The Alabama Florida League Web Site

The ninth AFL season saw the Troy Tigers, like Greenville the year before, dominate the league from beginning to end. The Trojans now went by the nickname Tigers, due to their new working agreement with the Detroit Tigers. Being in the farm system of a Major League team now meant a better crop of young players for Troy and for the Greenville Pirates, who were now a Pittsburgh Pirates farm team. Greenville stayed in the pennant hunt for most of the season, but Troy was far and away the best team.
This was a boom time for professional baseball. In the US, only Wyoming and Vermont didn't have professional baseball teams. Alabama had 18 teams playing in four leagues: Birmingham and Mobile were in the Southern League, Montgomery, Selma, Anniston, and Gadsden were in the Southeastern League, Opelika, Tallassee, Alex City, and Valley were in the Alabama-Georgia League, and the other eight teams were in the Alabama State League. Alabama was 8th in the nation for total number of pro teams. Even with all these teams in the state, an off-season effort was made to add even more by putting a Class D league in Northern Alabama. The Minor League Association denied the application due to a lack of organization. There were 58 minor leagues in America in 1948, and the post-war desire to get back to a normal life included lots of baseball. The boom in baseball caused some staffing problems in many leagues, including the ASL, where teams struggled to find decent players from a depleted pool. New rules in the league required each team to carry a minimum of 10 rookies, up four from the previous year. Scouts had a tough time finding enough rookies who could play well enough to fill the team's roster slots. Because Troy and Greenville were in professional farm systems, they had better prospects and started to break away from the other six teams early in the season. Despite quality players, Greenville had a big problem: They couldn't draw fans. In May, Troy and Greenville met in Greenville for a series between the two best teams and the first game drew less than 300 fans. May was a restless month for a few teams with three managers getting the ax: Joe Beaguez left Brewton pitch for Anniston in the Southeastern League, Dolly Lambert quit the Enterprise Boll Weevils, and Andalusia's skipper John George was asked to find work elsewhere. At mid-season, it was Troy who lead the league and won the right to be hosts for the all star game. The game itself was supposed to be played on July 13th, but rain delayed it until July 19th. Former major leaguer and Greenville manager, Walt Tauscher, managed the league all stars to a 5-4 victory over the Troy Tigers. The season ended with Troy still on top. Unfortunately, Troy's season-long dominance quickly ended in the playoffs as Dothan knocked them out in the first round. Dothan then took on the second best team, Greenville, and beat them handily to win their second league championship.

In the ASL, two teams began affiliations with major league clubs: Greenville with the Pirates and Troy with the Tigers.

The only future major leaguers in the ASL in 1948 were Tony Roig (Troy) and Bob Purkey. Purkey won 19 games for the Greenville Pirates.

Keltys Powell won the home run title with 17, which is more than Dothan, Enterprise, and Brewton managed for their entire teams. Brewton banged out an enemic 7 in 126 games!

ELSEWHERE IN 1948

Bob Crues of Amarillo in the West Texas-New Mexico League ties the all-time home run record of 69, including 20 in July. Joe Hauser also hit 69 in 1933 while playing for Minneapolis. Crewes also drove in an incredible 254 runs, and had 479 total bases

Art Dwyer of Rock Hill in the Tri-State League wins 3 playoff games in 4 days.
Max Peterson (1946-47 Greenville) continues to pitch successfully, leading the Eastern League in wins with 18.

Bobby Bragan (1937 Panama City) is selected to the Texas League All-star team.