Let’s say that, to get to work, you had to walk from the Wesley Centre downtown to the Florida Strawberry Festival grounds.
Could you do it?
That’s precisely what baseball players in Plant City had to do, many years ago. The festival grounds used to be home to Adelson Field, and the downtown church used to be a hotel. On top of that, readers may not know much about the history of baseball in the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World before the Reds came and left.
Several professional and semi-pro teams made their winter homes here. Some names, such as the Buffalo Bisons, Indianapolis Indians and Miami Marlins, should sound familiar to baseball fans — they still exist to this day.
There were also a lot of high school sports, youth leagues, rodeos and other events held at Adelson Field, but the bigger leagues got the most attention.
THE PLAYING FIELD
Looking back in time, we can thank Samuel Delmar Adelson for shaping Plant City’s sports scene.
Adelson, who lived here for 52 years, was an interesting guy. According to “Plant City: Its Origin and History,” he first arrived here in 1901, on a pit stop on his way to Cuba. He fell in love with the town, moved here and made his money in the fruit and vegetable trade. He always had a hand in the town’s civic affairs.
He also was interested in sports and made sure that they were played in Plant City. Adelson was a major contributor to the construction of the football and baseball field, which was named for him. He also was largely responsible for bringing Plant City its first spring training team with the Indians.
Other than the professional teams, the biggest user of Adelson Field was Plant City High School. Before they were the Raiders, they were the Planters, and the football and baseball teams played their home games at the field.
It was split three ways for its three functions. On the far left, there was the football field, with bleachers, a press box, a fieldhouse and a house for the caretaker. Sandwiched in the middle was the baseball field, the grandstands and the scoreboard. On the far right was the softball field, which is where youth and adult leagues played and fans packed the stands.
It was where local businesses, many of which had their own softball teams, met to play some friendly games. It was where Plant City notables, such as James Redman and the Robinson family, played their favorite sports. It was also where Plant City’s first big-time athlete began his second big-league comeback.
REMEMBERING RIP
Truett “Rip” Sewell was not born here. But, in 1936, he was acquired by the Bisons — Plant City’s winter team at the time — and made his way to the area.
Buffalo was the best triple-A team in the country, and Sewell was steadily working his way up to Major League Baseball. After meeting his second wife, Margaret, at an ice cream parlor in the Hotel Plant, he decided to stay in town.
Although he was a good pitcher to begin with, his stardom took off in 1941, following a hunting accident in Ocala that permanently damaged his foot. This forced him to change his pitching motion, and led to the birth of a new pitch: the “blooper.”
Baseball fans of today know this pitch as the “eephus.” It’s really more of a lob than a pitch: Sewell would grip the ball along the seam with three fingers, flipping it hard enough to launch it high in the air with a lot of backspin. It’s tough to hit because it arcs so high and travels extremely slow. Batters are used to seeing pitches in the 75- to 95-mph range, but the eephus is usually in the 40s.
He quickly went from “good” to “unhittable” and made some All-Star teams. It was at the 1946 All-Star Game in Boston that he etched his place in baseball history, thanks to the big bat of Ted Williams.
“I went there to see him play, because he was from Plant City,” former Mayor Dick Elston said. “Ted Williams came up to bat and (Sewell) threw that pitch, and Williams hit it out of the park. The whole place went silent at first — we didn’t expect anyone to hit that pitch, let alone hit it out of the park.”
And then, the crowd went nuts. Williams was the first — and only — player in baseball history to take Sewell yard on an eephus. The pitch became Sewell’s claim to fame, and he was OK with that. He even named his cocker spaniel “Blooper.”
After baseball, Sewell retired and returned to Plant City. He spent his final 40 years here and died after his health conditions — which had cost him both legs — got the better of him. He stayed active for many years, with and without his legs.
“Even with his wooden legs, he liked to play golf,” Elston says. “He didn’t let that stop him. I was playing golf with him and a few friends one day. … He was putting, and this guy said to him, ‘If you miss this putt, I’m going to throw termites on your leg!’ We were all dying laughing, and so was he.”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
MEET THE ROBINSONS
The Robinson family is one of Plant City’s oldest, and at one point, it had enough boys to field its own baseball team (one pitcher threw all nine innings in those days). In fact, that was a goal that Dan Robinson had when he started his family with wife, Martha.
Tobe was the catcher, Lucian played first base, Jim played second, Joe was shortstop, Henry played third, Kie played left field, Dan played in center, Fred was out in right, and Hugh took the pitching mound.
They borrowed uniforms from the Coronet Mines team on July 4, 1912, to play the Plant City Regulars and lost, 2-1.