ELIZABETHTOWN — Thirty-seven summers ago, they were the toast of the town.
Saturday night, they were the pride of Elizabethtown once more, even as a group of 9- and 10-year-olds furrow their own unchartered ground.
A Night at the Ballpark was a fundraiser to send the Dixie Youth Baseball state champions to Ruston, Louisiana, for the World Series. It was also Memory Lane, a chance for the 1982 team to be honored.
Those able to be there saw the unveiling of a team picture that will go up on the press box at Leinwand Park, beside one of the 2019 team. The 1982 team, a squad of 11- and 12-year-olds, was Elizabethtown’s first World Series entrant; the 2019 team is the first in its age group.
“It comes with hard work, dedication and commitment on their part,” Mac Campbell told the hundreds gathered in the playing field who dined on barbecue chicken, burgers, hot dogs and pork while enjoying the melodies of The Pink Slips.
Campbell was the head coach of the 1982 team. He then turned to the youngsters, the team of the moment.
“This is only the beginning,” he said. Gesturing to those on stage, he told them, “Most of these guys started playing together when they were 8 and played together until they were 18. You’ll look back to the relationships.”
The “old-timers” enjoyed sharing the evening with the featured attraction. So did the band, even engaging them in singing — well, sort of — in front of home plate.
Campbell was assisted by Tom Hancock and Lacy West, each of whom has died. The players were Channing Hatcher, Phillip Greene, Randy Benton, Bobby Montgomery, Marcel Coe, McQueen Campbell, Darrin Davis, Tim Mathis, Cecil McKoy, Don Adams, Bernard Robinson, Vince Campbell, John Shultz and Alan West. Montgomery is the only player no longer living.
The bat boy was Wesley Campbell and Jim Schultz handled the statistican duties.
West, Robinson, Greene, Davis and McQueen Campbell agreed the relationships have lasted, though as pre-teens it certainly wasn’t their focus.
“It went by quick,” McQueen said of the memories of a trip to Missisippi.
“It was hotter and as humid as it was here,” Davis said. “And they had mosquitoes as big as airplanes.”
“And 12-year-olds with mustaches,” Greene quipped.
For Elizabethtown, the World Series brought unique travel — and games. Mac Campbell remembered the first hotel the team stopped at on the way, when roaches came out as the door opened and the team quickly reboarded the bus for other lodging.
It wasn’t, he recalls, the best introduction for a team the majority of which had never stayed in hotels.
The competition wasn’t much friendlier. Whereas Elizabethtown went through the state tournament in Kenansville undefeated, World Series play would be different. They were two and out.
McQueen Campbell, the catcher, recalls the steady season-long workmanship of his pitching battery, Robinson.
“I’d put down 1 for a fastball, 2 for a curve and 3 for a dropball,” he said. “That went well at the state tournament. We got to Mississippi, and one went out of left, two out of center…”
Robinson joined him in laughing at the memory. The teams, they assured, were good.
“I hope they soak it all in a little better than I did,” Alan West said of today’s youngsters.
He readily admits his memories are lacking, though he does recall seeing an Atlanta Braves game on the trip.
“It was a special group of young men,” Mac Campbell said. “We started practicing in March, and we got back from Mississippi four days before school started.
“It was all about baseball, but the relationships are what it was really about.”
He still loves what the game does for youngsters, and how adults leading them play a part in that.
“Life lessons,” he said. “The things you learn in baseball, you can’t teach them in school.”
One of his staples then and in all his endeavors has been to surround himself with good people. He said that was certainly the case in getting Hancock and Lacy West as his assistants.
“They both had forgotten more baseball than I knew,” Campbell told the crowd.
“When you get back together, dad used the term family,” McQueen Campbell said. “And it was.”
This year’s team prides itself on that same approach. Inside the lofty achievement is a commitment level, something teams both then and now recognize.
“I married late, and I’ve got young ones coming up,” McQueen said. “I look at what my friends do. It’s a commitment, it’s a whole life.
“It’s worth it when you have memories like this. But obviously, a lot of teams don’t.”
True enough. But relationships? All have that opportunity, especially in Elizabethtown.
Like their World Series trips, it’s the tie that binds.
First on the infield for shagging, and back frequently, was the husband-wife duo of Beth and Dan Alford. The Elizabethtown couple, proud parents of four children and 11 grandchildren, don’t have kin associated with the team; they wanted to come out in support of their community.
With 450 pounds of chicken, the Elizabethtown baseball team and its supporters were well-fed on Saturday night during a Night at the Ballpark.
Members of the 1982 team who were present were surprised by the unveiling of a team photo that will go up on the press box at Leinwand Park.
Mac Campbell Jr. shared some memories from the trip in 1982 to the Dixie Youth World Series. He told the 2019 team that one thing that will last is the relationships they are forging now.
Members of the 1982 team who were present were surprised by the unveiling of a team photo that will go up on the press box at Leinwand Park.
When Phillip Greene showed up Saturday night, he brought with him his North Carolina jersey from 1982. Hunter Wood, a member of this year’s team, wore it for the ceremony to honor Greene’s team.
The Pink Slips invited the state champions to sing and dance with them Saturday night. Tyler Eason took advantage of the moment, and Townsend Link’s fedora as Link and Greg Elkins entertained the youngsters.
Paisley Singletary has the undivided attention of Townsend Link on Saturday night when The Pink Slips sang and invited the ‘Carolina Girls’ up front to dance.
Greg Elkins (left) and Townsend Link (not shown) invited some help for one of their numbers Saturday night in Leinwand Park. Obliging them are (from left) Aubrey Faircloth, T.J. Faircloth and their mom, Jennifer Faircloth; Maddox Edwards and his mom Jessica Edwards; and Christy Sasser, Nicole Walters and Brenda Priest.
The hand-crafted baseball earrings worn by Jessica Burney were right for the occasion of Night at the Ballpark. Burney’s son, Hunter Wood, is a member of the Elizabethtown team that won the state championship and is headed to Ruston, Louisiana, for the Dixie Youth Baseball World Series.
Elizabethtown celebrated its 1982 Dixie Youth Baseball team that, as 11- and 12-year-olds, played in the World Series and its 2019 Dixie team that, as 9- and 10-year-olds, is headed to the World Series this week. The 2019 state champs are (front, from left) Hunter Wood, Easton Bostic, Collin Cole, Jaxon Hair, Braylon Cromartie, Brady Marlowe, Joshua Dawson, C.J. McCracken, Tyler Eason, Fox Sutton, Jayce Hatcher and Claxton Tatum. The 2019 coaches are with the 1982 team on the back row and include (from left) Joseph Hatcher, Dale Wood, Bernard Robinson, Phillip Greene, Darrin Davis, Alan West, McQueen Campbell, Mac Campbell and Kyle Bostic.
Leinwand Park’s press box will have two team pictures hanging in the future, including this shot of the 1982 state champions.