Newspapers / The Kings Mountain Herald … / July 7, 1960, edition 1 / Page 2
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Pat's Peckings „ By NEALE PATRICK Tale Of Five Dead-Arm Soufhpaws Longterm junior baseball fans can well remember such names famous in the trade as Billy Joe Davidson and Gerald Blackburn, Buzzie Peeler, Footsie Gardner and Tommy Eaton In case some of the names escape your memory, all were Legion junior baseball pitchers, and'good ones, too. And, as a matter of interest, all five were southpaws. They pitched for good junior teams, too, all except Billy Joe Davidson of Marion hurling for state champion ship clubs. Peeler’s Cherryvilie team and Eaton’s Salisbury club Went to the junior Little World Series, thanks mainly to the sharp and clever pitching by the pint-sized lefthand ers. There is also another similarity between the five hurl ers. All five turned up with bum arms and are no longer pitching in baseball, although all five age-wise should be at the peak of their careers. ^ Some folks would have you believe that the five boys ruined their arms in over-worked Legion junior baseball. This piece is not being set-down here to argue the pros or cons of that belief. The fact remains that all five bowed out with bad flippers soon after their days as star kid pit chers. Davidscm and Blackburn of Kannapolis were among, the State’s first big bonus babies, but both failed in their pro chance. The other three won college scholarships, and Peeler won some games foi^Lenoir-Rhyne, then faded out. Gard ner of Gastonia went to State and Eaton to Pfeiffer, but both fell victims of dead arms. Will Hawkins Join Their Fraternity? > This junior baseball history lesson is being reviewed in face of an Area Four case last week which could lead to the same bum-arm trouble which plagued the five afore mentioned lads. The principal in the current case is Johnny Hawkins, a left-handed pitcher for the Forest City juniors, and a good young chunker in the kid ranks. Pro baseball teams think a lot of Hawkins, witnessed by the fact that five ma jor league scouts sat in the stands in Gastonia one night last week to watch Hawkins pitch. And he still has another season at Cool Springs High in Forest City, where he pro bably will continue to pitch against Kings Mt. Mountain eers a couple of times in the spring. He generally gets the pitching assignment every time the Mountaineers show up. The case at the moment, however, has* to do with Hawkins’ oft-repeated trips to the mound for the Forest City juniors. That caused a much-publicized hassle of the Area Four season for new commissioner John Yandle of Charlotte. Gastonia filed the protest last week that Forest City vio lated the famed “48-hour” rule in the use of Hawkins. The situation developed like this: Hawkins pitched two innings of a gamg on Friday night, June 24, before rain washed out the game. The next night, in the final game of the opening round, Hawkins pitched a ten-inning game, Then on Monday night of last week, in the first game of the elimination series, Hawkins pitched another 10-inning game against Gastonia. Buddy Lewis, Gastonia athletic officer, protested that Hawkins had pitched his limit of 12 innings within the 48 hour period of Friday and Saturday night . . . and, thus, was not eligible to return to the mound until he had anoth er 48-hour rest. Yandle ruled, however, that the two innings Hawkins pitched in the rained out game were not in the records and, so, could not be included in total innings. 48-Hour Rule Does Not Protect Boy The commissioner was forced to abide by the “letter of the rule”, instead of the “intent of the rule,” which reads: “No player may pitch more than 12 innings or make! more than three appearances in any 48-hour period. At the i completion of the pitcher’s last appearance or total innings | pitched he cannot reappear as a pitcher in any game for at least 48 hours. “The 48-hour period for each pitcher will begin when he throws the first ball in the game. The 48-hour rest per iod will begin when the pitcher is officially removed as a pitcher or the game is officially completed. “This rule does not apply to pitchers pitching less than the stated amount above.” The last sentence is the “joker” in the rule. The rule does not apply to pitchers pitching less than the stated a mount (12-innings in 48 hours), thus a pitcher is not re quired to take his 48-hour rest if he had not pitched the 12 inning limit in the previous 48-hours. Yandle admitted that the rule is worded wrong for the protection of the boy, and that it is. A 16-year old boy does not have any business pitching 10 innings on Saturday night and then repeating the per formance with another ten on Monday night. The fact that the two innings Hawkins pitched on Fri day night does not show in the rained-out records, does not alter the fact that the youngster pitched his arm two in nings worth. All told, counting the two frames of washed-out activi ty, Hawkins made three mound appearances and pitched 22 innings in the space of some 75 hours spread over four calendar days. That's a heap of hurling for a youngster with a future in baseball. And it can lead only down the same road traveled by those other left-handers, Davidson and Blackburn, Peeler Gardner and Eaton. His Forest City coach is partially responsible for the oft-repeated appearances of Hawkins. The state Legion pitching rule is also responsible. , The 48-hour rule was put in for the protection of kid pitchers, in an attempt to forestall any more cases like the five southpaws we have named. But the rule, as it stands, does not protect a boy. Legally, a youngster can pitch a nine-inning game (or a ten-inning game) every other night and remain in the clear. Is that protecting a 16-year old youth’s arm? Kings Mountain Wins Game Protest ... But Loses A Season On Tuesday Kings Mountain juniors won a protest but lost a season Tues day. Area Four Commissioner John Yandle of Charlotte ruled in fa vor of Kings Mountain regarding its protest of an umpires decision in the game ait Newton Monday night . . . but immediately can celled the effects of the ruling by declaring the Otis D. Green Post team disqualified from further play in Legion baseball this summer. As detailed in another story on this page, the KM kids were dis qualified for “insufficient rec ords” at sltaite Legion headquar ters in Raleigh. The disqualification, thus, ov er rode the decisions on the pair of protests on the wild game at Newton Monday night. In thait one, Kings Mountain lodged a protest that the um pires (Oresswell and Canupp) ruled incorrectly in not allowing a KM run to score following a fly ball ito the outfield. Newton countered with a pro test that Kings Mountain had 17 players dressed for the game, one more, said Newtton, than allowed Billy Stone Hurls No-Hit Victory For Kiwanis LL Billy Stone of Kiwanis hurled the second-no-hitter of the sea son in the Kings Mountain Little League, defeating Jaycees, 5-1, Monday night. The little left-hander who pit ched for the Kings Mountain Lit tle League all-stairs in district competition last summer, fanned 11 batters and allowed the lone run on a series of three errors on one runner in the sixth inning. Phillip Cash was the Jayeee bat ter who reached first on an er ror, then came around to score on two more errors. Stone also aided in the hitting cause for his team, with a dou ble and single, and Van Dyke clubbed a homer with two on in the first frame. The victory was the sixth str aight on the season for the lea gue-leading Kiwanis club. Linesoore: Kiwanis 301 001-5-5-3 Jaycees 000 001—1-0-3 Stone and Hambright; Ramsey, Cash and Hullender. Wade Vaughn Halts KM Club The veteran Wade Vaughin can still fire that softball. Kings Mountain’s softball team can vouch for that in their Cleveland County Industrial ac tion of last Friday, losing to the former Minette star and Shelby City Electric, 11-3. Vaughn allow ed four hits and fanned nine in handing Kings Mb its fifth loss against 11 wins in the league. Gerald Hipps made two of the KM hits, a homer and single. De witt Guyton and Jerry Ross ob tained the other local knocks. Bud Ross and Harold Dean Pear son handled ' the hurling for Kings Mt., allowing nine hits. The local club is idle for the July 4th week holiday this week, and will return to league action on Friday night of next week j (July 13) against Dover. iLinesoore: Kings Mt. 200 000 1— 3-9-1 City Electric 014 303 x—11-9-1 B. Ross, Pearson and J. Guyton, G. Tignor; Vaughan and Davis. Newton's Version Of Opening Game When the Kings Mountain Juniors entered the visitors dressing room ait Newton on Monday hight they found “reading material’’ tacked on the bulletin board. It was a typewritten page newspaper story of Newton’s loss to Kings Mountain on Sat urday night. The yarn read in part: “Using football shoulder blocks, bean-ball pitches and a steady stream of encouraging nasty remarks from the home fans. Kings Mt. defeated the Newton Post 16 American Le gion juniors in Kings Mt. last Saturday night by a 6-2 score . . . in a eracKerbox cow pas ture that is more suited for sled rides in the winter than a baseball game in July. “One Newton boy, second baseman Phil Harbison, wound up in the hospital. He was first hit on the w’rist by a blazing fast ball while batting in the third inning. Then a half-inn ing later a Kngs Mt. boy na med McCarter ran completely outside the base paths, delib erately threw a shoulder block into little Phil, felling him on the injured wrist. Another Newton boy, outfielder Jack Barnes, barely escaped injury on several occasions playing on a rain-soaked 50-foot bank in left field. And the fans seemed to love it.” for this round of play. 'Both protests went to Area Commissioner Yandle, who Tues day morning upheld Kings Mountain’s protest and toss^i out Newton’s gTipe. Yandle ruled that the umpires were incorrect in not allowing the Tun, which, theoretically, would have been Kings Mountain’s third run and a tie game in the contest which ended 3-2 in fa vor of Newton. At the same time, Yandle ru, ed that the Newton protest re garding the number of KM play ers was not valid and threw it out. Those decisions in favor of Kings Mountain, however, were wiped out moments later when Yandle disqualified the local club, and awarded the series to" Newton. The score and outcome of the game became immaterial in the light of events to fallow. The wild game at Newton Monday night came up with An other hassle when three players were thrown out of the game in the fourth inning. James Robbs and Punch Par ker of Kings Mt. and Bamry Potts were given the heave-ho by the umpires for what they termed “fighting” after a play at sec ond. Potts went out of the baselines to toss a football block at Robbs, both players falling, and scuff ling in an attempt to arise. Par ker came in to help pull the two apart, and the umps threw all three out of the game. Ernest McCarter was the Kings Mt. pitcher in the wild affair, allowing eight hits and fanning ten. Bud Sanders with a triple and single paced the locals at bat, his triple figuring in the KM run in the seventh. Kings Mt. Parker, cf L. Pearson, rf Robbs, ss Bolin, 3b R. Pearson, If Morris, c Barrett, 3b-ss Sanders, 2b McDarmid, rf Leigh, lb McCarter, p TOTALS Newton Killian, 2b Barnes, If Yount, c Ewing, cf-p Potts, lb Hicks, rf Jarrett, rf Camp, lb Laney, 3b Power, ss Reuter, p Ab R H rbi 2 0 10 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 10 4 0 0 0 4 0 2 0 3 10 0 4 12 0 3 0 2 1 3 0 0 1 3 0 0 0. 32 2 8 2 Ab R H rbi 4 0 0 0 4 0 10 4 0 0 0 4 12 0 10 10 2 0 11 2 0 0 0 10 0 0 4 110 2 110 3 0 11 TOTALS 31 3 8 1 Kings Mt. 010 000 010—2 Newton 010 000 020—3 (Game played under Kings Mt.[ protest after third inning when: KM scored one unallowed run. Protest was upheld by area eom-i missioner). E)—Power 2, Sanders, Leigh; 2B—Parker; 3B—Sanders; SB — Ewing, S—Hicks; SF—Leigh; Left—KM—10, Newton 7; U—Gr esswell & Canupp. Pitching IP H R Er Bb So McCarter 8 8 3 3 2 10 Reuter 8 8 2 2 3 4 Ewing 1 0 0 C 0 1 END OF THE LINE — Jerry Morris, above, and the rest of the Kings Mountain juniors put away their bats on the 1960 season this week. But the local lads were never beaten on the field. They were dis qualified at the conference tables, reportedly for "insufficient records." (Photo by Claire Gilstad) j KM Kids Bang Six Doubles, Pull Three Double-plays In Opener Kings Mountain’s juniors went for “double or nothing’’ in' their 6-2 victory over Newton in the opening game of the Area Four second round eliminations here Saturday night. At bat and afield, the local lads went for “two”. The first six hits Kings Moun tain’s sluggers pounded in the game were two-baggers and the final count showed that six of the game’s seven blows were doubles. Kings Mountain handed New ton the same double-trouble in the field, pulling off three dou ble plays to wipe-out potential threats. The double-up ait bat and a field permitted Kenny Wilson to post his fifth straight victory of the Legion season. He allowed eight hits, one more than his ma tes obtained, and half of the knocks were for extra bases, too. Ten of the 15 hits in the game, in fact were for extra bases, and the first six safeties in the game, three by each club, were classi fied in the “slugging” depart ment. Kings Mountain mada its long range attack count for more runs. The locals put together three doubles and a walk for their first three runs in the third. Punch Parker and James Robbs pounded back-to-back doubles, the latter admitting two runs, and after a walk, Jerry Morris continued the double-fun with another two bagger. Tommy Barrett’s two-base blow sent home two more KM runs in the fifth. Parker had another double to go for naught in the scoring de partment in ithe sixth, but after Ronnie Pearson led off the seven th with the sixth straight double McCarter Hurls KM'S First Shutout To Clinch Rutherfordton Series (Box scores on next page) True to its tradition as a co meback club, the Kings Moun tain juniors rallied to win three straight games and bounce Ru therfardton in -the opening round of Area Four eliminations lasit week. After losing the first game of the beat-of-five series, Coach Bill Powell’s charges’ combined good pitching and hard-hitting to sw eep the next three games and advance into the Area quarter finals series. The local lads posted two of the comeback victories at Ruth erfoditon, and, in fact, played a sharper brand of ball on the road than in the lone win at home. Kenny Wilson and Ernest Mc Carter both came through with sparkling mound performances at Rutherfordton, Wilson win-. 10-2 while allowing only two hits last Wednesday night in the game which squared the series. McCarter clinched the playoff set with local pitchers first shutout of the season, 6-0, on Friday night. In between the two shows of pitching strength, the Otis D. Green Post kids copped a 14-10 slugfest here on Thursday night, rallying from a 6-1 deficit with two big innings. WILSON WALTZES Wilson had an easy time win ning last Wednesday night’s ga me 10 - 2 squaring the series ait one-all. His mates packed the ten runs into four scoring innings with the middle portion of the Kings Mt. batting order contri buting the major share of the hitting and run-making. The first five batters scored all the runs, with Jerry Morris pla ting four times. Ronnie Pearson paced the hitting with three sin gles, and he started the three run fourth and the two run six th with singles, and kept the three-run seventh moving with another bingle. Wilson permitted only two hits in his eight innings, turning over the chores to Perry Cham pion in the ninth, the reliefer al lowing the other hit. TWO BIG INNINGS A seven-run fifth and a four run eighth inning provided the necessary runs for Thursday ni ght’s wild run here by 14-10. After Rutherfardton took a 6 1 lead, mainly on four runs on four walks and no hits in the first inning, Kings Mt. battled back for the lucky seven in the fifth. Donnie McDermid and Ron Pearson slugged doubles in the uphising of five hits which bolt ed KM into the lead. Punch Parker couldn’t hold it, however, mainly due to his own wildness and the local kids cap italized on similar deficiencies by a host of Rutherfordton pit chers for four runs on four walks and a couple of hits in the eigh : th to clinch it. Tommy Barrett and James Robbs contributed three hits to this victory. FIRST SHUTOUT The husky McCarter hurled the first shutout of the season for a local hurler in the clincher at Rstherfordton on Friday night. He allowed only six hits and fan ned a half-dozeri in the 6-0 win. Three “deuces” in the middle innings gave McCarter all the runs he needed. McDermid’s homer over the left field fence highlighted the sixth inning scores, with McCar ter also getting fti on the long range hitting in that frame, with a triple. for Kings Mt., Bud Sanders broke the slugging spell with a run producing single. Newton used two of the long blows, a double by Barry Potts and a triple by Dale Yount to counit two runs in the second in ning. After that, the sharp-fielding Kings Mt. crowd nipped Other threats with a trio of double pl ays. Every member of the Kings Mountain infield had a hand in the twin-killings, each of, the three being pulled by only two players. Bud Sanders started the first one in the third inning fielding a Glenn Jarrett grounder by the second sack, tagging the bag to force the runner and rifling to first for the twin-kill. Tommy Barrett speared Potts’ liner down the third base line in the fourth and threw to second to double-off Randy Ewing who led off the frame with a double. A beauty by James Robbs stif led a Newton threat in the eigh th when Jarrett led off with a double and Ewing singled. Again Potts was the victim, as Robbs leaped high into the air to snare a line drive and double Ewing, again. That killed Newton’s final hopes for a late inning rally. Newton Harbison, 2b Killian, ss Jarrett, rf Ewing, cf Potts, lb Barnes, If Laney, 3b Yount, p Wimberly, c Current, 2b TOTALS - Kings Mt. Parker, cf Robbs, ss Pearson, If Morris, c Barrett. 3b Sanders, 2b McCarter, lb McDermid, rf Wilson, p Ab 0 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 H rbi 0 0 35 2 8 1 Ab R H rbi 4 3 3 3 4 4 3 4 3 2 1 1 1 1 il 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 TOTALS 31 6 7 6 Newton 020 000 000—2 Kings Mt. 003 020 IQ*—6 E—Killian, McDermid, San ders 2, Barrett; 2B—Potts, Parker 2, Robbs, Morris, Ewing, Barrett, Pearson; 3B—Yount; SB—Parker, Robbs; DP—Sanders & McCarter; Barrett & Robbs; Robbs & McCar ter; Laney & Potts; Left — New ton 9, K. M. 7; HBP—by Wilson (Harbison); U — Humphries & Holt; T—2:25. Pitching IP H R Er Bb So Yount (1) 8 7 6 6 6 9 Wilson (w) 9 8 2 1 2 5 Brackett Bowls Best 4th Scores Albert Brackett exploded the biggest scares in the July Fourth action in the summer ten pin bowling league at the Mountain Lane Center. He rolled a 201 line and 544 set for top sewing honors in the lea gue as his loop-leading Lucky Strikes team defeated Cherry Pi ckers. two games to one. John Dilling was tops for the losers with scores of 178 and 473. Trouble Shooters won three ga mes from Kingpins on forfeit, the losers being unable .to field enough players on the holiday. Rolling for their averages. Jack Rhea pasted the high line of 149 and Bobo Goforth the high series of 407 for Trouble Shooters. The standings: Team Lucky Strikes Trouble Shooters Cherry Pickers Kimf Pina W L 22 8 20 10 10 20 H 22 Pet. .733 .607 .333 •267! Area Commissioner Boots Locals Out For 'Insufficient Records' (Continued, From Front Page) Cline, called state Legion headquarters in Raleigh for clarification. Nash McKee, state Legion adjutant, told Kings Mt. offi cials that he had not received birth certificates on all of the Kings Mountain players prior to the June 30th dead line. McKee said that he had only one birth certificate in the Kings Mountain file, whereas the local post had certi fied some 20 players before the deadline date. , Blaine Froneberger, who served as local legion Business Manager and filed the report to state headquarters, told McKee by long distance phone Tuesday afternoon that he sent the birth certificates on all except one player on or a bout June 16th. Froneberger said that he made a notation with his June 16th report that the certificate on the missing play er would be filed when received from the state board of health. Froneberger did send this final birth certificate several days later and that is the one certificate which the state adjutant has received. McKee said he has not received the other certificates, mailed by Froneberger on June 16. Local legion officials checked with postal authorities in Shelby, where the envelope was mailed, and there is no record of such an envelope being returned for insufficient postage or incorrect address, indicating that the envelope was delivered to the proper address in Raleigh. As result of not receiving all of the Kings Mountain certificates, McKee notified state commissioner Timmons and area boss Yandle who tossed the local club o'ut for “in sufficient records.” Area Commissioner Yandle told the Kings Mt. coach es in Charlotte Tuesday morning that he had notified lo cal Legion officials by letter several days earlier that the records were not complete and that a “grace period” of five days would be allowed to complete the records. Kings Mountain legion officials and coaches, however, state that they did not receive a letter or other message calling attention to any discrepancies in the records prior to Tuesday morning when the local coaches visited the a rea commissioner to protest Monday night’s game. “We have not received any letter or other communica tion calling attention to incomplete records and have not had a chance to complete any such records,” explained O tis D. Green Post Commander J. T. McGinnis. Yandle told the local coaches Tuesday morning that six teams in the area had incomple records on June 30, that group also including Newton, Hickory, Rutherfordton and Morganton. He said that all the clubs were so notified and added that all the teams with the exception of Kings Mountain and Morgantoij had completed their records within the ex tended deadline. As result, he disqualified Kings Mountain and Morganton, the latter being involved this week in a playoff series with Forest City. Otis D. Green Post Athletic Officer Otto (Toby) Wil liams also took issue with the commissioner’s statement that he had notified Kings Mountain, among other clubs, about the incomplete records on June 30. “I definitely have not received any notice that our records were not in order,” said Williams Wednesday mor ning, “If the commissioner says he notified teams of the discrepancies in the records, he certainly overlooked us, because we w’ere not forewarned of any irregularities.” Williams insisted that he and other Kings Mountain Legion officials should have been given the same chance to correct their records that, the commissioner says, the other teams were allowed. “Yandle says a five day grace period was allowed to correct the records. But he didn’t give us any such grace period, and we certainly could h,ave found the missing bir th certificates, or obtained new ones from the state depart ment of health, if we had been given a chance." Margrace Undefeated In Pony Play. Moose In Second At Holiday Break Margrace carried the season’s only perfect record as the Kings Mountain Pony League teams took a July 4th holiday break this week. Coach S. E. Norris’ team won its third straight last Wednes day afternoon, defeating Maun ey, 17-5 and round-out its pre holiday card. Pony teams are idle all week and will resume their slate next Monday afternoon. Defending champion Moose held second place in the chase with an 8-3 triumph over Rebels on Thursday afternoon and also added another win with a 10-9 decision over Rebels in a make-up game from the opening contest of the season. Moose has won three and lost one. Toby Thrift with a "pair at dou bles and a single led Margrace in its triumph over Mauney. Jim my Medlin and Reggie White contributed two hits each, one of Medlin’s being a two-bagger. Franklin Sprouse and Gary Ste wart adso hit a double for the winners who obtained 12 hits. Medlin pitched the win, allow ing Mauney seven hits, and stri king but nine. (No Mauney batter was able to gamer more than one hit, but five at the knocks were for extra bases, Sisk and Fletcher hitting triples, Caveny, Childers and Reynolds bagging doubles. Henry Hilard and Hike Huff stetter slapped two hiits each to help Moose in its 8-3 win over Rebels. One of Hillard’s was a double. Huff stickler, Eddie Huff stetler and David Cairpenter sha red the pitching chores for the winners, fanning a total of ten Rebels, and allowing only two hiits. Trip Neisler and Eddie Spen cer obtained the two hits for Re bels, both singles. Jerry Lock ridge and Shirley hurled for the losers. By agreement, the Moose and Rebels resumed their 9-all tie on ' opening day in the seventh in ning, the frame in which rain had interferred. Moose scared in its last half of the frame, on a walk to Mike Ballard and squeeze bunt by Henry Hillard. The linescores: Margrooe 206 423 0—17-12-2 Mauney 110 110 1— 5- 7-5 Medlin and Sprouse; Childers, Hollifield and Reynolds. Moose 301 121-8-7-1 Rebel* 010 200—3-2-2 „ Huffsitickler, Huffstetler, Car penter and Huffstickler, McGin nis; Lockridge, Shirley and Spen cer.
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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July 7, 1960, edition 1
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