Cortland Standard .net

By TYRONE L. HEPPARD
Staff Reporter
theppard@cortlandstandardnews.net
Before left fielder Wes Covington and shortstop Johnny “Yatcha” Logan became World Series Champions with the Milwaukee Braves in 1957, they got their start playing in the village of Homer for the Homer Braves.
Residents and baseball fans gathered Saturday afternoon at the Central New York Living History Museum to relive the glory days of the Homer Braves, the area’s semi-pro baseball team, during a presentation about the team’s legacy led by baseball historian Tony Kissel.
For about three hours, Kissel talked about how the Homer Braves team during its heyday in the 1940s made an impact on both Homer and the sport of baseball until the team disbanded in 1955.
Former second baseman for the Homer Braves, Bill Dillon, a Homer resident, attended the event. Kissel also played audio recordings from interviews he conducted with other former Braves like local residents Don Steger and Ed Purser, who were unable to attend.
Kissel said he began looking into the history of the Homer’s semi-pro team a few years ago when he was approached by the son of a Homer Braves pitcher after giving a similar talk about baseball.
“I looked it up and sure enough his dad got signed ... and ended up playing minor league ball,” Kissel said. “By then, I started thinking, as more and more people ask me about the Homer Braves, maybe I should research them.”
The team started out as the Homer Red Wings in 1937 before switching to the Merchants in 1939. The team briefly became the Homer Red Sox then went back to the Merchants before changing to the Braves in 1947.
But the 1940s would be when both the managers and the players would make a name for themselves.
Homer resident Dewey Griggs created the Southern Tier League in 1943, making aname for himself as a talentscout by signing players likeHall of Famer Henry Aaron and three Homer Braves who were on the MilwaukeeBraves 1957 World Series champions — shortstop Johnny “Yatcha” Logan, left fielder John “Wes” Covington and pitcher Bob Trowbridge.
Local sports icon Carl “Chugger” Davis would take over for Dewey as the team’s manager in 1943 and eventually lead the Braves to five championships under his watch. Davis was the legendary football, basketball and baseball coach at the Cortland Normal School, now SUNY Cortland.
One of the stories Kissel recounted was a 22-inning scoreless playoff game between the Homer Braves and their rivals, the Groton Coronas, in 1948. The Braves were led by southpaw pitcher Johnny Geeand Duke Erickson pitchedfor the Coronas. The winner of that game would go on to play in the league championship game that year.
“The teams were doing everything but scoring,” Kissel said. “The two teams were getting a lot of runners to third base, but just couldn’t get a runner across the plate. You don’t expect a game to last 22 innings — that’s almost three full games that they played.”
The game ended in a 0-0 score when officials called off the game in the 23rd inning because it was too dark to play. The Coronas would face the Braves the next week in Homer for a second game, winning the game and ultimately the leaguechampionships.
Attending the presentation Saturday was Duke Erickson’s daughter, Meredith Erickson-Wells, and Kate Erickson, now her sister-in-law.
After the presentation, they said Kissel did a great job capturing the moment they had witnessed firsthand years ago.
“While it was happening, you were wondering if it was true,” Erickson said. “That’s the only way you could describe it.”
“This was very good. it was a nice afternoon for remembering,” Erickson-Wells added. “Some people did go home and came back to watch the end of the game. That was really an amazing day.”
Kissel said if there is one thing he wants everyone to take away from the presentation, it is what the Homer Braves meant for so many people.
“It was a well-run team in such a small little community,” Kissel said. “Everything’s so small, yet there were a lot of great games, a lot of great players.”