Williamson Red Birds
The Williamson Red Birds were part of the Mountain State League for the whole of the league’s existence, 1937-1942. They started out as the Williamson Colts, but changed their name prior to the 1939 season. Williamson was a very successful team in the six team league. They posted winning records in five of the six seasons, finishing first in two of the seasons. They never finished worse than third place.
The Mountain State League was a remarkably stable league for it’s time. The first three seasons it was a Class D league before moving up to being a Class C league it’s last three seasons. It only shut down due to World War II.
For what was basically a Rookie league team, Williamson produced several Major League ballplayers, including Hall of Famer Stan Musial. Musial arrived in Williamson in 1938 as a 17 year old skinny aspiring pitcher who was still in high school. His first season was a bit lackluster as he went 6-6 with a 4.66 ERA as a pitcher and hit .258 in 26 games as a part time outfielder. Having overcome the first season homesickness and starting to fill out, he returned to Williamson in 1939 and fared much better. He was 9-2 with a 4.30 ERA as a pitcher, but really came alive as a hitter, posting a .352 batting average. It was quickly determined that his future was as a hitter. He only pitched one more season in the minors. As a hitter he didn’t hit below .300 again until his age 38 season in St. Louis, some 20 years later!
Other major leaguers produced by Williamson include Del Rice, Hal Rice and Ken Holcombe among others. Del Rice played 17 seasons in the major leagues as a catcher including several with Musial in St. Louis. Hal Rice played seven years in the majors as an outfielder and posted a lifetime .260 batting average. Holcombe pitched six seasons in the majors with the White Sox, Reds, Browns, Red Sox and Yankees. All of these players had their major league career either delayed or interrupted by serving in the military during World War II.
Williamson, like most towns in the Mountain State League was a town hemmed in by the Appalachian Mountains on all sides. It experienced a population boom in the first half of the 20th Century due to it’s large rail yard serving the coal mining industry. It sits on the WV/KY border on the Tug Fork River.
During Musial’s last year in the Major League Baseball in 1963, he was so well thought of that opposing teams honored him when he came through their city for the last time. The Cincinnati Reds honored him when he came through and to coincide with his visit had a “Williamson, WV” day at Crosley Field. Over 100 people from Williamson attended including the mayor and other dignitaries and fans. Mayor Brown presented Musial with a plaque and Musial mentioned Williamson in a short speech he gave that day. Watching all of this from the Reds dugout was another skinny rookie by the name of Pete Rose who would go on to have a pretty good career himself!
