[bd476]

yarddog wrote: "He is maybe the last of the stars from an era when baseball was truly the American pass time. I grew up in the 50s and can remember when just about any town of any size at all had a professional baseball team. It was good baseball too."

Those days seem so wholesome looking back in time. He set some great records while retaining his squeaky clean image.

[yarddog]

When I was 5-6-7 years old, one of our few recreational activities was watching the Panama City Fliers play at Lion’s Park.

It was the class D Alabama/Florida League. I still have an official Alabama/Florida League Spalding baseball autographed by the entire team. Probably 1953. My older sister got the groundskeeper to give her the gall and she got all the players to sign it.

One of the players for Pensacola was Cal Ripkin Sr. One of the Panama City players was Chase Riddle who I think set some minor league records before being a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals. After he retired he led Troy University to a couple of national championships.