The Alabama-Florida League – Spolight on Panama City

  
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. »    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.
  
« 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. 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.    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. 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