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 remembered Jack Kraus

Today, Chris Flanagan

Flanagan, a left-handed hitting outfielder, spent one season in the Evangeline League, before playing three more years, in the Southern Association and Southeastern League 1939-1941.

In 1938, with the Abbeville Athletics, in his first year of professional baseball, Flanagan led the Evangeline League in hitting, batting a .352, and hits, with 178.

The line-drive hitter also tallied 16 doubles, a league-high 18 triples, and a career-high 7 home runs, giving him 41 extra base hits for an Abbeville team that made it to the finals, before being defeated by Lake Charles.

Those 41 extra base hits helped Flanagan compile a .497 slugging percentage. Not bad for a guy that hit 7 of his career 8 home runs in that 1938 season.

Flanagan moved on to play for the New Orleans Pelicans of the Southern Association, and the Mobile Shippers of the Southeastern League,  before retiring following the 1941 season.

In 4 minor league seasons, Flanagan hit a .317, along with 8 homers, 51 doubles, and 29 triples, while accumulating 443 hits.

Flanagan is certainly not the best-known of the former Evangeline League players, but his 1938 campaign is without question one that should be mentioned.

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