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 Bill Dossey.

Today, Jerry Witte

Witte was a right-handed hitting first baseman, who played two seasons in the Evangeline League, 1938-1939, before playing two seasons in Major League Baseball, from 1946-1947.

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Witte was a member of the Lafayette White Sox in both the 1938 and 1939 seasons.

After a mediocre 1938 season, one in which he hit a .252 with three home runs, Witte rebounded with an outstanding 1939 campaign, hitting a .354 with 14 homers, along with 55 doubles, a mark which would never be bested in Evangeline League history.

That production by Witte helped lead Lafayette to 75 wins in 1939, and a win over New Iberia in the league finals.

Following minor league stops in Youngstown, Ohio and San Antonio, Texas, as well as service in World War II, Witte spent parts of two seasons with the St. Louis Browns in 1946 and 1947, where he hit a .163 with four homers and 16 runs batted in.

A veteran of 13 minor league seasons, Witte hit a .276, accumulating 1,700 hits, including 308 home runs.

Witte passed away in 2002.

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