Best NC Legion Player you have ever seen?

I saw this in another thread and thought it deserved a seperate thread because it could bring up good conversation. Obviously, Trot Nixon was one of the best ever to play legion ball in NC but who are some others?

Josh Hamilton may be the best I have ever seen play. Absolute stud.

Never saw Ralph Roberts play but heard a ton about him.

 

wilmington- eric faulk, sean gallagher, chris moore, of course trot nixon

rowan co.- david trexler, jason foster, bryan knight, travis goins

burke co.- matt briggs, blaine mull

kernersville- joe lagarde, tim weatherspoon, alan plaster, alec zumwalt

 

Ralph Roberts was the most dominant Legion player I've seen in the last 10-15 years. He singlehandedly put Cherryville on his shoulders all the way to Las Vegas where he hit a HR so far that it plunked Wayne Newton walking into Caesar's

 

who?

I don't follow baseball as close as many of you...... so excuse me if I am not well-versed on this. Some of those named are not familiar to me. Maybe a good question is : did any of the players named not go on to college or pro ball.

 

eric faulk drafted out of hs by oakland a's, sean gallagher drafted out of hs by rangers also set national hs record for consecutive game hit streak, chris moore one of best players in western carolina history played 7 years in rockies system now head coach at lander.

matt briggs great career at wake forest now the blue jays scout for miss,la,al, and tenn

blaine mull drafted out of hs by royals, retired was not cut from proball

alec zumwalt has the NC legion season record for hr's and rbi's (28 and 105!)hit three in the state championship game off ralph roberts and still lost. On AAA roster for brewers right now.

joe lagarde made it to dodgers AAA but not bigs.

the others all had great college careers at smaller schools.

 

Plaster played at Charlotte for 3 years and made it to AAA for the Athletics and Zumwalt was just recently traded from the Brewers to the Athletics and is still in AAA looking for that call-up

 

Never got to see Ralph Roberts, but his accomplishments speak for themselves. My personal best player would no doubt be Franklin Stubbs from Hamlet,NC. Not sure of the year, but I believe it was around '78-79,,, Rowan County was LOADED and they met Hamlet in a 7-game series to determine the state champion. Not completely sure how many games this series went, but Hamlet won and Franklin Stubbs was instrumental in winning each of his team's 4 games, either by pitching or hitting homeruns or both. As you older guys may know, Franklin went on to do well with a nice career playing for the LA Dodgers.

 

Not just one player, but the summer '99 (?) that Garner Post 232 hit over 120 HR's was amazing. I believe a couple guys had over 20 a piece.

(David Hicks, Lee Kimball, Jamey Shearin, Steven Carver, Zak Davenport were just a few of the sluggers)

 

I have two

I didn't see him pitch, but he was our pitching coach and I've heard others speak of him with reverence.
Gerald Blackburn from Kannapolis: He pitched the old Kannapolis Legion team to the World Series Championship back in the 50's.
He would tell us stories about when he went to spring trainning and would see a rookie named Mickey Mantle on the other team, how everyone would stop what they were doing to watch "The Mick" hit and run.

Here's one I did see: Tommy Smith from Albemarle.
He played for Concord Post 51 when the post included
Albemarle. I think that was around middle to late 60's. He pitched, played SS and centerfield.
Hit with power, strong arm and blazing speed!
Went on the play for NC State and the Indians.

He was my HERO when I was a kid sneaking under the fence to gain entrance to the Legion game.

 

RR

what was Ralph Roberts' baseball career after HS & legion?