2014 Evergreen Cal Ripken 12-and-Under All-Stars |
Hats off this week to Evergreen’s 12-and-Under Cal Ripken
all-star baseball team, which will be representing Conecuh County this weekend
at the state Cal Ripken tournament in Demopolis.
For good reason, much has been made during the past week or
so over the fact that this team is the first team from Evergreen to play their
way into the state tournament. Cal Ripken baseball in Evergreen traces its
roots to April 15, 2011 when the first ever Cal Ripken Baseball Opening Day was
held at Evergreen Municipal Park. Prior to this, children in Evergreen played
Little League Baseball.
Since April 15, 2011, no all-star team from Conecuh County
has advanced to the state tournament, which is what makes this year’s success
so remarkable.
During the past week, I’ve had several people ask me if any
team from Evergreen has ever made it to the state tournament, going back to
even before Cal Ripken when local kids played Little League Baseball.
Honestly, I don’t know, but I’ve been told that a team
during the mid to late 70s did go to the state tournament. As best that I can
remember, I haven’t ran across any information about this team or any others
while researching my weekly Sports Flashback feature, but that doesn’t mean it
isn’t true.
In the future, I plan to keep my eyes open for any mention
of this team or any others that may have made the state tournament. I’m also
keeping my eyes open for articles about youth baseball in Conecuh County, which
is somewhat of a local sports mystery.
When were the first youth baseball leagues established in
Conecuh County? Who was responsible for establishing those leagues? Who were
some of the first players? Who was the first girl to play youth baseball in
Conecuh County? These are all questions that I’ve been trying to find the
answers to for some time.
Organized youth baseball seems to have come to Conecuh
County some time after World War II, and those youth leagues went by a variety
of names, including the Junior League, Senior League, Pony League and others.
Some of those old leagues were administered by the City of Evergreen and went
by a wide variety of rules. Managers were sometimes even allowed to trade
players and “buy” them from other teams.
The earliest reference to Little League Baseball that I’ve
seen in old editions of The Courant was in 1955, but there’s a good chance that
Little League Baseball and other youth baseball leagues were established even
earlier than that in Conecuh County. Local kids played Little League through
2010, and, as mentioned above, in 2011 the local youth league shifted from
Little League to Cal Ripken Youth Baseball, which is based in Baltimore, Md.
In the end, if anyone out there knows more details about the
establishment of youth baseball, especially Little League Baseball, in Conecuh
County or about any past state tournament teams from Conecuh County, let me
hear from you. You can call me at The Courant at 578-1492 or e-mail me at courantsports@earthlink.net.
You can also write me at The Evergreen Courant, ATTN: Lee Peacock, P.O. Box
440, Evergreen, AL 36401.
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