Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 27, 1994 TAG: 9403270027
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Carolina League begins its 50th season April 7, and finally there is a book other than the usual across-the-minors statistical annuals to chronicle this Class A corner of the baseball world.
Sumner, a curator for the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, takes readers through the seasons by decade. He obviously has done extensive research, and what he has produced is a historical tome. It serves as a good reference book, but it does lack the color one might expect from a book about baseball's bushes.
Sumner writes about "Bull Durham," but the sort of tale told in the movie doesn't appear in these 200-plus pages. There aren't many quotes from former players and managers, either. It is more a season-by-season chronicle, told in the third person.
The development of the league during World War II and the battle to get through the 1970s, years when the minors were shrinking, are the most intriguing parts of the book. Some of the best reading comes in the vignettes offset in boxed type within the chapters.
A Roanoke Valley reader would have liked to read more about the attempt after the 1971 season by late wrestling promoter Pete Apostolou to move the Burlington, N.C., franchise to Roanoke - but Salem refused to give permission under the National Association's 10-mile rule.
Although the Carolina League has produced several players whose careers have taken them to Cooperstown, Sumner's book will help fans remember some of the lesser lights who have played at ancient ballparks such as Salem's Municipal Field and Durham Athletic Park.
Sumner finishes the book with a section on Carolina League records, including summaries and line scores of the league's All-Star games.
The league drew a record 1.74 million spectators last season. Most fans probably didn't know that 1989 wasn't the first time the Carolina League attracted 1 million to ballparks. It had happened once before, 42 years earlier.
Sumner's book is the most voluminous writing on the Carolina League. It gives fans a place to look up those numbers and stir some of their own memories. If it's color you want, you'll have to go to the ballpark - not a bad idea.
by CNB