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 Everett Robinson

Today, William Adams

Adams, a right-handed hitting shortstop, managed four years in the Evangeline League, guiding the Thibodaux Giants from 1951-1953, before serving as skipper for the New Iberia Pelicans in 1954, while also playing 11 minor league seasons.

A native of Celina, Ohio, Adams was the head man in the dugout for Thibodaux in 1956, when the Giants won the league title, before doing the same with New Iberia in 1954.

As a player in the minor leagues, including four seasons as a player/manager, Adams hit a .279 over 11 seasons, accumulating 1,285 hits, including 127 home runs.

Adams also pitched from 1952 to 1954, going 6-6 with a 4.30 ERA in 37 games.

In his four seasons of managing, Adams finished with a record of 306-246, with his teams finishing in the top two, in terms of regular-season wins, every year.

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