RCBL Hall of Fame Class of 2014
Special thanks to Lauren Jefferson (HOF Class of 2017) for researching, writing, and producing player biographies.
|
Bob Blosser
Bob started playing baseball at age 15 with the Smith Creek Indians in various leagues. The roster was full of Blossers, including four brothers, at least four cousins, and an uncle as a manager. Smith Creek became Twin County and joined the RCBL in 1955. Bob played in the County League from that year until 1973. He missed only three seasons of local baseball while in the Marine Corps, where he also found a team to play with.
At Twin County, Bob played under just two managers, fellow Hall of Famer Bobby Strickler and his good friend, Winston McDonaldson. He represented Twin County on at least four All-Star teams in 1966, 1968, 1969 and 1972—and probably several other years as well. In 1972, his final season, he tallied 88 base hits, 20 home runs and 4 grand slams on the way to a league championship. Bob, his wife Gladys, and their children contributed considerable volunteer hours to keep the Twin County team going. Two sons later played in the RCBL. |
|
Tim Bocock
Tim Bocock grew up watching his dad Jack play, and hanging out with his brothers and the Knicely boys at County League games. After helping Turner Ashby’s baseball team to a state championship and two other postseason appearances, Tim came to the RCBL. He played from 1977 to 1994. A lot of people know Tim for his many years with Bridgewater, but he did spend one season with Clover Hill. He played on numerous All-Star teams.
Career statistics are not available, but in three seasons from 1989 to 1991, Tim averaged .333, at one stretch making contact 80 times during 90 games. When he got on base, he was always a threat. During his career, Bridgewater won 11 regular season pennants and nine league titles, including eight consecutive league championships. He also played on two teams that contested, but did not win the league title. His brother Tom was inducted in 2015 and father Jack in 2017. |
|
Mike Estes
Mike Estes had an impressive career before he even got to the RCBL. He was on two championship teams at Turner Ashby High School in 1974 and 1975. Drafted twice during his college career, Mike once led the NCAA with the lowest ERA while at James Madison University. He played two years in the Valley League, helping the 1977 Turks to a championship, before opting the season before his senior year to play with the Harrisonburg ACs.
In his 11-year RCBL career, Mike played on six championship teams— three years with Linville, one year with Grottoes, and two years with Clover Hill— and two runner-up teams. Mike is one of an elite group of four players to earn the Most Valuable Player award three times— the others are Aaron McCarthy, Tom Bocock and Addison Bowman. Mike was MVP in 1979 while with Linville, 1983 with Grottoes, and 1987 with Clover Hill. He was known for making each team he played on into a contender. |
|
Buck Harrison
Buck Harrison started playing with Keezletown in 1948 when he was 12 years old. He thinks the reason for his young start was that his three uncles on the team, including Hall of Famer Ozzie Armentrout, were tired of seeing him hang around the dugout.
A left-handed pitcher, first baseman and outfielder, Buck lasted only five seasons in County League before being recruited to join the Turks at age 17. As an 18-year-old, he was invited to a Pittsburg Pirates tryout, where he threw a bullpen for owner Branch Rickey. Buck played for the Turks from 1953 to 1955. He set the league record for 21 strikeouts in a game. You can imagine the delight when two years later, Buck returned to the RCBL to play with his brother-in-law and uncle at Grottoes. In 1958, Grottoes won the championship and Buck stopped playing the next year. Like a good number of retired baseball players, he took up softball, but soon found he preferred golf. Most locals know Buck more for his golfing accolades than the fact that he was once offered a professional pitching contract. Buck won the Lakeview Club Championship seven times. He has also won the City-County tournament and the Lakeview Amateur tournament five times each. |
|
Johnny Hensley
Johnny Hensley started with Bridgewater in 1950 while still in high school. After graduation, he played two seasons with Linville in the Valley League and then missed three seasons while in the Marine Corps. Returning in 1958, Johnny became one of Bridgewater’s regular starters and strongest hitters. He once threw 25 consecutive scoreless innings.
From 1958 to 1969, Johnny played in 12 consecutive All-Star games, and earned two All-Star MVP awards. During the 1962 championship season, he hit .329 and had a 5-2 record with 74 strikeouts in 60 2/3 innings. He led the 1965 team in offensive categories, posting a.426 batting average (over two fellow Hall of Famers, Griff Gilkerson and Keith Spitzer) and collecting 27 RBIs. Johnny later played for Linville until his last season in 1970, when he moved out of the area. He was not just someone who played and didn’t give back. He fundraised for any team he was on, as well as the league itself. Though never elected in an official capacity as a league administrator, Johnny was a big reason why the league was able to promote itself and honor its important contributors with a variety of public functions, including all-star games and recognition, throughout the 1960s. |
|
Ernie Knicely
Ernie Knicely’s local baseball career started with the Harrisonburg Turks, where he perfected his knuckleball under the guidance of former Phillies outfielder George Dinges. Ernie played for Keezletown, Linville and Harrisonburg in the Valley League in the 1950s, and also played on County League teams. He has the distinction of pitching for Towers in the first night game at the new Clover Hill ballpark in 1954. Through the 1960s, Ernie pitched for Linville, Spring Creek and Briery Branch, earning a series of All-Star starts and was an All-Star MVP at least once.
After retiring from baseball, he coached his sons in Senior League. One of those players on that team team recently said, “Ernie taught me everything I know about baseball.” Then he told how Ernie could lay down a bunt using the end of the bat like a pool stick. While this award is certainly for Ernie, we also want to mention that he and his wife, Virginia, passed on their love of the game to their children. Six sons played County League baseball. Ernie’s son E.L. is already in the hall of fame, and another son, Harold, will be inducted next. The Knicelys are truly a Hall of Fame family for their involvement with local baseball. |
|
Harold Knicely
Like Mike Estes, with whom he played on the state-title winning team at Turner Ashby, Harold Knicely also had an illustrious career alongside his County League achievements. Harold played for Bridgewater for two seasons in high school, and signed as a free agent after graduation to the Houston Astros. After two years as a catcher in the minors, he returned to the RCBL in 1977 and promptly helped Bridgewater to two consecutive league championships and then two runner-up losses to Linville.
He was league MVP in 1978 and won at least two league batting titles. Harold played every position but center field for Bridgewater. According to his former teammates, he talked to anyone and everyone on and off the baseball field, and he loved the show as much as he did the sport. He loved to play. “Even when we were bad, it was fun,” he says. His last year was 1994, though a few of his former teammates have placed a bet that if any Hall of Famer could still hit in a County League game today, it would be him. Harold joins his father Ernie and brother E.L. in the RCBL Hall of Fame. |
|
Mel Morris
Mel Morris moved to Harrisonburg to earn a teaching credential and play baseball at Madison College in 1971. From that year on, the RCBL became a part of his life. At the urging of his Madison teammate Bob Wease, Mel first played for the Linville Patriots. Over the next 19 seasons, he also played for Twin County, Bridgewater, and Harrisonburg.
He was named to at least three All-Star teams, and probably more as well. Mel made friends wherever he went, and was popular as much for his fun-loving personality as for his talent as a utility player and a great hitter. While playing in the RCBL, he also found time to coach his sons in Little League and to be the varsity head coach at Broadway High School, where his team won a regional title and he was named Region Coach of the Year. From 1997 to 1999, Mel coached the Clover Hill Bucks, where his son, Andy, played. Mel passed away in 2011 and was soon after inducted into the Broadway High School Hall of Fame. He worked there for 17 of his 26 years in education. He made time during all of those years for the RCBL, too, and he is recognized with his induction for his devotion to the league, his contribution to the sport through coaching, and the great memories he left his former teammates. |
|
Gordon Shiflet
Gordon Shiflet started playing with Ottobine as a teenager in the mid-1930s. At one time, he and his brothers Warren and Woodrow were all on the roster. A talented center fielder, Gordon was also a solid offensive contributor. Ottobine won two championships in 1950 and 1951 and around that time, Gordon also became a player/manager, a role he would continue until around 1960 when Buck Bowman took over.
A lifelong Clover Hill resident, Gordon was one of the first trustees of the Clover Hill ballpark and served regular terms with the Clover Hill Recreation Association. His son Bob remembers that daily breaks from the farm chores included a morning expedition to hunt for foul balls in the adjacent cornfield and an afternoon excursion to drag and line the field. Prepping the field for games was a six-day-a-week chore when the park was used by several teams as their home field. In his later years, Gordon was a regular visitor to the field, as much to cheer on the team as to heckle the umpires and offer his opinions. His son Bob, who played for Clover Hill from 1967 to 1971, accepted the award on his behalf. |
|
Merv Shull
Merv Shull loved baseball so much as a little boy that he used to steal away to play in games, and when he returned home, he routinely got a spanking from his mama. As a teenager and in his early 20s, Merv played professionally with a Staunton team. He moved to Dayton in the early 1920s and was on the town’s team when the RCBL opened its first season in 1924. He pitched and played right field.
He and his family kept the Dayton club going for many years by maintaining the field and running the concession stand. At one time, all three sons Harry, Earl and Jim, played with their father on the team. Dayton played for the league championship in 1952 and 1953, finally winning in 1954. The team was runner-up again to Clover Hill in 1955 and folded at the end of that season. Though he was 56 years old at that time, Merv continued playing with Towers and Briery Branch, waiting until he was nearly 60, if not into his 60s, before he retired. Merv probably had some pop on his ball when he was younger, but Jim remembers that his dad relied on a knuckleball in his later years. According to Jim, Merv didn’t throw hard enough to break a window glass and you could count the threads on the seams as it floated towards you, but and this is a quote, “No one could hit it.” Jim knows this firsthand, because he once faced his dad, who was pitching for Towers when Jim was playing for Clover Hill, and he grounded out right back to his dad on the mound. Merv Shull’s plaque was accepted by his son, Jim, who was the next inductee that year. |
|
Jim Shull
Jim Shull comes from a baseball family. We just heard about his dad, Merv. Jim started with Dayton in 1953. He remembers one game in which his brother Harry played shortstop, his brother Earl played center field, his dad pitched, and Jim was the catcher. After Dayton folded in 1955, Jim moved to Clover Hill in 1956, playing primarily at shortstop and catcher. A member of numerous All-Star teams, he was All-Star MVP in 1962.
He took over as manager at Clover Hill from Buck Bowman in 1969 and continued managing through 1980, becoming during this time an integral contributor to the continued maintenance of the ball park and the Clover Hill organization. Jim was with the team for five pennants in 1959, 1963, 1964, 1976 and 1978. During those years, Clover Hill contested the league championship eight times and won it three times in 1963, 1975 and 1976. Jim also spent many seasons coaching local baseball players in the Bridgewater Little League organization, even after his son Allen, also a Clover Hill player, was finished with youth baseball. |
|
Lynn Wease
Lynn Wease’s RCBL career started in 1959, when he and his younger brother Bobby helped Linville win their first championship. After playing with the New Market Rebels, Lynn went to Shenandoah College, where he encouraged the founding of the college’s first baseball team and then became its first player-manager.
In 1961, he began a career in the restaurant business that unfortunately got in the way of attempts to play at Bridgewater in 1961, Linville in 1967, and Grottoes in 1974. In the 1980s, when his son Chip was playing, Lynn coached Little League and AAU teams. He was the first coach of Wilson Memorial High School’s junior varsity team in 1992 and 1993. In the mid 1990s, RCBL commissioner Karl Olschofka, who was concerned about the league’s viability, contacted Lynn to ask him if he would start a team. From 1996 to 2004, first the Fishersville Cardinals and then the Fishersville Rangers added competition and stability to the league, as well as a competitive outlet for area ballplayers in Augusta County. Lynn managed the team to two pennants and one league championship. In 2005, that team became the Stuarts Draft Diamondbacks, which is still in existence today. Lynn and Bob Wease are among several brothers to be inducted in the Hall of Fame, but the only two brothers to have each started a team in the league. |