Mickey Mantle won the Triple Crown in 1956, but his summer was no better than 12-year-old Perry Lowman's.
Rockwell's Lowman terrorized Rowan Little League 50 years ago. He hit nine homers, batted .611, led the league in every offensive statistic and was 11-0 on the mound.
But when coaches and umpires convened at the Elks Lodge to decide the 12-boy league all-star team, Lowman was left off. That decision riled the Post's Jim Hurley Jr., who fired off a story entitled "Did Little League Pull A Big Boo-Boo?"
No one saw Lowman pout, much less cry. Fifty years later, he insists the all-star snub never cost him a second's sleep.
"I cared less and I don't think there was one word ever said about it at home," Lowman said. "My daddy taught me the team was what was important. The team won."
Rockwell won often in 1956, waging a blazing pennant race with the strong Elks from June to August.
With Little Leaguers gathering in South Williamsport, Pa. for the World Series, Dale Basinger was reminded of Rockwell's 1956 squad. He was Rockwell's second-best player, a quiet, bespectacled kid who transformed from Clark Kent to Superman when he took the mound. He led the league in strikeouts and shared shortstop duties with Lowman.
Fifty years after Rockwell fought the Elks for a title, Basinger and Lowman remain good friends. But their conversations now are about books, not curveballs.
Lowman was a go-getter from his first tryout. Basinger can still see him grabbing a bat, running to the plate and yelling, "Throw it right'chere and I'll hit it a mile!"
"I was hardheaded then, and I still am," Lowman said. "I was the mouth of that team. Some guys were quiet, but they didn't have much choice with (catcher) Buzz Holshouser and me around."
Rowan Little League was born in 1955. Perfect timing. That was the year Boyden High and the Salisbury American Legion team won state championships.
Baseball interest was sky-high. Salisbury fielded no minor league teams from 1954-59, so fans swarmed Legion and Little League games.
The Lions' Barry Moore dominated Rowan Little League its first year. Lowman said he faced Moore for six years and never got a hit.
But Moore moved on in '56 and wasn't among the 200 boys auditioning for the eight Little League teams. Another 100 vied for spots on five teams playing in Spencer.
"Crowds were large, and there was a lot of pressure for a 12-year-old pitcher," Basinger said. "Lots of times, kids that were supposed to pitch came down with stomach aches."
That never happened to the confident Lowman.
"Perry was swaggering, cocky, but he would back it all up," Basinger said.
Lowman's father, Odis Perry Lowman, died in 1991. He was a World War II vet who moved to Rowan to take a job at North Carolina Finishing in Spencer.
In 1953, Lowman watched his father play ball for the Salisbury Rocots at Newman Park, then head to the plant to work the third shift. He put in 35 years there.
"My daddy was a great man, and he pushed us," said Lowman, whose younger brother Bobby was a Rockwell teammate. "You might hit three home runs with the bases loaded. But then if you took a called third strike, he'd tell you to just leave your bat in the dugout next time."
Lowman also respected his coach Bill Haynes, but he butted heads with him once.
"We needed a run to tie and Coach gives me the bunt sign," Lowman said. " I thought, 'I ain't bunting, I'm tearing up this league.' I fouled it off. The next pitch is a ball. Then I hear Coach calling me over. I walked halfway, McDaniel Field got real quiet, and everyone hears him yell, 'PERRY, BUNT THE BALL!' "
Haynes pounded defensive fundamentals into his players at practice. Game nights, Rockwell players would pile into a pickup truck and roll into Salisbury.
They were the outsiders.
"I know those city boys hated to see us coming," Lowman said. "We always played with a little grudge. Coach would say, 'Boys, we're going to town, and we don't want to leave feeling bad.'
"Usually, we didn't."
Neither did the Elks. The Elks' stars, Johnny Walker and Jim Wagoner, were from China Grove, and they took turns pitching and catching. Five years later, they would form a devastating battery for Kannapolis' state-champion Legion team.
The Elks handed Rockwell its first loss in nine innings.
The Elks lost two early, then caught fire. When the Elks and Rockwell met again in early July, Walker pitched a two-hitter. The Elks won 1-0.
Both teams still had two L's when they met July 30 in a third and final showdown to decide the pennant.
Holshouser hit Walker's first pitch for a triple. Then Lowman hit a home run.
Basinger fanned 12. Rockwell won 5-2 and claimed first place. Rockwell finished 19-2. The Elks stood 18-3.
Basinger pitched a no-hitter against the Lions, as both powerhouses swept their first playoff series.
Then the Elks (23-4) knocked off Rockwell three games to one in the finals. They beat Basinger in the opener despite his one-hitter and survived his 15 strikeouts in the finale.
Rockwell was 22-5, with all five losses to the Elks. Its season was over. Salisbury wasn't yet a member of the national association, so there were no dreams of state titles or World Series trips.
Lowman won his 11th straight on the mound in the second playoff game against the Elks and helped himself with a three-run homer. That same night, the Lowman-less all-star team was announced.
Fifty years later, Lowman's all-star omission remains an unsolved mystery. Lowman theorizes voters were convinced he had a bad habit.
"My dad would buy me these chocolate kits, and I'd put all six chocolates in my mouth at the same time," Lowman explained. "Then I'd spit. Some people thought I was chewing tobacco."
Lowman signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates after the 1961 American Legion season. He made his pro debut with Shelby as a replacement for a second baseman who'd broken his leg.
Lowman remembers turning seven double plays one night. He also recalls being victimized by prankster teammates, who dropped a match down his pants in the dugout before he took his position.
"I realized I was on fire and took my pants off right there on the field," Lowman said. "The Sporting News picked up on it. The headline said: 'Lowman Hot In Shelby.' "
Lowman reported to Spring Training in Florida in '62 and met Roberto Clemente, Bill Mazeroski.
But his pro career was brief.
"I was just a good local ballplayer," Lowman said.
But in 1956, Lowman was better than good.
All-star or not, he was the best player in the league.
Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com.
