[GoldenAge50s]

Back in the 1940's & '50's I grew up in WNY State in the "hotbed" of the Class D PONY Lg of Professional Baseball (Pennsylvania, Ontario Canada, New York)

In fact, my hometown of Wellsville had the designation as being the SMALLEST city/town in the US to have & support a professional team. Nearby were teams from Olean, Jamestown, Corning, etc & about 20 miles from me were the Hornell Dodgers (Maury Wills played there a couple yrs before).

Needless to say I attended games & followed those teams for many yrs. Many future ML players got their 1st taste of pro ball in those little towns in Class D, the lowest rung on the pro ladder--like A ball today.

I'm always looking for something from Wellsville to add to my collection, but not very much at all is ever listed. The other day I saw a BIN for an item I thought was pretty neat and grabbed it.

Conrad Devlin was a 19 yr Outfielder in his 1st yr of Pro ball. He batted .326 in 113 games for Hornell and he also did something really BAD--he got kicked out of a game!

Here is the letter & env written to him from Vince McNamara, the Lg President from the Lg office in Buffalo about that ejection. I thought it was priceless--Hope you get a kick out of it!


A year later in 1955, after playing just 34 games, Mr Devlin was finished & done w/ baseball & never played professionally anywhere again.