In the 1930s, baseball was truly America’s pastime and Patrick County was no exception. During those years, a local team made the front page of The Enterprise – every game, every week.
It started locally in 1931 when area leaders met at the Courthouse in Stuart to form a baseball club that would represent all of Patrick County. Previously, towns in Patrick County had teams that would play each other, but this new team would join the Bi-State League, made up of teams from both sides of the Virginia-North Carolina border. Stuart would join Fieldale, Martinsville, and Danville on the Virginia side, along with Reidsville and Leaksville from North Carolina.
During that meeting, a board of directors was named. It was headed by team president, and local doctor, W.C. Akers, who several years before had opened the Stuart Hospital. Tapped to be the team’s manager was L.B. Rucker, who would lead a roster made up of mostly Patrick County talent. Bi-State League rules required that 18 of the 20 players be local to ‘develop hometown talent,’ and keep pro and semi-pro players from joining teams.
The season – split into two, twenty-game halves – got off to a rough start for Stuart, with the team losing its first 15 games. According to The Enterprise in May 1931, many of those games were lost to “bad breaks and hard luck.” Stuart’s first win came against Danville in the first game of a doubleheader, 8-5. The team lost the second game, 7-4.
It was in the second half of the season that the Stuart team found success. When the season came to a close, they were in a three-way tie with Martinsville and Fieldale for the second-half pennant. With Fieldale’s spot in the championship series already clinched by winning the first half, a one-game playoff between Stuart and Martinsville would decide the other spot. Stuart’s worst to first dreams were crushed by Martinsville, which went on to win the championship series over Fieldale in five games.
The disappointment of the playoff loss failed to dampen the local hunger for more baseball before the weather grew cold. Even with some of the Stuart lineup unavailable, an exhibition series was scheduled with a team from Critz, giving fans more baseball to watch.
After rejoining the Bi-State League for the 1932 season, the team received “a very liberal donation” from former R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company Chief Executive William N. Reynolds to help cover team expenses. In honor of his donation, the team would become the Stuart Camels. When reporting on the donation in the April 14, 1932, edition, the newspaper wrote that “Everyone should go to the games and smoke Camel cigarettes.”
Joining the Camels for the 1932 season were Martinsville, Fieldale, Bassett, the Reidsville “Lucky Strikes” and newcomer, Mayodan. Once again, it would be the second half of the season when Stuart played the best baseball. When the season closed in September, the Camels were just one game back, but not for long.
League officials awarded the Camels a protested game against Martinsville after finding that team used an ineligible player. The reversal of this one game put the Camels into a first-place tie, setting up a one-game playoff with Fieldale.
Then things got interesting.
Fieldale refused to play the Stuart team and conceded the second-half pennant, advancing the Camels to a championship series meeting with the Lucky Strikes of Reidsville, N.C. Local fans ready to cheer on their team in the series never got the chance. Reidsville also refused to play Stuart, opting to play Fieldale in what both teams called ‘the series.’ For the second year in a row, Camel fans would have to settle for a post-season exhibition series, this time with Mayodan.
The Bi-State League finally settled the dispute in December, when the Camels were awarded the championship trophy. The December 22, 1932, edition of The Enterprise described the trophy as “a beautiful silver cup,” which was put on display at the Stuart Café for all to see.
Even with the on-field success and the Reynolds donation, the team operated at a ‘great loss’ in 1932. For much of the spring, the 1933 season appeared in doubt. As of late April, the team had not officially joined the league, with attempts to raise the needed money for the players’ board falling short. What got the team financially ready for the season is unclear, but it rejoined the Bi-State League along with returning teams from Martinsville, Bassett, Fieldale, and Mayodan. As the Reidsville team left to play in another league, the team from Danville returned.
The Camels opened the season with a win against Mayodan behind the pitching of ‘Buzzy’ Phillips, who would be the Camels’ best pitcher for the first month of the season. Unfortunately, he left the team when he moved to North Carolina. The Enterprise noted, “two more pitchers who are reported as good or better than Phillips, have been sent for,” encouraging fans to “not despair, as the rest of the lineup is solid.” It would not be the only roster issue in 1933. By August, there was concern about the Camels’ existence.
Several players left Stuart for other teams and leagues, leaving the Camels with only seven eligible players on the roster at one point. With so few players, there was serious doubt Stuart could finish the season. League officials helped by allowing Stuart to add five more players so the team could continue playing. Adding to roster problems, the Camels lost one of their best hitters for the rest of the season due to appendicitis.
Somehow, the team found a way, adding a left-handed pitcher, a shortstop, and several others. Against the odds, the team came together late in the season, finishing second to Bassett. With Bassett winning both halves of the season, the Camels’ second-place finish put them into the championship series.
In what most thought would be a best-of-five series, Bassett took the first two games at home, with the Camels winning game three in Stuart. The games were close, with games two and three going into extra innings. The season came to an unexpected end when the series was called after only three games. There was confusion at the time about the league’s decision, with The Enterprise reporting simply, “for some reason, only three games were played.” The Stuart Camels won their final game, but oddly, lost the series.
In December 1933, teams in the Bi-State League met to discuss becoming a Class-D minor league (roughly the equivalent of Single-A today). Team officials met at the Henry Hotel in Martinsville and agreed that “each of these communities wanted baseball put on a more business-like basis.”
Another meeting in Mayodan completed the organization of the Bi-State League as a member of the National Association of Baseball Leagues, which oversaw all professional minor leagues. Communities invited to join the league for 1934 were Martinsville, Fieldale, Danville, Mayodan, Mt. Airy, Leaksville, and Stuart. As opening day grew closer, a “lack of financial support” and the fact the baseball ‘grounds were under repair’ forced the Camels to withdraw from the Bi-State League.
Several members of the Camels joined other Bi-State teams. The league itself would go on for seven more seasons, closing shop in 1942. Eventually, the league, and the Stuart Camels, would fade into memory. There would be other town teams playing in local and county-wide leagues, but to date, a Stuart baseball team has not risen so close to the professional level.
