Remembering The Evangeline League: 1948

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 took a look back at the 1947 season.

Today, the 1948 season.

The Evangeline League underwent a couple of changes in 1948, with the Lafayette Bulls replacing the Natchez Giants, and the New Iberia franchise changing their nickname from the Cardinals to the Pelicans.

For Lafayette, who played as the Lafayette White Sox from 1934-1941, the Bulls represented their return to the Evangeline League after a two-year hiatus.

The Bulls were managed by Harry Strohm, who had managed the Lafayette White Sox in 1940, and who managed the New Iberia Cardinals the previous year.

The playoffs were canceled in 1948, due to bad weather, so the league reverted back to the regular season standings to determine a champion.

The Houma Indians finished with the most wins (81) during the regular season, followed by Hammond Berries (79), the Thibodaux Giants (76), the Baton Rouge Red Sticks (72), New Iberia (70), the Alexandria Aces (68), the Abbeville Athletics (53), and Lafayette (49).

Hammond's Roy "Tex" Sanner, a sweet-swinging left-handed hitting outfielder from Guena Springs, Kansas, was the league's Triple Crown winner in 1948, hitting a .386, to go along with 34 home runs and 126 runs batted in.

Sanner was also an effective pitcher, compiling a 21-2 record on the bump.

Over his 17-year professional career, Sanner hit over 200 homers, while compiling over 130 victories as a pitcher.

Hammond veteran Paul Bruno, who began his professional career 14 years earlier with New Iberia in the Evangeline League, led the league in wins (22), for a second-consecutive season, while James Bradshaw of Baton Rouge had the best ERA. (2.37).

1948 proved to be an offensive season for the Evangeline League, with only two pitchers finishing the season with a sub 3.00 ERA.

Alexandria led the league in attendance in 1948, drawing 127,178 fans.