THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 6, 1994 TAG: 9406060115
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ABE GOLDBLATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940606 LENGTH: Medium
On the home front, it was baseball as usual for the Norfolk Tars and Portsmouth Cubs. Both teams were struggling in the second division of the Piedmont League, one of only 10 minor leagues that survived the war.
{REST} With most of the young men called into the armed forces, owner Frank D. Lawrence stocked his Portsmouth team with Cuban imports who spoke very little English, 4-Fs (draft rejects because of physical disabilities), and players too old for the draft.
The Tars, owned by the New York Yankees, were stocked with younger players waiting to be called up and 4-Fs. Tars manager Garland Braxton, a 44-year-old former major leaguer, was among the Piedmont League's top pitchers, with a 7-7 record and a 2.09 earned-run average.
When news of the invasion broke, International League president Clark Shaughnessy called off two games scheduled that night. He said he had ``two sons over there and I'm not much interested in baseball today.''
Both night contests scheduled in the major leagues were switched to other dates in respect to the invasion. But games in the Piedmont League were played as scheduled.
WELDON'S GEM: Larry Weldon, later to become Cradock High's longtime football coach, pitched the pennant-bound Lynchburg Cardinals to a 6-0 victory over Portsmouth, holding the Cubs to one hit and allowing only one runner to reach third base.
Also on the night of the invasion, Al Gettel took another step toward the majors with a 3-2 pitching victory over Ben Chapman's Richmond Colts, 3-2, at Tar Park. Gettel was exempted from the Army because of a physical disability. He worked on his Princess Anne County farm when not playing ball. The Norfolk righthander went on to compile a 17-7 record with a 1.81 ERA to earn a shot with the New York Yankees the following season.
THIS BUD A YANKEE: Bud Metheny was playing in the Yankees' outfield. Four years later, he became baseball coach at the Norfolk Division of William and Mary, now Old Dominion University.
ONE FOR THE BOOK: The St. Louis Browns (American League) and St. Louis Cardinals (National League) were leading their respective circuits, heading for one of the most improbable matchups in World Series history. The Cardinals won the ``Trolley Car Series,'' four games to two.
BASEBALL SAILORS: The Norfolk Naval Training Station baseball team, with a lineup packed with major league players, including pitchers Tommy Byrne (Yankees) and John Rigney (Chicago White Sox), raised its record 36-5-2 with an 8-1 rout of Armed Guard School of Camp Shelton at McClure Field. The Bluejackets' earlier conquest was a victory over the World Series-bound St. Louis Browns. . . . The Norfolk Naval Air Station was no slouch either, with a lineup that featured catcher Al Evans (Washington Senators) and pitcher Hugh Casey (Brooklyn Dodgers).
HEAVY HITTERS: Dixie Walker was batting a lusty .426 for the Brooklyn Dodgers on D-Day, sending National League fans digging into the record books to look up the National League .400 hitters of the past. Not since 1930, when Bill Terry compiled a .401 mark for the New York Giants, had the National League had .400 hitter. Walker wound up with a league-leading .357 average.
SCHOLASTIC NOTE: All was quiet on the high school sports front. It was vacation time. But Bill Story was appointed Granby High's assistant principal to go along with his duties as head football coach. It was the year that Story coached the Comets to their first of three successive state championships.
{KEYWORDS} D-DAY WORLD WAR II NORMANDY
by CNB