While it has been years since these men played baseball, most of them were on teams
in the '40s and '50s, they still follow the game and have watched with interest
the changes it has gone through. The money the players make was one change
that was discussed at length. “What would you be worth today?” Danny Long of Loxley
said to Cobb. “Would you have an agent?” Cobb just laughed because he remembered
the days when $125 or $165 a month was what he and his teammates were paid.
Scott Burns, who was sheriff in Escambua County for 24 years, got married while
he was playing Class D baseball. “They took up a collection for us at the
ballpark after we got married,” he said. “It was a lot of money, more than I made
playing ball.” Even the ones who were observes rather than players were drawn
to the reunion and had thoughts about the changes in baseball. “Baseball is like
newspapers, it has completely changed,” said Arlin Byrd, who worked at the
Covington News in 1947 as a lineotype operator and sports editor. “I came (to the
reunion) because I knew a lot of these guys,” he said. “I knew about the team
in Greenville because I worked at The Greenville Advocate, and I was in Andalusia
for a year and wrote about that team.” Byrd, who at 85 was the oldest person
at the reunion, said the players he wrote about back then were remarkable. “If
these ballplayers came along today, they’d be worth millions of dollars,” he
said. At lunch, the stories continued and the young men, who still live inside
these men who now sport gray hair, came to life. “This is the man who about ended
my career,” said Keltys Powell, pointing to Bobby Hill. “He was playing catcher,
and I was playing first. “He was going to pick a man off, and he picked me.
Hit me on the knee. I don’t know who picked my cap up. “Remember that Bobby?”
Hill shook his head and laughed.
“Virgil 'Fire' Trucks set the world
strike-out record right here in Andalusia,” said Danny Long. “He struck out
418 batters, the scorekeeper gave Trucks the scorebook when he broke the record.
“It’s in the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.” And so it continued until the last
man left for home, friends together again recalling games and players, some who
are no longer alive. “Remember the wool uniforms,” Chase Riddle said. “You know
the owners didn’t get them cleaned too often — I guess they couldn’t afford
to. “After a while, they’d (the uniforms) stand up in the locker. You didn’t even
have to worry about hanging them up.” The players, who were all members of
teams in the Alabama State League and Alabama-Florida League, said they’d like
to make the reunion an annual event. Marvin Walker, who was business manager for
the Andalusia Arrows and organized the reunion, said they may try to get everyone
together again next year. What draws these players together after all of these
years? Chase Riddle had the perfect answer. “You didn’t have to be in the
big leagues,” he said. “The world don’t have to remember you if you remember yourself
and all those good times.” |
