BASEBALL: Remembering The 1969 Bristol Tigers

BY TIM HAYES
Bristol Herald Courier
Virginia High’s “Big Orange” band played loudly. Legends of Bristol’s baseball past were honored. Spectators poured into the newly constructed Randolph Field.

The evening of June 25, 1969, was a milestone in the City of Bristol’s sports history. It was the night professional baseball and the Appalachian League returned.

Bristol had been a hotbed of baseball before. The city first fielded an Appy League team as far back as 1911 and teams such as the Boosters, Stateliners and Twins would follow over the years.

However, from 1956-1968 there was no professional baseball of which to speak.

That changed in January of 1969 when Don Lund, the director of player development for the Detroit Tigers, decided to put his rookie-league club in Bristol.

It sparked immediate excitement. It was front page news in the Bristol Herald Courier and a full-age advertisement in the newspaper on the eve of the season opener stated “Welcome Professional Baseball. The Whole Town Is With You.”

Players were introduced to the public at a local hotel, and the mayors of Bristol, Va., and Bristol, Tenn., were in attendance.

The 1969 Bristol Tigers opened the season on June 23 at Marion against the Mets. Don Hether blasted a three-run home run, and Dick Foulk got the win.

But the real spectacle came two nights later when the Tigers made their debut in front of their hometown fans. More than 2,000 fans crammed into the stadium to watch Bristol collect a 10-9 victory over the Kingsport Royals.

Hether belted another homer and drove in four runs, Mike Belcik had four RBIs and left-handed pitcher Larry Lohse went 5 1/3 solid innings to earn the win.

It began a love affair with a small town and its team. And it would be a summer that the players on that team would never forget.

“From the day we got there until the end, I don’t ever remember a game where we didn’t have a full house,” John Ceprini, a pitcher on the team, recalled.

The roster
A group of wide-eyed youngsters called Bristol home in the summer of 1969. For some of them, it would be their only experiences as pros. For all of them, it was the realization of a dream.
“
It was great to get the chance to play professional baseball,” Ceprini said. “It was the same for everybody who was there. The experience I had in Bristol was just great. From the first day I got there, until I left, the people in town were great, and the people who ran the ballclub were great.”

The roster included outfielder Bob Baker, who was fresh off duty as a sergeant in the 4th Infantry during the Vietnam War.

There was highly-touted first baseman Lenny Baxley, who had been drafted by Detroit in the first round of Major League Baseball’s Amateur Draft from Redding, Calif.

There was Canadian pitcher Wayne Amyotte, an avid fisherman, who went 4-3 and became the workhorse of the pitching staff.

And there was an outfielder/first baseman from Long Island, N.Y. known as Vache Bahadurian. Bahadurian earned laughs from his teammates after the team arrived and he asked
Bristol Herald Courier sports writer Gene Thompson, “Are the Southern girls pretty?”

Bahadurian enjoyed his stint in Bristol, a place so much different than his own hometown. He shared a trailer with teammates Nils Lambert and Bob LaFrance.

“I really enjoyed that summer,” Bahadurian said.

The manager
Bill Lajoie had been a star athlete at Western Michigan University and had reached the Class AAA level as a player in the minor leagues.

After his playing days, Lajoie tried his hand at managing. He had a bad experience in his first season directing the Cincinnati Reds’ rookie-league farm team in the Gulf Coast League.

However, he arrived at Bristol in the summer of 1969 with a new approach.

“When we got to the Appalachian League, I thought I was a much different manager at the time and a better manager,” Lajoie said.

Lajoie was tough, but fair, and expected his players to follow his orders.

“He was a wonderful man and very knowledgeable,” Bahudrian said. “He was strict. I remember one night we were playing the [Kingsport] Royals and it was a tie score in the ninth inning. We had a man on first with nobody out.
“I guess I missed the bunt sign, but the pitch came inside and low and I hit the ball out of the ballpark and we won the game. As I rounded third base, he said ‘Son that will cost you
$75.’ I learned my lesson.”

A baseball lifer, Lajoie vividly recalled his summer as a manager in Bristol.

“The town was fine and the people were very cordial to the players,” Lajoie said. “Most of the players were able to find housing with people, which was pretty neat. I know I went around knocking on doors to make sure we would get players with a family. I think it became more of a tradition later for the players to find good housing there in town.”

The memories
The Bristol Tigers finished 34-34 in 1969, third in the Appy League’s South Division.

“The team was one of those on-and-off teams,” Lajoie said. “We played good on certain days, and some days we didn’t play so well.”

No players from that Bristol Tiger team ever reached the major leagues. However, many did accomplish great things in the game.

Lajoie would move into the front office and enjoy a long and prosperous career. He was the general manager of the 1984 World Series champion Detroit Tigers.

The 74-year-old Lajoie is currently an adviser to Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Neal Huntington. Bahadurian is a scout for the Detroit Tigers, and Ceprini is the scouting supervisor for the defending American League champion Tampa Bay Rays.

But 40 years ago, they were part of the Bristol Tigers. And 40 years later, Bristol is still fielding a professional team, now a Chicago White Sox affiliate.

While the memory of that first team has faded from most Bristolians’ minds, the experience remains a fond and vivid one for the men who were involved.

“I just really loved it and really liked all the players. They were nice people,” Bahadurian said. “I wish I could do it all over.”