Dale Thomason Jeff Simpson Tim Texler By Mike London [email protected] SALISBURY — Rowan County’s American Legion baseball history is remarkable for a number of reasons — Newman Park, longevity, winning, legendary coaches, players, broadcasters and administrators.
And fans. Forty years ago, Rowan County put together a season that may have been the most remarkable of all. The 1984 Rowan County squad was a fourth-place team in the Southern Division of Area III.
It was a team that started the season 2-6 and a team that would lose 16 times. It was a team that batted a modest .271 as a group, didn’t steal of lot of bases (45 in 51 games) and didn’t hit a lot of homers (21).
A few years earlier, Coe Brier was hitting that many by himself. Yet in an era when the best players from every community grew up with the dream of playing Legion baseball, those guys pulled together and won a state championship. How did it happen? Well, start with coach Joe Ferebee.
He was the Jim Gantt of his era — or maybe Gantt is the Ferebee of his era. If they didn’t have a game, the 1984 squad practiced, and they got better and more cohesive with every practice. That was a Ferebee trademark.
Another thing that stands out: all five schools in Rowan County contributed at least one player to the standard starting lineup. A different day and a different time. Compared to today’s era, the 1984 Rowan team played an extraordinary number of games.
Five players accumulated more than 20.
