« Exhibits Home
Current exhibit: Online Exhibit: Play Ball!
Previous display: 10. 1960s
Next display: 12. 1980s

11. 1970s

Ever since the 1950s teams from different black communities would come together on Sundays to play baseball. With the coming of integration, this tradition ended in the 1970s.

More and more girls played baseball. Laurie Tyler, Julie Layne, and Beth Trader joined teams in the Babe Ruth and Lambeth Leagues.

In 1972, there was a three-way tie for first place in the Virginia Northern District of the High School League, with Albemarle and Lane sharing the honors with Fauquier County. Before they played each other, coaches Arbaugh (A.H.S.) and Bingler (Lane H.S.) agreed that the loser would come to cheer in the final game against Fauquier. Lane won the championship with the Albemarle players and coaches rooting for them.

Lambeth Field closed after 1971. In 1972, Coach Jim West led the baseball team to its first ACC title. At the time, U.Va. had no players on baseball scholarship and only three pitchers to win the three game series.

The community continued to keep track of Mike Cubbage’s baseball career. In one ACC tournament in Durham’s old Bull Durham field, Cubbage hit three home runs onto the roof of an old tobacco warehouse. His major league career began in 1975 with the Texas Rangers. Cubbage now serves as third base coach of the Houston Astros.