Remembering The Evangeline League: 1939

The Evangeline League was a minor league baseball league that ran in southern and central Louisiana from 1934-1957.

The league, which had it’s name taken from Evangeline, the epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, began as a 6-team class D league in 1934, and then expanded to 8 teams the next season, before shutting down for two seasons following the 1943 season due to World War II.

After resuming play in 1946, the Evangeline League remained a class D league, before being promoted to the class C level in 1949.

The league remained in operation until 1957, when two of the six remaining teams dropped out, suspending play that season with no champion being named.

The Evangeline League, which featured a betting scandal back in 1946, featured teams in cities such as Lafayette, Abbeville, Crowley, Opelousas, Rayne, Jeanerette, and Lake Charles.

Despite the stability of the league, the only franchise they lasted all 21 seasons was the Alexandria Aces, while New Iberia had a franchise every season, with the exception of the final one.

Because of the close proximity of the franchises, a number of heated rivalries developed, with crowds that would certainly quality as raucous, getting into it with umpires, players, managers, and one another.

It was an immensely popular league for over two decades, with some franchises actually outdrawing some Major League Baseball franchises, in terms of attendance.

All summer long we’ll be going back in time and look back at the Evangeline League, which was commonly referred to as the “Pepper Sauce League”, “Hot Sauce League”, or “Tabasco Circuit”.

Today, the 1939 season:

The Evangeline League remained as it had been the previous four seasons, with eight teams in 1939.

The Lafayette White Sox, an affiliate of the St. Louis Browns, defeated the New Iberia Cardinals, an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, four-games-to-three in the finals.

The Alexandria Aces finished with the most wins (82) during the regular season, followed by Lafayette (75), the Jeanerette Blues (73), New Iberia, the Rayne Rice Birds (68), the Abbeville A's (65), the Lake Charles Skippers (59), and the Opelousas Indians (51).

Lafayette's Jerry Witte was named the Most Valuable Player in 1939, after leading the league with a .354 average, 184 hits, 55 doubles, and 134 runs batted in.

Witte, who edged out Abbeville's  Ray Taylor for the batting title by four percentage points, was the only Lafayette player to hit over a .300, as well as the only one to hit more than five home runs.

Rayne's Joseph Yourkovich, who played three years in the Evangeline League, led the league in homers, with 18, that season, on of only five players to hit more than 10 long balls.

Abbeville's Max Ferguson led the league in wins, with 22, three more than his teammate, Ed Head, as the two formed a lethal 1-2 combination at the top of the pitching rotation.

Ferguson also finished as the league-leader in ERA. (2.04), while Rayne's Walt Navie totaled the most strikeouts (223).

Lafayette defeated Jeanerette in the first round of the playoffs, while New Iberia eliminated Alexandria, as the two teams advanced to the finals.