He's seen them slide headfirst into bases and run, full speed, against outfield walls. Sitting in the heat of Columbus, Ga., afternoons, he's watched teams play since 1936, when he was 12 years old. If the home team needed a rally, Darby banged his Coke bottle on the wood grandstands along with everyone else.
Crawdads are an awfully long way from the majors.
The Sally league was started in 1904, disbanded in 1964 and renewed in 1979. In that time, a blur of players and teams have come and gone without much mark on posterity. Names like that leave many Sally players in their late teens through mid-20s daring to think they, too, might one day not only get a call to the majors, but make a splash. For players who don't have what it takes, the league can be a career-ending hurdle. There are 15 different leagues in the association, which had 176 teams last year.