Photograph:
Guest speaker Bobby Ardoin and club member Mike Ortego show a copy of a 1958 Daily World baseball preview highlighting the summer baseball program at South City Park in Opelousas. (Photograph by Freddie Herpin.)
The Opelousas Rotary Club met on Tuesday, June 13th for their weekly luncheon where local sports writer, Bobby Ardoin, was presented by Opelousas Rotary President Rick Urban as the guest speaker for the meeting.
Bobby’s presentation provided a reflection on mid-20th century Opelousas Summer League Baseball. Members of the Opelousas Noon Rotary Club were taken back to the late 1950s on a weekday summer evening in South City Park as Bobby laid out the scene in great detail.
“Imagine. . . if you glance towards right center field, you can catch a glimpse of Donald Gardner Stadium, still under completion. . . the dugouts constructed of dark green pine and laced with chicken wire for players’ viewing and protection. On the field players would be wearing wool baseball pants and stockings-like the big leagues of that era.”
Ardoin’s presentation outlined the sights and sounds of Opelousas Summer Recreation Little League baseball. South City Park at this time was the center of life for several hundred youths from June until the playoffs were completed in late July.
Why was park baseball so significant during the ’50’s and ’60’s?
Baseball was the most significant game nationally at that time and officials and business owners were supportive. Spectators could perch on their bicycle seats, park along the fence of any league and watch the other guys go at it. It was also an early feeder program for high school teams. Summer recreation league baseball was essentially free, as long as you had a glove and a paid registration fee.
The culmination for all the instruction and effort for the summer league program reached an apex in 1963. That year a select team of all-star players won the state Babe Ruth League Tournament in Baton Rouge and reached regional level competition in El Paso. You could trace their progression and ability back to Little League, where coaches like Leo Soileau, George Daigle, George Soileau, Buck Little, Elmus “Mr. Mac” McDaniel, Roy Loup, Tommy Murrell, Murphy Carrier, Sid Ardoin, and others provided them with the initial skills.
The first era of citywide summer league baseball achieved its objective. In addition, there was the sociological component. Kids became acquainted with other boys who resided elsewhere and came from different economic backgrounds. However, for a few months out of the year they were equivalent -teammates, baseball brothers and league rivals who have since become lifelong friends.
Bobby Ardoin added how the memories of those park league baseball summers still remain. For us long ago baseball developed into an athletically binding experience that has endured a lifetime.
