by Bob Linehart
posted July 13, 2008
In 1972, the Big Red Machine was just getting started, Johnny Bench had become a national hero, Joe Morgan would soon be the best second baseman in the majors, and Pete Rose was the model of a wholesome, hard working professional athlete. Andy Tucker’s family moved from Cincinnati to Signal Mountain that same year. The five-year-old would follow his home team as they grew in fame - he was bound and determined to follow his big league heroes into baseball immortality.
In 1974, he played his first year of organized baseball in Signal Mountain’s newly formed “Peanut League” – a Dixie Youth Baseball (DYB) league for seven and eight year olds.
That same year Dick Cole, a spirited 12-year-old remembers hitting his first DYB home run at Marion Field – a line drive straight toward center field, the bases were loaded, and the ball screamed toward the fence. By the time Dick rounded the bases, he had hit a grand slam, his team had won the game, and he had a memory to last a lifetime.
This year marks Dixie Youth Baseball’s 50th anniversary. On Signal Mountain, our recreation baseball league is beginning its 46th year as members of DYB. This is also a very special year – for the first time, Chattanooga communities will be hosting all of Tennessee’s DYB State Championship tournaments. Sixty teams from around the state in four different age divisions – more than 1,500 children and parents will be coming to Chattanooga for the tournament this July. Signal Mountain will host the 9 and 10 year old division championship which will consist of 15 teams.
DYB on Signal Mountain during the 1970s saw boys such as Rudd Montgomery, David Henry, Frank Martin, Troy McCamish, Jeff Meier, Chris Werner, and Daniel Ottley play and excel in our league. When Dewayne McCamish moved to Signal Mountain in the early 1970’s with his young family to begin his Orthodontia practice, his boys wanted to play baseball.
Dewayne states, “My first role in DYB was with the Peanut League, we played in a small park at the bottom of the Hidden Brook neighborhood (now Andy Anderton Park). We worked with the Town and cleared the lot to make a small baseball field. We started a league just for the younger kids.”
Bernard Wolfe, Ray Barnes, Cliff Cleveland, John Collins, Howard Ottley, Jack Tucker, and others were coaches who gave a significant amount of time to the league. McCamish remembers all the coaches, “as quality men – guys who gave of their time for a variety of community benefits, not just the boys and baseball.” The 1970’s were a time of growth and vitality on the mountain. The league was growing quickly and teams would practice wherever they could find space in the Town’s limited parks and fields. The Town Hall fields were built and soon named after Bob Scott and Tony Rutledge, two coaches who worked on the field, helped to build the existing bleachers, and spent many years working with the boys. All the games were moved from Marion and Driver fields behind the Country Club to Scott and Rutledge fields during the mid 70’s. The majority of the league’s games are still played at these fields.
Dick Cole, now 46, followed his older brothers into the league in the late 60’s and finished when he was fourteen in 1976 when we still had a league for that age group. He played a year in Red Bank, but realized he enjoyed playing the game with his neighborhood friends and came back to the mountain. Dick states, “I especially remember Coach Beaver being very patient with us . . . reaching somebody like me to teach me the game of baseball, sportsmanship, and what is important in life.”
Andy Tucker, now 40 recalls playing in a district tournament, “We played Lookout Mountain, Lookout Valley, Red Bank, Rivermont, and others. We didn’t win too often, but we always enjoyed beating Lookout Mountain - some things never change.” Andy especially remembers Steven Caine, “I think he was the only kid to ever hit a home run off me and he hit two of them – one a monster blast over the tall Driver fence.”
During the 1970s, McCamish, Ray Barnes, and others distributed a small college scholarship each year to Signal Mountain children with the excess revenues taken in from the league. They instituted the evaluation process prior to picking the teams, “my goal was for every team to end up with five wins and five losses – the boys have much more fun when the teams are even,” states McCamish.
McCamish, now 62, recalls coaching Signal Mountain to our first state tournament. “We won the Region for the first time. We were never too deep in pitching, but we were strong at all the other positions. The bigger towns had a lot of talent at every position. Our star pitcher, Randy Copas was at the boys’ choir camp on Monteagle during the state tournament. I offered to drive to Monteagle to pick up Randy and take him to our games and then drive him back, but we couldn’t work out the logistics. It probably wouldn’t have made a difference, but he could sure pitch that ball.”
Asked about his greatest memory of DYB, Dr. McCamish states, “We have different focuses as we go through the stages of life . . . you never realize until you are older how much influence people have on your life. Being involved in kid’s activities was a worthwhile investment of my time. I look back on it and just smile, knowing it was something that was right, knowing I had a positive influence on a lot of little lives. My grandson is two-years-old. I hope I am able to coach again in DYB in a few years. I just loved it, it is a great community effort and I loved being involved.”
Talking with the players and coaches of the 60s and the 70s, it is clear the league has changed very little. It still is a game the boys remember as among the best times of their lives and the parents cherish along with them.
I asked Andy Tucker who was the most influential coach he ever had. As a former coach, I can only hope my son would have the same response as Andy when he said simply, “my Dad.”
Bob Linehart
blinehart@comcast.net
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