Undefeated Evergreen Dodgers saw Baseball Hall of Famers play in 1970

Evergreen's undefeated Dodgers in 1970.

If you look at my Sports Flashback feature elsewhere in the paper this week, you’ll see an item from the Sept. 10, 1970 edition of The Courant that described a trip that the Evergreen Dodgers youth baseball team made to Atlanta to watch the Braves. The Dodgers went undefeated to capture the Evergreen Junior Baseball League’s National League championship that year and got to go see the Braves as a reward for their successful season.

Members of the Evergreen Dodgers team that year included a lot of names that will be familiar to readers of The Courant. Members of the team included Andy Skipper, John Hart Ellis, Jerry Peacock, John Bolton, Thomas Kervin, Terry Peacock, Bobby Johnson, Keith Killough, Keith Pugh, Darrell Harper, Turner Murphy and Randy Smith. Matthew Davis and Ralph Garrett were managers. Sponsors of their trip to Atlanta were Bill Johnson, Lavaughn Skipper and Harry Ellis.

The game that they saw was played on Sat., Sept. 5, 1970, and the Braves ended up beating the San Francisco Giants, 5-2, that day in Atlanta Stadium. According to Baseball-Reference.com, the attendance that day was 13,820 and this game was originally scheduled to be played the day before but had been postponed due to rain.

This game featured a number of players who are household names and Hall of Famers. Taking the field for Atlanta that day was Alabama native Hank Aaron, who would go on to break Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1974. Aaron was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1982.

Playing for San Francisco that day on Sept. 5, 1970 were greats like Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Bobby Bonds. Mays and McCovey were both from Alabama and were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979 and 1986, respectively.

Bobby Bonds isn’t in the Hall of Fame, but he was one of the top leadoff hitters of his generation. Notably, he is the father of Barry Bonds, who broke Aaron’s home run record in August 2007.

Bobby Bonds and Hank Aaron both hit home runs in the game that the Evergreen Dodgers watched on Sept. 5, 1970. Aaron’s home run ended up being the difference in the game. It came in the bottom of the eighth inning with the game tied 3-3 and was Aaron’s 37^th home run of the season.

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The second weekend of our local ESPN College Football Pick ‘Em contest wrapped up on Saturday night and left contestant Casey Grant in sole possession of first place in the local standings. Casey correctly picked the outcomes of eight of the 10 games on our slate last week and leaped to the top of the standings.

Mark Cotten and Calvin Casey were in second place. Blake Stringer was in the fourth place. Justin Mixon, Michael Bishop, Jesse Jordan, Travis Presley, Brett Loftin, Clint Hyde and Cody Thomas were all in a seven-way tie for fifth place.

Arthur Ingram III, Justin Chandler and defending champion Drew Skipper was tied for the No. 12 spot. In the spirit of full disclosure, I was holding down the No. 17 spot, and Courant Publisher Robert Bozeman was in 18^th place.

If you didn’t do so hot in the contest this week, don’t sweat it. We’ve got 13 weeks to go and it’s best to remember that the contest is a marathon, not a sprint.