HAMLET — During basketball season nearly four decades ago, a knock on an exterior gymnasium door at Hamlet Junior High School ultimately set a state championship run for the Hamlet American Legion baseball team in motion.
Ronnie Yarbrough, who was teaching and coaching at Hamlet at the time, was asked that day if he was interested in taking over the head coach role of the Post 49 baseball program.
Yarbrough was in the middle of basketball practice with the Red Rams. After some consideration, he accepted the job.
Under Yarbrough’s direction, the 1987 Hamlet American Legion baseball team recorded an impressive 39-6 record that summer and won the North Carolina state championship, Post 49’s most recent of five state titles.
The 49ers also made it to the Southeastern Regional tournament, finishing with a 2-2 record and placing fourth overall in DeLand, Fla.
Now on the eve of the 37th anniversary of that successful summer run, Yarbrough and the other players and coaches of the 1987 team will have a special night to honor them later this week.
The current Post 49 baseball team, coached by Chip Gordon, will hold its home opener Friday. Ahead of the action, the 1987 title-winning team will be recognized.
Eddie Martin, a long time member of the Hamlet American Legion a big supporter of the baseball program, has been the maestro conducting Post 49’s Opening Day ceremonies the last few seasons.
“A lot of people want the team and the community to get back to the good old days when Post 49 was winning state championships,” Martin said. “We’ve done an Opening Day ceremony the last couple of years and this year I talked to Coach Yarbrough about throwing out the first pitch.
“And we got to talking about recognizing the whole 1987 team that won the state championship,” he added.
Hamlet will host Chatham Post 182 Friday at 7 p.m. for a non-conference game. Martin said the pre-game recognition will begin at 6:30 p.m.
Players of the 1987 Hamlet baseball team were: Sandy Baldwin, Gary Dunn, Roger Hailey, Jeff Hoopaugh, Bobby Hunt, Greg Hunt, Tommy Lill, Jesse McDonald, Carey McKeithan, Dwayne Miller, Alvin Morman, Stancill Morse, Tom Outen, Keith Robinson, Glenn Ross, Corey Short, Corey Taylor and Eric Tillman.
Helping coach the team to a state title, along with Yarbrough, were Tyree Brown and Kim Cousar. Players that season hailed from Richmond and Anson counties, as well as Wallace, S.C.
“Prior to the game, the 1987 team will line up along the first base line and we’ll introduce each player,” Martin shared. “For those players or coaches who aren’t able to make it, we’ll have their family there.
“Each player or family will make a trip around the bases and tag home plate one last time for old time’s sake. They will also get a commemorative t-shirt.”
Joe Richardson, commander of the Hamlet American Legion, will offer an opening comment. Local officials from Hamlet, Dobbins Heights, Rockingham and the County Commissioners will be present, Martin said, “to show the county’s support of Hamlet American Legion baseball.”
Yarbrough will throw out the ceremonial first pitch before lineups are announced and the National Anthem is played.
Following the on-field recognition, members of the 1987 team will be fed at the pavilion and given time to “watch baseball and reminisce.”
The 1987 Hamlet baseball team finished its regular season with an 18-0 record and won the Area 2 Western Division. Post 49 defeated Moore County Post 350 3-1 in a best-of-five-game series to open the playoffs.
That was followed by a 4-0 series sweep of Fayetteville Post 202 and Hamlet earned the Area 2 title with a 4-2 series win over Whiteville Post 137.
In the Eastern Regional series, Hamlet knocked off Pitt County Post 39 4-1, sending the 49ers to the state championship series.
Squaring up against Haw River Post 427, Hamlet made quick work to win the state title, sweeping the series in four games. It was the program’s fifth state championship since 1972.
Yarbrough attended Richmond Senior High School and was a two-time state champion with the Raiders in 1973 and 1974 as a junior and senior. After high school, the left-handed pitcher and outfielder played two years at Sandhills Community College.
Playing for Post 49 in 1973 and 1974, Yarbrough helped Hamlet win the 1974 state championship. A little more than a decade later, the knock on the gym door began his decade-and-a-half long coaching career for Post 49.
“We were practicing one night and someone knocked on one of the gym doors,” Yarbrough recalled. “A couple of men walked in and wanted to speak to me about coaching the Legion team. I was sort of in shock because Coach (George) Whitfield always coached it, but he had turned it down.
“I got back with them and told them I’d do it,” he continued. “It was an honor to do it. The 1987 team was a special group of kids, and I had coached a lot of them in junior high. I was at Richmond Senior High School in 1984 as the junior varsity head coach and we went 19-1 that year and a lot of those kids were on that team.”
A career educator, Yarbrough began teaching in 1979 at Rockingham Junior High School. He went to Richmond for one year and then taught and coached at Hamlet for a six-year stint.
Yarbrough returned to Richmond where he stayed until his retirement from education in 2010. He was also the Raiders’ head coach during that time, resigning from coaching in 2003.
The connections he made with some of his players on and off the field, especially in the classroom, are catalysts to what Yarbrough believes led the 1987 team to its successful run.
“I knew these kids and I knew their hearts,” Yarbrough shared. “The chemistry of that team was special. Our first game, we only had nine players. Then Richmond and Anson (High School) lost in the playoffs and we were meeting kids the same day to hand out uniforms to play in Fayetteville later that night.
“It was a crazy situation and we won 12-0 over Post 202, I believe,” he continued. “We finally got everyone together and we marched on. I knew we had a lot of really good baseball players, and as time turned out, we had two who became professional baseball players. It was a great group of kids.”
One of the anecdotes Yarbrough shared which personified the toughness and grit of the 1987 team was when Morse returned from a hernia injury. Morse hit a home run that cleared the Wilbur Dome in center field and he joked that “they haven’t found that baseball yet.”
“I did a ceremonial first pitch at Richmond this past season and I was nervous about that because I didn’t have time to throw. I’ll have time to throw this week, I promise you that,” Yarbrough laughed.
“I’m tickled to death for the City of Hamlet, the American Legion and the county for American Legion baseball to be back,” he closed. “Chip played for me and he has good instincts and is doing a good job. I want to thank everyone involved in this for the opportunity to have our team recognized.”
In Yarbrough’s second season, 1988, Hamlet won 33 games but lost in the playoffs to eventual state champion Snow Hill in the Eastern Regional round.
Ahead of Friday’s home opener, Hamlet will play at Chatham Post 182 Wednesday and Davidson County Post 8 Thursday. Both games are set for 7 p.m.
