Final Inning for McComb's Historic Ball Field

The hallowed park that housed much of McComb's youth baseball program for more than 70 years is now firmly at rest in the dustbins of history.

Recently removed from the landscape were fences, flagpole, grandstands and dugouts. I hope they saved the signs and sacred flags.

The golden memories cannot be erased. They are firmly entrenched in the inner souls of those who ever tapped home plate with a bat before digging in to take a swing, and in the hearts of parents who trekked to Danny Nichols Field year after year to watch children at play.

We won't forget Danny Nichols, forever a ninth-grader at McComb High whose plight of acute illness was told in late 1956 on page one of the Enterprise-Journal, for which he had been a paper route carrier and kid reporter.

Danny was McComb Little League Baseball's scorekeeper for at least two of its four-year existence by then. He was so revered by players, team managers and league officials that his name was destined for a pedestal at the park that's located on the city's northeast edge, amid the baronial oaks and azaleas emblazoning the area.

The press box carrying Danny's name went down with the rubble, but his memory will remain alive whenever McComb kids choose sides for a baseball game--organized or sandlot.

Bill Bonnette, a U.S. Navy chief petty officer whose recruiting duties sent him to McComb around 1950, established the local league with city officials and some dedicated private citizens. Eventually, the McComb Exchange Club took the reins and successfully led its operations until the end.

Under Bonnette, the program was aligned with Williamsport, Pa.-based Little League Baseball Inc., which stages a renowned World Series annually. An early McComb all-star team lost in the state finals, ending hopes of a series trip.

McComb's league bolted LLB with most of the South in the late 1950's, as the burgeoning integration of local leagues loomed. The city affiliated with South Carolina-based Little Boys Baseball Inc., later known as Dixie Youth Baseball; still later tossing aside some of the vestiges of race under today are Diamond Youth Baseball.

It was with the "Little Boys Baseball" partnership in 1960 that first brought McComb a state championship in the 11-12-year-old age group. I was lucky to be the catcher on the team for possibly the entire South's singular youth baseball pitcher of the era, Ernest "Bubba" Walker. His strong right arm led us through district and state titles to the World Series in Virginia where we finished third among eight state winners and a home team.

A few years ago I revisited West Point and handsome Marshall Park where we had captured the state crown. That old field also saw better days in an era perceived as idyllic before the period of social unrest arrived.

We played baseball under a brotherhood of men who had learned the game in their youth. There were so many gentlemen who stepped up to train us that I'd be derelict forgetting the name of even one, thus I shouldn't try.

Our hot-shot team had also learned at the feet of some of the city's best athletes of the post-war period, several of whom later played college football and baseball. One was the immortal Jimmy Yawn, like Walker a fire-ball pitcher and batter of monumental stature who once hit four home runs for Ole Miss in one college playoff game.

Nowadays, most of Pike County's youth baseball is played in nearby Summit, where new memories will surely be created as long as kids play the game of summer.

---Mac Gordon is a native of McComb. He is a retired newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.