"Was Smith Island part of the Central Shore League?" we wondered. "No, Smith Island had their own team. They were unique as an island sitting in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay with a baseball team. And they had a good baseball team! In fact, they had two players who played with us Homer Tyler and Gene Guy. We enjoyed playing them. We'd go over two or three times a summer maybe. Frank Dize ran the whole shebang you have to give Frank credit without him there wouldn't have been any baseball there, I do not believe. He took care of getting everybody over there he took care of feeding you and, he also took care of finding an ace pitcher from somewere other than Smith Island and bringing him there so they could beat you."

Star Pitcher

Often that ringer pitcher was Joe Muir. Joe graduated from Washington High School in Princess Anne where he established himself as an overpowering pitcher and a high school hero. After serving 2« years in the Marine Corps, he entered professional baseball, playing for several farm teams, and then he hit the big time for the Pittsburgh Pirates. It is said that the baseball management, to save money, sent players back and forth between the farm teams and the majors as if they were yo-yos. Finally, Muir got tired of this and, wanting to become a Maryland State Trooper, retired from professional baseball to enter the police academy at the age of 29 the last year he would be eligible.

John Somers, who grew up on Smiths Island [as he calls it] and also became a state trooper told us, "Those of us from the Island who are old enough will well remember when Joe pitched for the Smiths Island team. The team was then coached by Clyde Evans, with Frank Dize the business manager. This was in the early 1950's and Joe was attending the Maryland State Police Academy. Frank would call Governor Theodore McKeldin and get Joe excused from class on Friday afternoon and he would show up on the Island to pitch on Saturday. Joe pitched for Smiths Island two seasons against such teams as Rock Hall, Trappe, Hebron, Mardella, Reedville, Kinsdale, Crisfield and others. He never lost a game."

John continued; "Joe liked to talk about the time he was pitching for Smiths Island at Reedville. Emotions had been running high before the game, and Reedville had rounded up the best players they could find on the whole Western Shore. They were confident of an easy victory and many had bet heavily on the outcome (or so it was said). You can imagine the dismay of the Reedville players when, with Smiths Island leading 11-0 in the 7th inning, Frank called time, stopped the game and commenced taking pictures. Joe said that he expected to be chased out of town. Joe loved Smiths Island, loved the good food and could count almost the entire population as his friend." And Scorchy added, "Joe Muir was the best pitcher that ever came out of this area. And I recall one day we went to Smith Island to play we never knew who we would run up against and I looked over to the sidelines and saw Joe Muir warming up. He had pitched recently for the Pittsburgh Pirates! So Frank really wanted to beat you!"

John also recalled; "I used to like to watch Clyde Evans play shortstop back in the 30's and to watch Otis Tyler pitch too. I thought he was the greatest pitcher in the world. He had a good drop, I can tell you. Course, I thought all of them were the greatest I'd rather seen them than any big league game in the world!"

Parks Loaded

We asked Scorchy about community involvement in the games were they well attended? "Everyplace on Delmarva, the ball parks were loaded every Sunday. It was a big thing on Smith Island too every Saturday they played over there and Ms. Whitelock would always have a big meal prepared for you. It was a big thing. It was just like having fourth of July every weekend. You got plenty of fireworks with it too when the teams got together especially with Princess Anne and Crisfield. There was an intense rivalry, with a lot of side bets on what a player would do. And if you didn't do it, the guy who lost would give you the devil!"

Wanna Bet

"There was a guy Bill Hall used to go to all the games. He and a bunch from up in Princess Anne used to make bets on different players. So, one day we were playing Princess Anne when Ray Suarez came up to bat. Ray came from Springfield, Illinois married a girl he met during the war up at Camp Somerset in Westover. After the war, he came here to live he's a minority the only Spanish Catholic in Somerset County and my best friend! Anyways, Bill bet Foster Matthews that Ray would drive in a run and win the game. Well, Ray struck out, and as he came back to the dugout, Bill hollered, You just cost me $25!' Ray said, I cost you $25?' Well, yeah,' said Bill, you struck out!', to which Ray responded, Well, what was you gonna do, give me half if I didn't??' So, there's a lot of funny stories about it we could tell them by the hour it was a lotta fun!"

We observed that it seemed to be pretty serious stuff, to which Scorchy replied, "It was never really serious we never held any grudges against each other. We had our little powwows on Sunday, but by Monday we'd all be there with our arms around each other and any time during the week, you know."

Who's in Right Field?

Scorchy told us his father, John Ellis Tawes (called Dido for reasons unknown), had managed the Crisfield Vets team, adding "There's lots of stories on my father. One time they had a gorilla scare kept saying there's a gorilla loose around here it was even in the papers, the Crisfield Times and so forth. And so we went to Delmar one day to play and it never was that hot it was about 100 degrees. We had a guy named Raydie Sterling playing right field and he'd been out half the night playing in an orchestra he was a good musician. So, Raydie had a little bit of a hangover and he misjudged the first fly ball, and then somebody got a base hit into right field that went through his legs, and, lo and behold, there came a fly ball into right field and he came running in and lost it and it struck him in the forehead. Boom bounced right off his forehead! And some guy in the stands at Delmar, just as innocently, says to my father, Dido, did they ever find that gorilla in Crisfield?' And Dad said, Yeah, I got him playing right field!'"

And another time, Scorchy told us, when they were playing Princess Anne. "The bases were loaded with two out, and Rusty Evans hit a fly ball into right center field. Our center fielder was Than Riggin and our right fielder was Showers Fuller, and both of them were running for the ball hollering I got it!' Well, neither one of them gave up and they ran smack dab into each other like two freight trains and fell unconscious, and the ball just trickled away, naturally, and all the runs scored and we lost. And my father said, Come on, let's get out of here let's go home!' When they said, Wait, we gotta go get Showers and Than,' he just said, Bury them right where they are!' There are lots of stories on my father."

Carve up the Packard!

We said we'd heard he was known for his Packards. "Oh yeah, Dad bought a brand new Packard most beautiful thing you've seen. So he took it to the ball games. He just had it about a week and we went down to the Neck, we called it it's a little place out of town here and we went down to pick up Bill Lankford, one of our pitchers. Well, Bill came out of the house with his brand new pair of spikes on and he got in the old man's Packard, and Dad turned around and said, Bill, why didn't you bring a package of Gillette Blue Blades with you you could carve her up better!'"

How were the teams financed did they have sponsors? "Well, we didn't," Scorchy responded. "I can't speak for the other teams. Had a lotta guys were interested in it, y'know this guy'd be treasurer, this one secretary, this one scorekeeper we just went by the gate receipts. We had an admission possibly cost you about 50 or 75 cents to come in maybe a buck. Whatever you took in at your home games was yours. And when we needed new uniforms maybe every 3, 4,or 5 years you'd go out among the businesses and ask them if they wanted to help out, but we never put the names on the uniforms wasn't that kind of thing, you know."

Ball Fields on the Shore

We asked about the location of the ball field in Crisfield. "Well, we had two different places first one was up on Jacksonville road we called it Ham McGrath field. The park was originally built for the 1937 Crisfield team in the Eastern Shore League, professional Class D. It was built for that we only lasted one year and then went under because we had no lights everthing was played in the daytime. Some times you'd play 4 or 5 days a week. It wasn't drawing enough people out of Crisfield to support a team. The guys were getting paid about 25 bucks a week about 100 dollars a month was a big salary for then. Okay the park was left there and a fellow named Ham McGrath owned that property so when all us guys came out of the service and started up the Crisfield Vets baseball team, we played in his ballpark. He didn't charge us anything because he had the concessions sold all the hot dogs, hamburgers and drinks and so forth. And later on, the American Legion here built a ballpark on their property overlooking the water. It was a nice facility, really nice, and we played and played there til we all grew old together. There was nobody coming up to replace us and as you say, television came in and the interest wasn't there any more, so it just faded away."

And on the Island

Where'd they play on Smith Island? "They had a field there right by the church near the Tabernacle. You can recall quite a few amusing incidents there. Clyde Evans had a house in left field and his father, John Abe, had a chicken coop in right center field and, you hit a ball into John Abe's chicken coop, you didn't get it out it stayed there! And in center field, they had a woods it wasn't very far and I recall some of our guys hitting towering fly balls into those trees and Gene Guy, playing center field, would go into that woods wide open and be back in a second throwing that ball out. They always accused him of carrying an extra ball in his hip pocket."

Salisbury Stadium

Which made us think of the proposed new stadium in Salisbury and whether the growing number of farm teams and local stadiums (eg: Frederick, Bowie) were conceived to boost local baseball. We asked Scorchy's opinion. "Well, I think one of the big reasons for the revival of minor leagues is that the average person can't afford to go to major league baseball anymore. I mean, you have to expect to spend over 100 dollars to go to a ball game, with tickets and drinks and so forth, and minor league ball doesn't have those kind of prices. You go to a minor league game, pay three or four dollars for a ticket for the best seat and people who like their baseball are returning to the roots, so to speak."

Delmarva Team

Will it be successful in Salisbury? "I see minor league baseball as recovering now. They went into the depths. At one time, nationwide there were over 100 minor leagues now it's down to about 15. A lot of people think it won't go in Salisbury but I think it will if they'll do one thing. If the Orioles, for example, are sponsoring a team in Salisbury, don't call them the Salisbury Orioles call them theDelmarva Orioles. Then people from Crisfield can feel part of that and people from Princess Anne, Delmar, Pocomoke, Cambridge all over the Shore can say That's my team that's Delmarva.' It won't work if they call it Salisbury some people are jealous of Salisbury not me I've made my living in Salisbury all my life."

Hall of Fame

What's the latest on the Eastern Shore Baseball Hall of Fame? "Well, Peter Kirk, you know, is building the new stadium there in Salisbury and he has agreed to incorporate the Hall of Fame in it that just came out last week. The State of Maryland turned down funds for the Hall of Fame. So the Hall of Fame will have a big room at the stadium. I think that's really better." Do they have a lot of baseball memorabilia? "Yes they do. And I have a box full of things to give them. I have my father's uniform and shoes he was the manager of our Central Shore League team, you know and I have my 1947 Central Shore League pennant that we won, and my glove, score books, baseballs, quite a bit of memorabilia."

I'm sure that people passing our bench to board the boat for Smith Island wondered a bit at our laughter as we enjoyed every moment of our visit with this delightful man who describes himself as "Born here, grew up here, live here Now, I might die in Salisbury, but they're gonna bring me home here and bury me. I'm a Crisfielder and Marsh Hen right to the core there ain't nowhere else this is it! And everybody should feel that way about their own home place. 'Course I can't visualize anybody being born in the middle of New York city." What else can one say?