Courtesy photo The Roaring Spring 1953 Blair County League. From (from left): Harold Smith, Dick Hoenstine, Jim Wentz, Don Replogle, Dale Myers and Keith Paden. Back (from left): Gene Biddle, Jim Ake, Dean Ritchey, Hunter Swope and Dan Mapes.

Next Thursday, DelGrosso’s Amusement Park will host a gathering of old-time baseball players from Blair County who may have primarily played in the Altoona Greater City league beginning in its heyday during the late 1940s.

Also from that era were players that played in the Blair County and Blair Twilight Leagues. The Blair County Baseball League was formed in 1919 and dissolved in 1953, 34 years later. The Blair Twilight League was formed shortly after WWII and ceased play almost 20 years later.

In 1919, Herman Reifsnyder, the Mirror’s sports editor at the time, was a driving force in forming the Blair League, served as its president for many years and was an officer of the league for its entire existence. In “Blair County’s First Hundred years, 1846-1946,” Herman recounted that the towns represented in the league, off and on, were Altoona, Tyrone, Hollidaysburg, Bellwood, Juniata, East Freedom, Claysburg, Duncansville, Williamsburg, Martinsburg, Roaring Spring and Queen.

The ballparks of the Blair League had names that might resonate with old-timers.

Hollidaysburg had Dysart Park, Claysburg had Brick Plant field, Williamsburg and Roaring Spring had their Athletic parks and Martinsburg had Memorial Park.

During the time between 1946 and 1950, the interval between WWII and the Korean War, competition was keen and evenly matched among the Blair League teams.

Each team had its star performers: Bob Gordon was a teenage sensation for Claysburg and Lynn Hoffner was a strikeout king for Williamsburg. Scrappy Weaver lived up to his nickname by being one of the best clutch performers for Hollidaysburg. Tip Eliott was Roaring Spring’s catcher and earned a reputation as being the team’s “Old Reliable.”

The recently departed Bob Gordon of Claysburg and I may have been the last living players from the Blair League era. As for Herman Reifsnyder, the founder of the league in 1919, he ended his working career as managing editor of the Mirror, and was my boss there in the 1950s.

When the Blair Twilight League began play in the late 1940s, it wisely decided that an All Star game would be a fan favorite, and a night game at Roaring Spring would add a touch of uniqueness and glamor to the event. They were right. The games routinely drew more than 1,000 spectators, who were solicited for donations at the gate that turned tidy profits.

The league presidents, first W.O. Wimer of Newry and later Jim Zimmerman of Hollidaysburg, selected the game managers, who in turn chose the players. For the 1953 game, the 11 teams were divided into two divisions: North and South.

The South squad drew players from Hollidaysburg (Pat Cummings and others), Duncansville (Ed Brubaker), East Freedom (Wes Lingenfelter), Roaring Spring (Gene Biddle), Newry (Bruce Ritchey), Woodbury (John Baker) and Klahr-Queen (Bob Wear). Northerners were Martinsburg (Bob Wagner), Lakemont (Pete Snoberger), Loop (Jesse Isenberg), Canoe Creek (Harry Hileman).

I played in that game but went oh-for-two. In the 1956 contest, I walked and singled in two trips. The games ended in the 1960s, but those Blair Twilight League All Star contests provided memories that have lasted a lifetime.

Cove historian Jim Wentz writes a monthly column for the Mirror.