The Somerset Ball

“In order to field a team, newly appointed head coach Robert Troutman depended on word of mouth since he had little time to recruit players. There were no signs around the school, and only a brief mention during the homeroom morning announcements, over the public address system earlier in the week. So, on a cold, windy day at Brooks stadium in late March 1970, a rag-tag group of baseballers gathered at the boy’s basketball locker room for the first day of tryouts.

It was 40 degrees outside and wet since there had been nearly two inches of rain the day before. Those of us who were interested showed up with hats, cleats, sweat clothes, and gloves. It was an odd collection of colors and logos. We wore hats or shirts that were left over from past accomplishments; like hats with a script “P” for a Paducah All-Star Team or a winning Pony or Colt teams. These symbols represented success to each of us (but meant nothing to the coaching staff) as perhaps it should have been in a new beginning. However, those who had Tilghman hats or shirts were held in esteem by the rest of us, since they had already played the year before.

We all knew each other, and we were quickly sizing each other up- calculating the odds of making the team, and the starting lineup for the Paducah Tilghman baseball team.

There were the usual suspects, and some ringers. Since the rookie coach had not seen any of us play before, no one was assured a spot.”

Paducah, Kentucky, was the kind of town in Middle America where the Khoury and Little Leagues developed young athletes. The Paducah youth leagues had produced outstanding all-star teams, American Legion teams, and even one high school state champion.

However, not much was expected for our 1970 Paducah Tilghman high school team, which had few returning players and a new coach. The entire season would turn into an experiment for all of us. But despite a season of inconsistent play and some untimely bad breaks, our team scrambled its way through the competitive district and regional play-offs and into one of the most interesting Kentucky state baseball tournaments in history. The tournament was one of the most memorable in Kentucky sports history, including teams from Madisonville, Louisville Trinity, Lexington Lafayette, Somerset, Russell, Covington Catholic, Elizabethtown and Paducah Tilghman.

This is a story of growing up in a small Midwestern town - remembering youth sports and a tribute to the great players across the State as told through photographs, statistics, news accounts and memories of the 1960s.