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09. 1950s

Adults started to organize baseball for youngsters into the Little Bigger League, Little League and the Jackie Robinson League. Charlottesville’s Little League team won the Eastern Virginia Regional title in 1951, but kids still played pickup softball and hardball games on neighborhood fields. Organized play for 13-15 year olds began in 1958 with the creation of the Lambeth and Lane Leagues. Each league had four teams and played at Carr’s Field (U.Va.‘s Rugby Field) and on the Lane High School field. Charlottesville’s team in the Valley League, “The Chiefs”, drew about 400 spectators a game, not quite enough to keep the team going for more than a few seasons.

The war in Korea altered many playing careers. Just out of high school, Jim West contracted to play with the Cincinnati Reds, but then was drafted. At the end of his time in Korea he played with a military team before 50,000 spectators. After deciding not to return to the pros, West came to U.Va. as a student and, because he was ineligible to play, began a coaching career.

Many other drafted professional players spent some of their service years playing with military teams, facing not only teams from other bases but also some of the best civilian teams. The Virginia Semi-Pro Championship, held each July on Lane field, included many of these fine teams. Major Leaguers on the military teams who played here from 1951-54 included Willie Mays, Art Houtteman, Johnny Antonelli, Tom Poholsky, Danny O’Connell, Sam Calderone, Rod Graber, Vernon Law, Joe Lonnett, Chet Nichols, Jack Thomas, Dick Groat, and Harry Chiti. Chiti was here for two of these tournaments and married a local woman.

In 1952, 12 teams entered the double elimination State Semi-Pro tournament. Acme Visible Records of Crozet was eliminated by Fort Eustis in a 19-0 walloping. Willie Mays and pitcher Chuck Churn homered for Fort Eustis over Lane’s center field fence. In the final, Johnny Antonelli pitched Fort Myer to a win over Fort Eustis. The Fort Myer catcher, Sam Calderone, was the tournament’s most valuable player.

“Don’t get me wrong, I like to hit. But there’s nothing like getting out there in the outfield, running after a ball and throwing somebody out trying to take that extra base. That’s real fun.”—Willie Mays

Willie Mays was drafted into the Army after his rookie year with the New York Giants. When he played here in 1952 with Fort Eustis he was still a rising star. Fielders sometimes leave their gloves on the field when they come in to bat; one local center fielder, who played against Mays, recalls with delight how he picked up Mays’s glove and tossed it to him during these exchanges. People remember the long balls he hit, a last-minute catch he made to double up a runner, and his off-hour visits to watch Little League player.

Joe Hicks played for Meriwether Lewis when it was a high school, at U.Va., and with the Charlottesville Chiefs of the Valley League during summers. Gus Tebell, UVa Coach and manager of the Chiefs, had played pro baseball, basketball, and football.

A 1953 letter to the sports department of the Daily Progress told a story about Joe Hicks while playing in Madisonville, Kentucky. He tripled (he was batting around .350) with the bases loaded, and on the first pitch to the next batter, when the ball got away from the catcher, he broke for home. Hicks slid into home head first and the umpire, moving up closer to the play spiked his hand! The injury didn’t stop him from moving up to the majors. “It will be pretty tough to break into an outfield of Minnie Minoso, Sam Mele and Jim Rivera.” He joined the Chicago White Sox for two years then played elsewhere for three more years in the majors. He finally returned home and worked with the Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Department. Joe continues to umpire baseball games around the region.