SALISBURY POST
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2009 • 3B
40TH ANNIVERSARY
1969 FROM 1B
FILE PHOTOS
Above, Rowan Legion coach Joe Ferebee trots onto the field to chat with an umpire. Ferebee’s club played before sellout crowds during its playoff run. At left, center fielder Barry Curlee had 13 RBIs in a threegame sweep of Greensboro.
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3NO the lines, not on paper.” Rowan’s run ended in the Southeast Regional in West Palm Beach, Fla., although Benson shut out Greenwood, S.C., in Rowan’s first game. It was his sixth shutout. In his last 50 innings on the mound that season, he allowed one earned run. Rowan dropped Game 2 despite brilliant pitching by Bassinger. Host team Palm Beach beat Rowan 1-0 on a sacrifice fly in the ninth. Curlee made a perfect throw from center field. Bernhardt blocked the plate and tagged the runner on the hip. The call was safe. “That runner was stomping off to the dugout and knew he was out until they
called him safe,” Benson said. “Big letdown. If we win that one and stay in the winner’s bracket, who knows what might’ve happened.” Instead, Rowan lost 8-3 in a rematch with Greenwood and was eliminated. Palm Beach won the regional. Rowan finished 32-9. Benson was 11-2 with an 0.51 ERA. He had 186 strikeouts and 39 walks in 1232⁄3 innings. He completed 13 of his 14 starts. Bassinger (101) finished all 10 of his starts with a 1.32 ERA. Yates was 5-1 with a 1.65 ERA. Paul was 4-2. The staff turned in 32 complete games. Pitching philosophies have changed. Rowan’s long run of success hasn’t.
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The contest is on! Pick your biggest, juiciest tomato and bring it to the official weigh-in stations –
Sponsored by:
July 15 thru August 22
XNT BNTKC VHM Pictures of the top tomatoes will be featured in the Salisbury Post each week and online at www.salisburypost.com. There’s no cost to participate.
www.pattersonfarminc.com www.salisburypost.com
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All tomatoes must be locally grown in Rowan County and be officially weighed.
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en homers and embarrassed Rowan 21-1. Ferebee fixed whatever was wrong by handing Benson the ball in the next game. He fanned 20 Winston-Salem batters and went the distance. That outing ignited a run of 10 straight complete games by Rowan hurlers. After Benson came North Rowan right-hander Jimmy Paul, East southpaw Donnie Bassinger and East’s Yates, another righty. “A key to that pitching staff was (catcher) Perry Bernhardt,” Benson said. “With two strikes on a hitter we could throw a curveball. If it was in the dirt, Perry always blocked it.” With all those complete games, Rowan ripped off 12 straight wins, a spree that clinched the Southern Division of Area III title and erased Thomasville and Greensboro Cone in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Center fielder Barry Curlee had a lot do with taking care of Greensboro. In a three-game sweep, he delivered 13 RBIs. In Game 2, Rowan trailed 3-0 in the ninth when Curlee crushed a grand slam — a 390-foot drive at War Memorial Stadium. In Game 3, Curlee was 5-for-5 with five RBIs. “I wonder how many homers Barry would have hit with an aluminum bat,” Benson mused. A lot more than the five he did swat. Rowan hit only 14 longballs as a team in 1969 —matching the number Trey Holmes alone has launched in 2009. Shortstop Cass Safrit, who had batted .537 at West Rowan to join East’s Benson on the All-State team, also hit five homers to tie Curlee for the team lead. Rowan fell 4-2 in the opener of the Area III championship series to Charlotte Post 9. Rowan was in trouble but Paul, Bassinger, Yates and Benson won the next four — all complete games. Bassinger was the No. 2 starter but one of the better No. 2s in history. In 1969-70, he was 19-1 at East. He was 20-5 in Legion ball. Fans flocked to Newman Park for the playoffs. Benson recalls roped-off sections down both foul lines for Standing Room Only. Paid admissions often topped 3,000 patrons. That fan support helped as Rowan won a tough, sixgame series with Gastonia for the Western N.C. title. With the series tied 2-all, Benson pitched a one-hitter and struck out 18 in Game 5. “It was a total team effort,” he said. “We had chemistry and good defense. Coach Ferebee’s teams were sound. If we got beat, someone had to beat us. We didn’t beat ourselves.” The 1969 team got leadership from third baseman and N.C. State freshman Kelly Sparger and became part of Rowan’s greatest run. In a four-year stretch from 196871, Rowan was state champ twice and runner-up twice. Rowan played Wilmington for the 1969 state title. Benson pitched a shutout in Game 1 on the road, but Wilmington lefty Dave Sandlin no-hit Rowan in Game 2. The series moved to Newman Park for the next three. Bassinger won Game 3. Many thought Benson would throw in Game 4 against Wilmington star Mule Reynolds, but Ferebee stuck with Paul. Statistically, Paul was Rowan’s No. 4 starter, but he pitched a three-hitter and won that pivotal game. Benson credits that decision by Ferebee as the key to taking the series. Game 5 is still remembered. It was 1-1, bottom of the ninth, with two outs, when Benson, Rowan’s pitcher, lined one of Sandlin’s pitches over the leftfield wall. Benson paced the team in batting average, but that was his first homer. Calling the game, Marty Brennaman went crazy. “The most surprised person in the ballpark was me,” Benson said. “I had no idea it was a homer until I got to second base and saw Coach Ferebee jumping four feet off the ground. On paper, Wilmington was better than us, but we had a great coach and we had great fans. As players, we had a lot of heart and determination, and that series was decided between
OFFICIAL RULES: All tomatoes must be locally grown in Rowan County. There is no cost to enter the Top Tomato contest. Only tomatoes weighed in at the official-weigh stations will be considered in this contest. Pictures of the tomatoes and growers will be taken. Winner of the Top Tomato contest will be announced on August 29 in the Salisbury Post and on Patterson Farm’s website. No employee of Patterson Farm or the Salisbury Post is eligible to win.
Official weigh-in stations:
/@SSDQRNM %@QL Mon - Sat 8 am - 6 pm Weigh-ins will be conducted by Patterson Farm employees.
2@KHRATQX %@QLDQ R ,@QJDS Wed & Sat 8 - 10 am Weigh-ins will be conducted by the Rowan County Cooperative Extension office and Master Gardeners.
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