Memories of Yesteryear: Winning Baseball During Football Season

Memories of Yesteryear is a new series featuring community members sharing with us the special stories of our past.

Winning Baseball During Football Season

October, 1956

GUEST BLOGGER JOHN MITCHENER

Monday in October is a school day. The year can be 1956 or 2016 but it is still a school day.

I attended Edenton High School at 600 Woodard Street. My sophomore year. Thinking about Aces football on Hicks Field. Black and white television was still in its infancy.

Lunch was finished. Fifth period English class with Gloria McCollum, a graduate of Duke, had begun. Sometimes we were frisky in her class but not today. Must have been a good lunch.

It could not have been more than ten minutes later when an unexpected knock on the door occurred. Principal Gerald James said that football players were permitted to go to the gym. Football Coach Bill Billings would be waiting for us.

Usually when you were “invited” to the coach’s office you were in trouble. Not today. But why would Coach want to see us two hours before football practice?

Game 5 of the 1956 World Series at Yankee Stadium

A black and white television was on. It was game 5 of the World Series. First time I knew that Bill Billings cared about baseball. His assistant Tunney Brooks, formerly a catcher at Wake Forest, loved the game. But Brooks was nowhere to be seen.

We were out of English class to watch a baseball game! Are you kidding me!

Something serious happening at Yankee Stadium.

This was game five between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Series tied at two wins each. NBC televised the game. Mel Allen called the game for the Yankees and Vince Scully for the Dodgers.

We knuckleheads sat down and watched and listened. I knew nearly nothing about baseball. I had played outfield. My hand-eye coordination was inadequate for hitting fast balls and curves. Track was becoming my spring sport. The mile run my event.

Monday, October 8, 1956 was Game 5 of the 1956 Series.  Series tied at two wins each. Game played at Yankee Stadium. Yankees scored one run in the fourth and another in the sixth to win 2-0. Five hits and no errors. One hit a Mickey Mantle home run. Yanks lost sixth game but won seventh to take the series 4-3.

Don Larsen pitching a Perfect Game in the World Series

Probably six of us crammed into small office. We watched listened and said little. The idea of only facing 27 batters in 9 innings and winning without giving up a hit or a run was slowly happening before our eyes. Don Larsen was pitching the game of his life. Yogi Berra was his catcher. Dodger batters were disappointed at home plate.

You could see the tension in the grandstand as the world was becoming aware of what might happen. You could feel it through the television screen. A perfect game… ? And in the World Series!

It happened with only 97 pitches.

In 1998 Larsen would say “I had great control. I never had that kind of control in my life.”

It was one of only 23 perfect games in the history of major league baseball. There would not be another perfect game in post-season play until 2010.

Part of the beauty of a small school is that teachers and administrators know each other and the students. So many little things had to happen just right for teachers and administrators to cooperate so student-athletes could receive a unique benefit this Monday school day.

The event at Edenton High never made the papers. But it made my day.

The Aces State Championship Football Team as pictured in the 1957 Edentonian Yearbook

One event that did hit the papers happened on November 30, 1956 when Aces football defeated Mebane in Burlington NC for the state 1A football title. Score 45-6 according to 1957 Edentonian Yearbook.

Both events were significant to my education in the 1950’s.

Mr. Mitchener's 1956, 1957, and 1958 Edentonian Yearbooks

I share this story to honor the ACES student-athletes who were runners-up for the for the 2A State Football Title on December 17, 2016 and those who won the 2A Baseball Title June 3, 2017 plus their parents, teachers, coaches and administrators.

John Mitchener
Edenton High School 1959

John Mitchener, a 1959 graduate of Edenton High School, a 1963 graduate of the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, a Vietnam Veteran, a past member of the Edenton-Chowan Schools Board of Education, a retired pharmacist, and a current County Commissioner continues to live in Edenton, NC with Ginette, his wife of 48 years