Remembering The Evangeline League: Bobby Goff

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 Jimmy Sanders

Today, Bobby Goff

Sanders, a right-handed hitting infielder, managed two years in the Evangeline League, serving two different stints as manager of the Lafayette White Sox, while also playing 16 minor league seasons.

A native of Dallas, Texas, Goff was the head man in the dugout for Lafayette in 1937, when the White Sox went 73-61, which was the top record in the league, and again in 1941, when they finished 67-67.

As a player in the minor leagues, including the two seasons with the White Sox, when he served as a player/manager, Goff hit a .293 over 16 seasons, accumulating 1,989 hits.

Goff managed three seasons prior to his two in the Evangeline League, with stops in the West Dixie League and East Texas League, with tenures in both the Mid-Atlantic and Texas Leagues following his two years in the Evangeline League.

Following his minor league managerial stints, Goff served as a scout for the Cleveland Indians.

Goff passed away in 1981 in Texas.