Holy crap...Haven't heard "Flat River" in forever. I remember when we moved to Fredericktown, Flat River was the place to be! Lol
I see you're still stuck that era calling it Flat River. I lived just outside and in Bonne Terre from '75 to '86 because I could work close to home, Bismarck, Desoto and on the Pea Ridge Branch line, on the RR most of the time then. I drove through Flat River, River Mines and Elvins many a trip to get to work. Also played a lot of baseball and softball in the whole area.
I know very little about the Raiders right now. From what I've read in the paper it sound like they brought in some good players. They have preseaon scrimmage deal here this weekend I think. Not sure why that stuff is allowed now when they can't play games til the end of Jan. but that's how it will be in this strange sports world of ours.
Former Flat River Met here! It will always be Flat River to me.Back in the day, there were Babe Ruth baseball teams called the Esther Hawks, the Elvins Expos, and the Flat River Mets. Hell, even Doe Run had a team.
My nephew played on the Esther A’s minor league team and we had the exact uniforms as the bad news bears. The season highlight was my nephew fighting the team bully (his teammate) on the pitchers mound during the middle of a game. My dad was the coach and he just let them fight.
I played with the Bonne Terre Phillies in the Ozark men's baseball league after I moved to Bonne Terre. Randy Hubbard was the player coach and we had the Harris brothers,TG and Brad and Hoghead Hulsey too. Played that for a 2 or 3 years before everybody switched to slow pitch softball. Had lot of fun in my 11 years of living there.
I played with the Dolphins one summer! Fredcity either didn't have a team, or a few of us went north for some reason. I didn't play a ton, but had a helluva time sitting on the tires chewing seeds.
Caught many games there. Didn't call a ton of off stuff on those days. And when I did, if you were very observant, you knew it was coming. Still remember catching a guy named Chad Morgan there. 7 inning shutout. Chad was good. Big out pitch was a knuckle-curve, and he could make it dance when he was on. I had to have run a mile that day chasing that thing to the backstop...Hardest ball I've ever hit in my life was a ball to dead center there. No fence. I wasn't fast. The fact that I had to hustle and beat a play at the plate for that was just unfair.
I played in that outfield, the poles were in right and left center not on the corners. You had to watch the ball and watch where you were goin on anything in the gaps for sure.
And watch for the center fielder too. Good times for sure. My first at bat in the Ozark Mens league was at Desloge. I had a 3-0 count and squared to bunt, Bunns Ragsdale was at 3rd and I guess he figured I was just faking the bunt and he never moved. I dropped the bunt down and he no chance to throw me out. Every time I've seen him since then he says that guy would drop down a bunt in any situation, he never has forgot that. Played at Old Mines with no fence. Nearly had my first baseball HR there. They had no fence and I golfed one deep to RF and would have been easy to circle the bases but it was foul by inches.
It was a father son duo, right? Those guys were NUTS! Leadwood was probably the most entertaining place to play.
Played a of lot of softball against Peanut and a few games on the same team with him for a few tourneys. I played on that Commerce Bank team at Tourney in Greenville. The lights were kind like at Bonne Terre but pretty deep. I went to get a fly ball past the lights in the dark, I could see it in the lights and caught it but the rest of the team and umps had no idea if I had until I ran back in the lights with the ball.
I got the feeling there weren’t too many last names in that little pocket anyway. Lol. What was the last name? I think I’d remember it if I heard it.
Yeah my post was about what I remember as better more enjoyable times. It's fun to reminisce. All these stories were happening all over the country back then. It sure beats all the crap going on today.
