The Alabama Florida League Web Site

Lou Puma played for the Selma Cloverleafs in 1957. He also has had a distinguished 45-year career in broadcasting which has included stints with ESPN and WFAN radio in New York, the first all sports radio station in America. He recently wrote Alabama-Florida-League.com to tell us about his experiences.

I played in the Alabama-Florida League for 29 days in 1957, as a member of the Selma Cloverleafs. The Cloverleafs were managed by former major leaguer, Buddy Kerr. My given name is Lou Puma. I was a good-field, no-hit shortstop during my playing days. In 1957, the Selma Cloverleafs were a New York Giants farm team. I had signed on, and went to Spring Training in Sanford, Florida in 1957.   I had signed for a $500 bonus, the first $250 paid up front, the second $250 to be paid after thirty days with my assigned team. After being with Selma for almost 30 days, the Giants wanted to reassign me from the Cloverleafs to the Hastings Giants of the Nebraska State League.

I didn't want to go and asked for and got my release. The following year I signed with the Chicago White Sox and was assigned to the Duluth-Superior White Sox of the Class C Northern League. My uniform number was "2", which was Nellie Fox's hand-me-down uniform. Unfortunately, I didn't hit my hat size and was released, this time involuntarily. How can you hit a ball when the temperature is in the 20's every night, often with snow flurries falling?

After my release, I decided to go into broadcasting and my first job was in, of all places, HASTINGS, NEBRASKA!
I figured God must have wanted me to go there. That career change has led to a 45-year career in broadcasting which has included stints with ESPN, the first all sports television network, and WFAN in New York, the first all sports radio station in America. Most of those years, I went under the name Lou Palmer, which was pinned on me by one of my station managers in Hartford, Ct.

Nowadays, I am very involved with Adult Baseball and run a league for the National Adult Baseball Association (NABA) in Palm Beach County, Florida.   In 1997, I went on a recruiting trip to start leagues for our national organization and among my many stops were Birmingham and Montgomery. One of the attendees at the Birmingham meeting was a young man from Selma who told me that Bloch Park was still standing, forty years after I played there. I could not resist a side trip to Selma and wrote an article for the NABA's national magazine, Baseball Today.

I also do official scoring for the St. Louis Cardinals' spring training games, and I often get to see my former teammate, Larry "Moose" Stubing. Moose is a VP and scout for the Anaheim Angels and we played together (for 29 days at least) in the AFL. I also got a chance to meet Brandy Davis (former AFL manager) the other day. He's now scouting for the Houston Astros. Your website has brought back a lot of memories for a kid who fell in love with baseball. That love affair has not weakened at all!