Remembering The Evangeline League: Frank Oceak

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 Carlos Moore

Today, Frank Oceak

Oceak, a left-handed hitting infielder, managed one year in the Evangeline League, guiding the Lafayette White Sox in 1938, before moving on to become a coach in Major League Baseball, serving on two Pittsburgh Pirates' staffs that won the World Series.

A native of Pocahontas, Virginia, Oceak was the head man in the dugout for Lafayette in 1938, when the White Sox went 69-69.

As a player in the minor leagues, Oceak hit a .299 over 15 seasons.

Oceak was a coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1958-1972, and was coaching third base during Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, when Pirate second baseman Bill Mazeroski hit his dramatic walk-off home run to clinch the Series against the New York Yankees.

After becoming a member of the Cincinnati Reds coaching staff in 1965, Oceak returned to the minors as a manager from 1966-1969, before serving a second stint as a coach for the Pirates from 1970-1972.

His career record as a minor league manager was 1,285 victories, and 1,386 defeats (.481).

Oceak passed away in 1983 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.