Over the years, Loudoun County has made a transformation from a series of small farming communities to a rapidly-growing suburban metropolis. The way of life has changed.
One effect of Loudoun’s growth has been its changing relationship with the game of baseball. What started as a novelty grew into a popular annual ritual before fading into a crowded field of competing recreational pursuits. Loudoun even flirted, albeit briefly, with the possibility of landing its own Major League team.
The story of baseball in Loudoun County begins in the 1870s. Not long after the modern game was codified and starting to spread throughout the land, the first local clubs were being formed. In 1877, the Leesburg-based Potomac Baseball Club issued an open challenge to any club in the county for a game. The prize for the winning team would be a bat, a ball and the title of baseball champions of Loudoun.
The Loudoun County League was chartered in 1920 with its first teams in Aldie, Ashburn, Leesburg, Lovettsville, Middleburg and Purcellville. Teams would later be formed in Arcola, Furnace Mountain, Lucketts, Round Hill and Taylorstown.
Wynne Saffer of Leesburg is an amateur historian who grew up watching the league as his father Clint was the manager at Aldie.
“You had these various communities in the county and they all started getting teams as a matter of community pride,” he said. “There might be 8 or 10 houses but if you had a school or a church then you at least had a community.”
Saffer said that teams rarely contained more than 12 players each.
As Saffer recalls, the County League schedule would consist of two games per week for each team, usually on Wednesday nights and Sunday afternoons. The regular season consisted of 22 games with the top four teams advancing to the playoffs. The lighted fields in Leesburg and Purcellville would host the night games involving teams that did not have their own lights. Purcellville’s field is still in operation today and is primarily used by the Babe Ruth league.
Players ranged from teen-aged to middle-aged. Judges, sheriffs and doctors played alongside farmers and game wardens. Local businesses served as sponsors. Saffer recalled seeing teams where each player wore a different logo on his uniform.
“It would seem funny today but that was the way they operated,” he said.
By the 1950s, according to Saffer, the Leesburg and Purcellville teams were at an advantage coming from the county’s largest population bases.
“By that time you could go out and get players from throughout the county or from another county,” he said. “The bigger communities could attract more people to come in and play.”
The “small-market” team that was best able to overcome the odds was Lucketts.
The Lucketts team was founded in 1948. Walter Heflin, an Army Air Corps flight instructor and pilot in World War II, helped establish the team with the help of co-owner Johnny Stocks.
The Heflin family formed the nucleus of the team. Four of Walter’s brothers, James (Bud), William (W.C.), John and Thomas (Tommy) played on the team. Their sister Cora, later Cora Heflin Kohlhoss, served as president of the club and collected money at the gate. Cora, 90, and Tommy, 70, are the two surviving Heflin siblings.
“It was the most fascinating thing with family, everybody got to know everybody,” Ms. Kohlhoss said. “It was something that was country and now we don’t have that anymore.”
Lucketts would go on to win seven county league titles and Tommy Heflin would go on to sign a pro contract.
Heflin lamented that he was born 25 years too soon to have a shot at a major league career. He was signed to the Washington Senators’ farm system but made it no further than their AA team in Elmira, N.Y. He played third base and shortstop and his prospects for promotion were good. That changed when the Senators promoted future hall-of-famer Harmon Killebrew in 1954.
“When he moved up they wanted to make a pitcher out of me,” Heflin recalled. “Back then it wasn’t like today. You only had eight teams in each league and you had to be something special to get up there. Today you’ve got 10 relief pitchers in the lineup and you’ve got guys making a million dollars who can’t even throw strikes. It makes me sick and it’s why I don’t even watch them.”
Heflin entered the Army following his minor league stint. He returned to Lucketts following his discharge and continued playing baseball until he was 44 years old.
Lucketts’ baseball talent also extended beyond the Heflin family. Leading the way from the mound were two great pitchers, Buddy Frye and Carl Carnes. Carnes was known for his finesse and Frye for his power.
“They always said if Buddy had Carl’s head and Carl had Buddy’s arm they would both be stars in the major leagues,” Tommy Heflin said.
Saffer said that he enjoyed watching Carnes pitch for Lucketts.
“(Carnes) was a left hander who was very clean cut and he could throw strikes,” Saffer recalled. “He would strike out a lot of people.”
The players were usually in charge of field maintenance. One time, as Tommy Heflin recalls, the Lucketts team used gasoline to dry off the field prior to a playoff game.
Lucketts was set to host Purcellville and Leesburg was playing Round Hill. The game in Leesburg was rained out. The Lucketts team knew that if they could play they would attract additional spectators from Leesburg.
“My brother kept buying gas in five gallon cans,” Tommy Heflin said. “We’d dump the gas on the dirt and we’d throw a match to it and it would dry up half an inch. We kept doing it until finally we had it dry enough to play.”
The plan worked and the paid attendance was about 600.
The Loudoun County League continued as late as the 1980s. It was absorbed by the county’s parks and recreation department before it was dissolved.
“To me it was somewhat symbolic of rural life,” Saffer said. “Once everybody had cars and places to go, there were a lot more things for people to do and get involved in and playing sports in the community for an adult was no longer as much of a big deal.”