Remembering The Evangeline League: 1946

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”.

Yesterday, we went back to the 1942 season.

Today, the 1946 season:

The Evangeline League ceased operations in the middle of the 1942 season, due to World War II, and remained inactive until 1946, when the league returned with eight franchises, including two teams from the Acadiana area, the Abbeville Athletics and the New Iberia Cardinals.

The league was rocked by a gambling scandal in 1946 however, which we'll get to near the end, involving players from Houma and Abbeville.

The Houma Indians, who did not have an affiliation with a team from Major League Baseball, defeated Abbeville, an affiliate of the Philadelphia Athletics, four-games-to-one, in the finals.

Houma finished with the most wins (92) during the regular season, followed by the Natchez Giants (87), Abbeville (82), the Alexandria Aces (67), New Iberia (53), the Thibodeaux Giants (53),  the Baton Rouge Red Sticks (50), and the Hammond Berries (44).

Houma's Michael Conroy, who served in the military during World War II, led the league in hitting, at a .372, finishing two percentage points ahead of Hammond's Joseph "Babe" Benning, who played in the Evangeline League 12 years earlier with the Rayne Rice Birds.

Conroy also finished as the league leader in both hits (194) and runs scored (140).

Irving Clement, who played for both Hammond and Abbeville, hit a league-high 25 home runs, while Paul Fugit of Houma drove in 130 runs.

Houma's Bill Thomas led the league with an amazing 35 wins, a number which also led all of professional baseball

We'll get to Thomas and Fugit more in a minute, as they were part of the 1946 Evangeline League betting scandal.

Abbeville's Nat Lowe paced the league in both ERA. (2.03) and strikeouts (215).

Houma defeated Alexandria in the first round of the playoffs, while Abbeville eliminated Natchez, as the two teams advanced to the finals.

League attendance eclipsed 757,000 in 1946.

Unfortunately, the 1946 Evangeline League season will be forever remembered by a betting scandal.

Rumors of corruption began to surface during the playoffs, with charges that bookmakers were actively trying to raise $8,000 in bets for the series between Houma and Alexandria.

The bookies put their money on Alexandria, despite the fact that Houma was the power of the league that season, winning 71% of their games, and Alexandria was hit with a number of injuries.

Why were the bookies trying to raise $8,000?

Well, that was the amount that was rumored to be given to the Houma players to throw the games.

As it turned out, the money was not raise, and Houma easily won the series.

On October 23 of 1946, at a meeting of the Evangeline League, Abbeville owner I.N. Goldberg, charged Houma of intentionally losing two playoff games, one in each round.

Not only that, but Goldberg also charged his own players with losing a playoff game to that same Houma club.

In the end, in January 1947, five players were suspended for betting on Evangeline League playoff games of 1946.

Thomas, along with Fugit, a player-manager, Alvin Kaiser, and Leonard Picou, as well as Abbeville's Don Vettoral were all banned.

All denied fixing baseball games.

Thomas, who was an outstanding pitcher for many years, winning 383 career minor league games, denied the allegations, pointing out that he was 5-0 in the playoffs.

In August of 1949, Thomas was reinstated.

In 1946, the year of the alleged gambling, Thomas went 35-7, with a 2.88 ERA, while leading the league in G (47) and IP (353). His 35 wins also led the league.

Kaiser, Vett and Pecou also maintained their innocence, at least in terms of fixing games.

Both admitted to betting on horse racing, and associating with gamblers, but denied fixing games.

Pecou was also reinstated in 1949.

Kaiser and Vettoral had their eligibility restored in 1949, but never played again.

Fugit, who was know as the major player in the scandal, was never reinstated, and never played professional baseball again.