"Anyway, I came to Concord in that outlaw league in 1938. Bill Steineke was the manager. He had come to Concord in 1937 as Bill Selph after he had gotten suspended from the Sally League. He was still being called Selph when the season started in 1938 and then a few weeks in the season he went back to his real name- Steineke. He brought some good ball players to Concord. In fact that whole league was loaded with good ball players in 1938. I didn't see any difference in organized ball and that league, except for the fighting. There was no joking around. There was no dogging it. A player put out everything he had or he was sent on his way.
"I played so many games I don't remember many specific incidents. I do remember when Virgil Trucks jumped a contract and showed up in Concord with Luke Gunnells. They came up from Andulusia in the Alabama-Florida League. Oh Lord, how that kid could throw a baseball. But he was pretty wild. He wasn't in Concord but one night and played under some fake name and then he left. I think his Dad came and got him. Nobody knew what happened to him. He could have ruined his career.
"And then I remember Ken Chitwood. He had jumped a contract with Knoxville before I came to Concord. Ken was a tough pitcher. He would throw at some of those big hitters. I remember "Pick" Biggerstaff, manager of Valdese, cussed Ken when he was going down to first base. Now when you cussed Ken he would "choose you" (Note: colloquialism meaning he would pick you to fight). Gosh, what a guy that Chit was. Chit was quick as a cat and he popped Pick upside the head and brought blood. Well, Pick grabbed Chit around the neck and they were rolling on the ground. It took a bunch of us to separate them. He nearly twisted Chit's head off. He couldn't pitch for a week. He walked around with his head practically over on his shoulder. The other guy he hit was Vince Barton of Kannapolis. He and Pick both were big enough to eat hay. Vince had to leave the game to get some stitches in his jaw. He came back into the game later. Neither one of the players were put out of the game. I really believe the umpires were afraid to take too much action against the players.
"And the fans were mean as the players. When "Alabama" Pitts came to Concord to play, the fans ate him up about being an ex-convict. They were brutal. Pitts looked like a pretty good ball player to me. I heard he got killed in a fight in Valdese after he quit playing.
"The fans would get on the umpires pretty good. Not just hollering at them but fighting them after the game. One night against Kannapolis-oh how the Concord fans hated Kannapolis-but the players didn't pay much attention except to look out for themselves. Anyway the ump made what the fans thought was a bad decision and a couple hundred came running out on the field after him.(Hank Utley note: I was there. The fans chased him from the first base foul line all the way to left field and then up the 50 foot bank. The players were in the chase also. The players surrounded the umpire to protect him. By that time my father took me out of the ball park.) We actually had to sit on top of that umpire with our bats to keep the fans of him. I was scared to death I was going to have to hit one of our fans with a bat. The police finally took the ump out of the ball park. He was so scared he could hardly walk.
"And then there was that last game up at Hickory-the one they took away from us and gave Hickory the playoff. Their fans came out on the field. I didn't wait around to see if they were celebrating beating us in the playoff or coming after us. The umps had forfeited the game to Hickory because we would not take the field after an argument. When it came to baseball the fans all over the league believed in it and they would back their team with fists if need be. And when they would play those big rivalry games like Concord-Kannapolis and Hickory-Valdese, it was like a war. To the ball players it was just another game until we had to protect ourselves.
"One of the more likable fellows in the league was a teammate-Lefty Witt Guise. He was just a big ol country boy. All he would do was just get you out. He was very deceiving to me even when I was playing the infield behind him. I couldn't understand where the ball was coming from when he threw it.
"You ask me what I thought made all those mill men and such put all that time and money into that outlaw league. For one thing those people knew baseball and they loved it. And they saw a chance to have better baseball in that league than they had ever dreamed of. They lost some of their personal money. And they were doing it for the community. Things were tough and they gave the people something to do. I think the fans took out a lot of their economic frustrations on the umpires and other teams.
"Mr. L. C. Harmon at Gibson Mill in Concord was real nice to me. During the off season he tried to make a weaver out of me- that is a real weaver, you know making cloth, not a Concord Weavers ball player. They let me learn on something that was new. Woven glass. And they tried to make cloth out of it. Craziest thing I ever heard of. Any way, those ends would keep breaking out and I would keep tying 'em back in. I found out that I wasn't a textile man even though Art Hord (a former Concord infielder), who by then had a boss man's job, kept telling me I couldn't play ball forever and that Mr. Harmon would help me start another career.
"After the outlaw league folded at the end of the 1938 season, Concord joined organized ball in the N. C. State Class D league. I didn't have any trouble getting back into organized ball in '39. I had jumped a contract but maybe the owner just gave me an outright release later on. Some of the other players in that outlaw league were not as lucky. Anyway I was back in organized ball in '39, '40 and '41. I managed the Concord Weavers in 1941. I played a few games with Knoxville in 1942 then got drafted and joined the Navy Seabees."