Remembering the Rock Hill World Series Champs of 1991
A local street was named for the team’s coach Leroy Bryant, which got me traveling down Memory Lane. This was a HISTORIC team.
I was happy to read The Troy Messenger article telling readers the City of Troy recently named a street (near Franklin Drive) in honor of the late Leroy Bryant, the head coach of Troy’s most famous and important youth baseball team - the 1991 Dixie Boys World Series champs.
Naming a street for Coach Bryant, a long-time Troy Dixie baseball coach and also a coach in Brundidge, was a classy and appropriate honor by City Leaders. Fittingly, “Leroy Bryant Drive” goes right by the field where these players enjoyed so many memorable summer league games.
In 1991, I was a young sports editor of The Messenger and wrote pages of stories about this unforgettable team and, with my friend and fellow writer Andy Murphree, covered all the team’s games in Rock Hill, SC.
Thirty three years later I have no trouble remembering many details that made this team so special. Upon reflection, I also realized this team helped make possible several significant local events and developments in our community.
A Trip Down Memory Lane …
Winning a World Series title was huge and significant local news in 1991. While Troy had long been considered a “baseball town,” no Troy team had ever won a Dixie World Series “national” championship.
The 1991 Dixie Boys team didn’t just win a state title in the 13 and 14-year-old Dixie Boys classification, the team dominated its competition and was barely challenged by any team in Alabama.
Troy, which was undefeated prior to heading to South Carolina, won most games at the District and State Tournaments by lopsided margins, often winning via the “10-run rule.”
The team had no weakness. The lineup was full of players who could - and did - routinely hit home runs.
The pitching staff - led by Coach Bryant’s son, Marcus Bryant - was also dominant. I remember the pitching staff could go six or seven players deep.
When Marcus was on the mound, Troy was almost guaranteed a victory.
(Note: To help fill in some gaps from my memory, I subscribed to newspapers.com, where I found archived articles from The Rock Hill Herald whose coverage was fantastic.)
Dixie Boy’s version of Doc Gooden (and Daryl Strawberry) …
In the World Series, Marcus Bryant got the start in Game 1 against defending World Series champion South Gwinett County (Ga). Troy won 4-1 with Bryant pitching a no-hitter until the sixth inning. In seven innings, Bryant allowed only two hits and 15 of the game’s 21 outs were K’s.
For good measure, Bryant also hit a towering home run in the game, one of two round-trippers he blasted in Rock Hill.
After entering the World Series undefeated, Troy won its first three games over the state champions from Georgia (4-1), Tennessee (8-4) and Mississippi (9-3) to put itself in the driver’s seat to win the title.
However, Troy was upset in its fourth game by the South Carolina state champs from Irmo, who defeated the team now known as “Alabama,” 13-7, delighting the huge crowd of SC supporters.
Troy then had to turn around and play the same team to avoid elimination. In a tense game, Troy prevailed 6-4.
This set up the winner-take-all championship game on a steamy and humid August Saturday against the Florida state champs from East Pensacola.
Troy jumped out to an early lead, but Florida rallied to take a 6-4 lead, heading into the fifth inning.
Troy rallies with two outs …
In the top of the fifth, Florida retired Troy’s first two batters, before Jason Callin stroked a double to right field, followed by consecutive singles by Al Jones and Tommy Lucas.
That’s when second baseman Jamie Price, who batted 8th in the lineup, hit the “shot heard around Pike County” - a three-run blast over the center field fence that put Troy back in the lead.
“This is definitely the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me,” said Price, who was quoted in the local paper the next day.
While Sean Mobley started the game on the mound, third baseman Willie Wright came on to pitch the final three innings in relief, allowing just one run and protecting what ended up being an 11-7 victory.
From the Championship Game Box Score …
From a box score in The Rock Hill Herald, I learned that eight of Troy’s batters recorded hits in the game (Troy finished with 14 hits in the seven inning game). Here’s the batting order and a few game stats:
Willie Wright (3B/P): 1-for-4
Courtney Frazier (CF): 2-for-4 with 2 runs
Marcus Bryant (SS/catcher): 1-for-4 and 2 runs
Andy Blair (1B/3B): 2-for-3 with two runs and 3 RBI
Al Renfroe (catcher): 1-for-1
Jason Callin (RF): 1-for-2 with 1 run.
Al Jones (LF): 2-for-3 with 3 RBI
Tommy Lucas (RF/1B): 3-for-4 with 1 run
Jamie Price (2B): 1-for-3 with 3 RBI
Saturation Media Coverage back home …
The game was broadcast in Troy by WTBF and no doubt produced stellar ratings.
“I recorded these games from the radio on cassette tapes and I still have them!” said Emily Wilson-Craver 20 years later, on a Facebook post that commemorated the 20th anniversary of the title.
Molly Williams Rogers also listened to every pitch.
“My mom and I were headed to a swim meet in Dothan and we listened to the game on the radio,” she said. “I still remember when we all met at the ball field to welcome (the team) home.”
The game wasn’t just broadcast on the radio, Harold Freeman, the owner of Troy Cable, sent a crew (including, of course, Mike Amos, himself and Mr. Freeman’s son, Bogie) to Rock Hill to televise the tournament’s final games, which were re-broadcast for weeks.
I can report that no other town had a TV crew televising the Rock Hill games, reinforcing the commitment of “Bogie Vision” to covering all important local events - even in South Carolina!
Andy Murphree and I did our part to chronicle the event by writing four to five stories and “Tourney Tidbit” pieces every day (for six days) from our hotel room in Rock Hill.
At that time, I didn’t know how to work a laptop computer so we hand-wrote the articles on yellow legal pads and faxed our stories back to my Messenger sports assistant David Jackson, who typeset the stories and got them into that day’s newspaper.
(I would take pictures and find someone who was going back to Troy to deliver my film to The Messenger office. A few times I “filed stories” the old-fashioned way: I would call David and dictate the story over the phone!)
A giant crowd greets the champs back in Troy …
After the team won our town’s first World Series title, City Fathers quickly organized a ceremony to welcome the champs back to Troy (complete with a police escort from the county line).
The welcome-home ceremony was held at the Franklin Drive ball fields and attended by throngs of local thrilled citizens.
I was always grateful that Troy Messenger publisher Rick Reynolds paid for Andy and I to spend six nights in Rock Hill, SC. As it turned out, the newspaper made its money back by selling “Congratulations!” ads in a special keepsake edition the newspaper published.
Rick took photos of every player, which The Messenger put on the front page of the commemorative edition.
Thinking about all of this makes me think of how fortunate our children are to live in a small town where events like this are celebrated by the entire community, which is not the case in larger cities.
The team’s title had significant ripple effects …
The World Series experience made a profound impression on key Recreation Department leaders, including the late Bo Gaylard, the director of Parks and Recreation at the time.
Bo later told me, confirmed by Dan Smith, that he wanted to create a “Sportsplex” for the citizens of Troy that was very similar to that of Rock Hill, SC.
This soon happened and, today, Troy’s 8-field complex of baseball fields looks very similar to what we all remember enjoying for so many days in Rock Hill. (A key component of both fields is that they could be used for softball games and youth baseball games).
And then Troy hosted its own World Series …
Bo and Dan were so impressed by the experience and town support of the World Series that they later put in bids with the Dixie Baseball organization and, seven years later, Troy hosted its first Dixie Boys World Series (for 13-year-old Dixie Boy teams).
I don’t think any town hosted a more first-class World Series than the City of Troy did in the late 1990s. I remember Pat Dye was the keynote speaker at the welcoming banquet, which was held at Troy Elementary School and attended by what seemed like 1,000 people.
The Dixie Darling cloggers stole the show as entertainment. The World Series games were very well attended - probably because Troy, the host team, almost won the tournament (Willie Wright’s baby brother, Wesley, a future Big Leaguer, was the team’s star pitcher and short stop).
Troy’s World Series included a fireworks display, primo goody bags for participants … athletes could stay in dorms at Troy State or local hotels and local citizens volunteered to be “host families” for our guests, who must have had the experience of a lifetime. (“Bogie Vision” of course broadcast all of the games - and fans from out of town could get their own tapes).
I’m not sure any of this would have happened - including, perhaps, the building of the Sportsplex - if this 1991 team hadn’t won the World Series a few years earlier.
*** (Thank you for subscribing to the new on-line Troy Citizen!) ***
The Sportsplex project was a civic grand slam …
As another aside, the construction of the Sportsplex resulted in hundreds of softball teams and youth baseball teams traveling to Troy and spending money in our town, which no doubt led to the construction of several new hotels.
The Sportsplex was such a hit the complex was expanded from its original four fields to eight and then a YMCA type multi-purpose recreation complex was added and then a playground, walking trails, soccer fields, batting cages, etc.
Today, on any youth sports night, more than 1,000 local residents (and residents who live in other towns but whose kids play sports in Troy) come together as a happy family at the Sportsplex.
It’s probably no coincidence that the largest residential and commercial developments that have occurred in Troy the last two decades occurred on previously undeveloped real estate near the Sportsplex.
That is, building - and then expanding and improving - this facility might have been one of the most significant civic projects in Troy history. (And, today, half the participants are female athletes, which definitely was not the case when I was growing up).
One should also not underestimate the importance of establishing a “championship tradition” for your community.
The excellent facilities - and excellent batting cages and practice facilities - no doubt were used to produce even more talented future baseball and softball players, which resulted in other excellent youth teams as well as even more talented high school teams (at CHHS and PLAS).
I doubt the 13 young teenagers on this team - who were just playing a game they love -realized the impact their accomplishments on a baseball diamonds would have on the town of Troy all these decades later.
But whether they knew it or not in 1991, these young people (now all 47 or so) made everyone a little prouder to be from Troy … and they definitely made history!
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NOTE: I’ve included a dugout of bonus Rock Hill tidbits in today’s Reader Comments.
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Troy basketball double-header starts tomorrow at 2 …
A 10-day hiatus for Troy women’s basketball ends on Saturday at 2 p.m. when it opens a doubleheader at Trojan Arena against Memphis.
The Troy men’s basketball team is back in Trojan Arena as it welcomes Middle Georgia State to the Wiregrass for a Saturday afternoon showdown. Tipoff is slated for 4:30, and will follow the Troy women’s basketball game against Memphis that will get underway at 2 p.m.
Troy (5-4) is looking to get back into the win column after falling on the road to Houston, 62-42, on Tuesday night. For Middle Georgia State (7-3), Saturday’s game will be an exhibition as it is not part of the NCAA.
As written about earlier, numerous special promotions for fans and families will be a part of these games and two other upcoming men’s games.
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Looking for something fun to do this weekend?
Fun trip down memory lane!
A good question for a future story - or for a lively "Reader Comment" discussion (once people discover the Reader Comments) - might be this question: "What is the most memorable local sports story of your lifetime and why?"