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 George Gick

Today, Don McShane

McShane, a right-handed hitting second baseman, spent two seasons in the Evangeline League, from 1934-1935.

In 1934, McShane split time between the Lake Charles Explorers, Jeanerette Blues, and Rayne Red Sox, hitting a .242 with one home run.

Interestingly, that one home run he hit, while with Lake Charles, was the only one that McShane hit in his nine seasons of professional baseball.

In 1935, with Rayne, McShane struggled, hitting a .191, prior to playing his last professional season with Gainesville in the Florida League in 1936.

A native of San Francisco, California, McShane also managed Gainesville from 1936 to mid-1939, leading the team to 3 playoff appearances and two league titles, before going on to become a scout for both the Philadelphia Phillies and the Baltimore Orioles.

McShane passed away in 1985 in California.

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