Baseball, agriculture share a history in Wayne County
By Steve Herring
Published in News on August 31, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Marty Tschetter, the Wayne County Public Library's local historian, talks about the late Ray Scarborough, a Major League Baseball pitcher who also was a salesman for the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. Tschetter spoke Thursday evening, Aug. 18, during the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce's Mount Olive Mingle at Steele Memorial Library. The caricatures on the left are about Scarborough, who pitched for the New York Yankees in the 1952 World Series.
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Marty Tschetter, the Wayne County Public Library's local historian, talks about the late Ray Scarborough, who is pictured on the banner behind him. Scarborough, a Major League Baseball pitcher, was also was a salesman for the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. Tschetter spoke Thursday evening, Aug. 18, during the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce's Mount Olive Mingle at Steele Memorial Library.
MOUNT OLIVE -- Baseball fields and cucumber fields have more in common than what most people might realize, and at one time there were plenty of both in Wayne County.
There were semi-pro and community baseball teams in Mount Olive in the 1890s. There were black teams in Goldsboro in the 1890.
They played other teams from all over the state.
"Goldsboro and Mount Olive were railroad towns so that is how they were able to do this," said Marty Tschetter, the Wayne County Public Library's local historian. "So there is this whole network, which is real exciting.
"A lot of these guys on these community and semi-pro teams were farmers and mill workers, and that is important. There were baseball fields all over the place in this county. We want to document it."
Tschetter spoke about the county's baseball history Thursday, Aug. 18, during the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce's Mount Olive Mingle held in the J.D. Evans Community Room at Steele Memorial Library.
Tschetter and Lynn Williams, public relations manager at Mt. Olive Pickle Co., prepared the exhibit "90 Years of the Pickle People" celebrating the company's 90 anniversary for the library.
The Wayne County Library has two ongoing public history projects both of which tie in to the pickle company -- agriculture, in cooperation with the Extension Service, and baseball, Tschetter said.
"There is this fantastic connection between baseball and agriculture," Tschetter said. "So to kind of manage that project we have six banners depicting six Major League players from Wayne County with pretty meaningful careers.
"It is extremely difficult to get to that level. There are a few other guys who played Major League, but most of these (featured) guys' careers average seven, eight, nine years."
Johnny Peacock played in the 1930s, mostly with the Boston Red Sox, Tschetter said.
"When he retired from Major League Baseball he actually came back to Wayne County and gets into agribusiness," Tschetter said. "Then Ray Scarborough is the father of Beverly Blackwelder and Shirley Johnson. Probably you all knew that. They have given me access to some phenomenal stuff.
"He plays 10 years in the Major League. He actually is from Montgomery County, but he married a girl from Mount Olive. His entire professional Major League career was (while he lived) in Mount Olive. Then when he retired he came back to Mount Olive and was active in produce and agribusiness and was active in the community."
Scarborough's wife, Edna, was the daughter of W.P. Martin, one
of the Mt. Olive
Pickle Co.'s original shareholders.
"He plays Major League Baseball," Tschetter said. "He debuts in 1942 with the Washington Senators. He is a good pitcher, but not with a great team. He plays in this era where a lot of these guys had second jobs. He starts selling pickles for the Mt. Olive Pickle Co.
"All of his photographs, he has a great smile. In 1951 he gets traded to the Boston Red Sox. He helps open up this Northeast market (for the pickle company)."
Scarborough played 1951 and part of 1952 with the Red Sox before being traded to the New York Yankees.
"He is the only guy from Wayne County to ever play in the World Series, the 1952 World Series," Tschetter said. "The even crazier thing is that at this time there are only 16 Major League teams, now there are 32.
"In the 1952 World Series Clyde King (who lived in Goldsboro) actually played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, and that is who the New York Yankees are playing. So there are two guys from Wayne County in the 1952 World Series. Clyde doesn't play."
Tschetter showed some caricatures of Scarborough originally published in the Boston press in 1951 -- Scarborough's Pickle Barrel, Ray Nickel Pickle, This is Mt. Olive Pickle.
"So it is pretty phenomenal stuff, and this is just a few," he said. "Ray Scarborough, also, when he is with the Washington Senators, he opens Major League Baseball (season) twice in front of President Truman in Washington. This is like '47, '48. He is the opening pitcher for those two games."
In 1949 and 1950 he was not with a great team (Senators), but for some reason the Red Sox only had to win one game in both of those seasons to clinch the pennant to make the World Series, Tschetter said.
"Twice Ray Scarborough beat them," he said. "The Washington Senators were at the bottom of the barrel and had nothing to lose. What happens is they force an extra game, and the Red Sox lose games so they get kicked out of contention.
"Ted Williams, famous slugger and Hall of Famer on the Boston Red Sox, had a really difficult time hitting Ray Scarborough. So he ends up helping him (Scarborough) get traded to the Red Sox."
The baseball field at the University of Mount Olive is named in memory of Scarborough who died in July 1982.
Tschetter said one first times he went to Mrs. Blackwelder's home he found a stack of Scarborough's photos.
"I am digging through the pictures and in the middle is this tiny little record," he said. "I love this kind of stuff. I can get original records, reel-to-reel, we are working on movies, and get them digitize free at ECU. I took it over. All it said was 1946 spring training.
"His daughter, Beverly, had just been born. It is less about baseball and more about being a new dad. It is really powerful because he is in his early 20. Life was ahead of him."
Two more recording have since been found, Tschetter said.
The library has a YouTube channel where the material can be found, he said.