we had (to pitch).
SP: Who did you feel
were the outstanding players in the league?
SW: My last year
playing, that was at Dothan, we had a boy there named Tom Patton, a catcher.
Tom went on up with the Baltimore Orioles. He was a young, strong kid.
He could throw and he hit pretty good. Just a good athlete. I remember
talking with Tom when he first came to Dothan. He sounded so different
than the rest of us, I asked him, « Tom, Where are you from? »
He said,
« I’m from 8 or 9 miles outside of Philadelphia ». I didn’t even understand
him with his accent. I said, « What did you say? ». Some of the other fellows
said, « He says he’s from 8 or 9 miles outside of Philadelphia! ». I’d never
heard that accent before. We had a good time, Tom was a real good guy.
Seems to me that we had someone else go up, I don’t know. Another guy
that really impressed me was Al Worthington. He made it up to the Twins.
SP:
He didn’t play in the AFL. Where did you come across
him?
SW: He was a pitcher at the University of Alabama.
I saw him in the Flint River League. You, see, some of these guys didn’t
even show up until the day they were going to pitch. They’d show up out of
nowhere and play. You never knew who might be playing for a team.
Marcus Davis was another good one. How high did Marcus Davis get?
SP:
He got up to Montgomery, and Durham.
SW: He was
a big fellow, good pitcher.
SP: Where on the road did you really
dislike playing?
SW: I really didn’t like Fort Walton Beach
and Panama City. Fort Walton had sand out in the outfield. The park
was built on the sand. It wasn’t like on the beach, you could run on it
pretty good, but there and Panama City, just before the game started, they’d
come around and spray for the mosquitos. The mosquitos down there were like
dive bombers. If you threw a knuckleball, a mosquito would land on it.
City Park (Panama City) was a nice ballpark, just those mosquitos would
eat you up. The rest of the parks in the league were fine.
SP:
Fort Walton was probably the farthest distance for you to travel too.
SW:
I believe so.
SP: In 1951, I think Tallahassee
was your farthest trip.
SW: That or Panama City. We
preferred Panama City because after the game, we could go down to that beach.
That’s where all the chicks were! We could drive those two station
wagons right out to the beach and all 14 of us would pile out.
SP:
Did most of the parks have all dirt infields?
SW: Ozark
had an all dirt infield, so did Eufaula. Dothan, Headland, Panama City
and Tallahassee had grass infields. Don’t get me wrong, the grass wasn’t
kept that good. Most teams had one man that took care of everything on
the field.
SP: Eagle Stadium in Ozark was pretty new when you
played there. How was the attendance?
SW: Pretty good.
We won when I was there. I think we were in the playoffs one of the
seasons there. We drew about as good as you could for a town like that.
SP: After baseball, I assume you kept teaching.
SW:
I coached everything at Houston County High School here in
Columbia. I was the whole coaching staff. I had the agriculture teacher
and the science teacher help me out. Those two men knew more about coaching
and athletics than I ever thought I would know. They taught me a
lot about the job. I coached there, then Baimbridge, Georgia, then Spartanburg,
South Carolina, then Blakely, Georgia and finally Ashford. At Spartanburg,
we won the state baseball championship the second year I coached
there.