Brooks Memorial Stadium was the place to be on the Fourth of July in 1947

Evergreen's Ottis Johnson

With World War II less than two years behind them, more than a few of Evergreen’s baseball-minded young men were members of the Evergreen Greenies, which played in the old amateur semi-pro leagues of the 1940s and 1950s. In their heyday, they attracted big crowds, and July 4, 1947 was no exception.

It was on that day that the Greenies, which had captured the first-place pennant for the first half of the season, took on the league’s all-star team, which was managed by “Root” Lowery. The game, which was played on a Friday, was scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. and the all-stars ended up winning, 12-8.

Wendell Hart, who was a longtime coach at Evergreen High School, was arguably the team’s top pitcher. Other players on that team included James Carpenter, Haskew Page, Multon White and the Johnson brothers, Edsel and Ottis.

Both teams recorded 11 hits in the July 4 game as Carpenter got the pitching start for the Greenies. Hart relieved him in the fifth inning, but couldn’t overcome the five errors made by the Greenie defense. Page and Ottis Johnson led the Greenie offense with three “bingles” each while Page made a “circus catch” that robbed all-star “Red” Vickery of a “long drive into deep center field in the eighth inning to choke off a rally by the Stars.”

Interestingly, much of what is known about this July 4 game comes from a front-page article written by John Law Robinson that appeared on the front page of the July 10, 1947 edition of The Evergreen Courant. Robinson, who served as a bat boy for some of those old Greenie teams, still lives on Rural Street in Evergreen today. Many in the reading audience will known Robinson, who went on to coach at Evergreen High School after college and a stint in the military.

I think it’s also worth mentioning that Wendell Hart was a player-manager for the Greenies in 1947, which should come as no surprise for people who remember him. Hart, who was a World War II veteran, did it all when it came to local sports. He was a top athlete during his high school days and went on to coach football, basketball and baseball in Conecuh County for decades.

Ottis Johnson is arguably the most famous person from the July 4, 1947 game. Ottis played football and baseball for what is now Troy University and has the dubious distinction of being the last professional baseball player to die after getting “beaned” by a pitch. On June 10, 1951 Ottis, who played for the Dothan Browns, died at the age of 25, eight days after getting hit in the temple by a pitch delivered by Headland Dixie Runners pitcher Jack Clifton. The accident happened during an Alabama-Florida League game at Peanut Stadium in Headland.

Ottis is buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Evergreen, and, to date, he was the last professional player to be killed after getting “beaned” by a ball during a game. By all accounts, Ottis was much of a man, and one is left to wonder what he would have accomplished had his life not been cut short.