View Full Version : Best NC Legion Player you have ever seen?
I saw this in another thread and thought it deserved a seperate thread because it could bring up good conversation. Obviously, Trot Nixon was one of the best ever to play legion ball in NC but who are some others?
Josh Hamilton may be the best I have ever seen play. Absolute stud.
Never saw Ralph Roberts play but heard a ton about him.
wilmington- eric faulk, sean gallagher, chris moore, of course trot nixon
rowan co.- david trexler, jason foster, bryan knight, travis goins
burke co.- matt briggs, blaine mull
kernersville- joe lagarde, tim weatherspoon, alan plaster, alec zumwalt
I saw this in another thread and thought it deserved a seperate thread because it could bring up good conversation. Obviously, Trot Nixon was one of the best ever to play legion ball in NC but who are some others?
Josh Hamilton may be the best I have ever seen play. Absolute stud.
Never saw Ralph Roberts play but heard a ton about him.
Ralph Roberts was the most dominant Legion player I've seen in the last 10-15 years. He singlehandedly put Cherryville on his shoulders all the way to Las Vegas where he hit a HR so far that it plunked Wayne Newton walking into Caesar's
EastOfRaleigh
06-03-07, 03:46 PM
wilmington- eric faulk, sean gallagher, chris moore, of course trot nixon
rowan co.- david trexler, jason foster, bryan knight, travis goins
burke co.- matt briggs, blaine mull
kernersville- joe lagarde, tim weatherspoon, alan plaster, alec zumwalt
I don't follow baseball as close as many of you...... so excuse me if I am not well-versed on this. Some of those named are not familiar to me. Maybe a good question is : did any of the players named not go on to college or pro ball.
eric faulk drafted out of hs by oakland a's, sean gallagher drafted out of hs by rangers also set national hs record for consecutive game hit streak, chris moore one of best players in western carolina history played 7 years in rockies system now head coach at lander.
matt briggs great career at wake forest now the blue jays scout for miss,la,al, and tenn
blaine mull drafted out of hs by royals, retired was not cut from proball
alec zumwalt has the NC legion season record for hr's and rbi's (28 and 105!)hit three in the state championship game off ralph roberts and still lost. On AAA roster for brewers right now.
joe lagarde made it to dodgers AAA but not bigs.
the others all had great college careers at smaller schools.
Eagles 1313
06-03-07, 07:44 PM
Plaster played at Charlotte for 3 years and made it to AAA for the Athletics and Zumwalt was just recently traded from the Brewers to the Athletics and is still in AAA looking for that call-up
Never got to see Ralph Roberts, but his accomplishments speak for themselves. My personal best player would no doubt be Franklin Stubbs from Hamlet,NC. Not sure of the year, but I believe it was around '78-79,,, Rowan County was LOADED and they met Hamlet in a 7-game series to determine the state champion. Not completely sure how many games this series went, but Hamlet won and Franklin Stubbs was instrumental in winning each of his team's 4 games, either by pitching or hitting homeruns or both. As you older guys may know, Franklin went on to do well with a nice career playing for the LA Dodgers.
Not just one player, but the summer '99 (?) that Garner Post 232 hit over 120 HR's was amazing. I believe a couple guys had over 20 a piece.
(David Hicks, Lee Kimball, Jamey Shearin, Steven Carver, Zak Davenport were just a few of the sluggers)
countryboy17
06-04-07, 12:51 PM
I didn't see him pitch, but he was our pitching coach and I've heard others speak of him with reverence.
Gerald Blackburn from Kannapolis: He pitched the old Kannapolis Legion team to the World Series Championship back in the 50's.
He would tell us stories about when he went to spring trainning and would see a rookie named Mickey Mantle on the other team, how everyone would stop what they were doing to watch "The Mick" hit and run.
Here's one I did see: Tommy Smith from Albemarle.
He played for Concord Post 51 when the post included
Albemarle. I think that was around middle to late 60's. He pitched, played SS and centerfield.
Hit with power, strong arm and blazing speed!
Went on the play for NC State and the Indians.
He was my HERO when I was a kid sneaking under the fence to gain entrance to the Legion game.
EastOfRaleigh
06-04-07, 01:03 PM
what was Ralph Roberts' baseball career after HS & legion?
travisunc
06-04-07, 01:21 PM
I grew up in Rowan County and played Legion for Post 342. I was only 6, but I remember the Rowan County vs. Hamlet series in 1979 or 1980 when Franklin Stubbs played for Hamlet. He got the win in every single game for Hamlet if I remember correctly. I think Rowan was up 3-2 and Stubbs pitched back to back games in games 6 and 7 and got the win in both.
Funny story about Tim Witherspoon. I was a 10th grader and was starting my first Legion game at East Forsyth against Kernersville. I was forwarned about Witherspoon....I think he played football at Wake Forest. I struck out the first two batters in the bottom of the first and was feeling pretty good about myself. Witherspoon steps into the box. I haven't been there in awhile, but the scoreboard at East Forsyth use to be just to the left of third base in foul ground. Witherspoon turned on the first fastball he saw from me and hit a screamer into the scoreboard beside third base. The ball stuck in the scoreboard for about 10 seconds before falling to the ground. I snapped back into reality real quick!
Travis,,,, welcome aboard and glad to have you posting. As big as Rowan County legion baseball is, we haven't had many Rowan posters over the years. I try to defend you guys as much as I can from time to time, but my allegiance to my own team only allows me to defend you guys but so much... :4:
Glad to have you posting...
sumball7
06-04-07, 09:39 PM
Best I saw was Ralph Roberts. Ralph went on to Lenoir CC and then UNC for a yr or 2. He then signed with the Braves and stayed in the minors and may still be with the Braves?
Chris Mason was pretty good also that yr he took Cherryville to the national title game. I think his record was something like 15 or 16-0 and had an enormous amount of K's.
BigDipofCope
06-04-07, 10:15 PM
Chris Mason in AA doing quite well: http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Christopher%2520Mason&pos=P&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=452993
luigiboy
06-05-07, 07:26 AM
Best I saw was Ralph Roberts. Ralph went on to Lenoir CC and then UNC for a yr or 2. He then signed with the Braves and stayed in the minors and may still be with the Braves?
Ralph played for the Myrtle Beach Pelican's in the Braves organization up until his release last year. He's now pitching for the Macon Music in the indpependent South Coast League.
homeplate
06-05-07, 07:58 AM
My vote is Franklin Stubbs , Ralph Roberts, Chris Mason, Trot Nixon,
can you beleive stubbs not in American Legion hall of fame
greenballz
06-05-07, 12:11 PM
zach ward
travisunc
06-05-07, 12:39 PM
Cal Hayes was the best all around player I have ever seen in this area. I played against Trot, but we kept him under wraps.
Brian Boltz was the best pitcher I saw. I saw him strike out 21 or 22 in a game in the late 80's. He was drafted by the Braves and was being promoted quickly thru their system until he injured his arm. He was pretty much unhittable.
The toughest pitchers I faced in my day were Joe Legard, Brad Albert, and Hut Smith. Legard thru harder than anyone I faced at the time. Albert thru a split finger which you never saw back then. Smith thru very hard and with out a conscience. If you got a hit off him, then next time up it was going to be close to your head.
I was fortunate to have Shannon Myers in centerfield while I was pitching for a couple of years. It was nice having him behind you because everything that was hit he would corral. He went on to play football and baseball at LR and I think he was drafted in both. Chose football and played professionally in the NFL and CFL for a number of years. Now works in NASCAR as a pit crew member. I played with Keith Knight for a number of years as well. Could do everything (hit, field, pitch), except run.
would be the two that were special from the cherryville area but dont forget the ss from that 03 squad.. pretty tough out himself.. Jay Heafner
Originally posted by travisunc:
If you got a hit off him, then next time up it was going to be close to your head.
...gotta love it. :sifone:
LegionPost46
06-05-07, 02:12 PM
lonnie chisenhall was one of the best hitters i've seen at the legion level and brien taylor from old post 99 was one of the best pitchers i've seen
LegionPost46... I wish we had more of you "downeastern" folks on board here at TBR.
Not sure if you remember him or not, but Jared Sutton of Kinston (Bethel Christian HS/Lenoir CC/UNCW) was recently picked up by the Brewers and is playing A ball for the West Virginia Power.
LegionPost46
06-06-07, 08:49 AM
word jm. i'm about as down east as you can get. from home plate its about driver-7 iron into the water. of course i'd probably miss the putt to get it in.
i saw sutton play at uncw. thats awesome he's making it up the ranks in pro ball.
countryboy17
06-06-07, 10:56 AM
Claude Bernhardt (maybe mis-spelled) from East Rowan High School and Rowan County Legion team. Big strong lefty that had velocity and a lot of movement on his pitches. Played for the Falcons and I heard that he hurt his arm. He was unbeatable!
Of course he probably wouldn't remember my name, but I was a lead off hitter that year for Concord High School and we met East Rowan in the first round. He threw the first pitch to me and I immediately called time out and went back to the dugout to get a shorter/lighter bat.
He struck me out 4 times that day and East beat us 4-0!
I could never catch up to his fastball.
He went on the be the biggest pain in my batting average during my legion career! Not until his arm troubles began, could I do anything with his fastball.
Then he would throw the junk!!!!
He had me talking to myself almost every at bat!
Great days! :ack2:
What's Chisenhall doing in the fall?
I was just told that he signed with Pitt. True?
LegionPost46
06-06-07, 01:26 PM
i never feel comfortable talking about lon's future. i'm sure it will be made known when the time is right. so many people are out there right now who actually want to see him fail. thats why i'm always hesitant to say much. no disrespect intended at all.
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