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When I was growing up playing ball, we always called the coach by his last name and called by Mr. unless we didn’t know his first name. We would never call him by his first name only. Some people still call Coach Wagner “Mr. Wagner” and we all did during school hours.

We always said, yes sir and no sir and please and thank you and helped little old ladies across the street. We had manners back in those days.
I was umpiring a baseball game the other day and I didn’t hear a coach called Coach and I didn’t hear any yes sir, no sir. They called their coach by his first name. I would have stopped the game after the third inning and told the teams they had better stop calling their coach by his first name or Mr. Doe! They were so impolite they wouldn’t have said yes sir or no sir to me.

The team manager was called the water boy back in the day and big league baseball started that. I remember when I was just that. Bobby Roberson and Riley Roberson were two water boys also. Now we were not managers or at least we didn’t think we were. When Coach Wagner went out on the field, we would tag along and get the tee off the field after the kickoff. We thought we were big shots back or at least I did back in those days.

Fred “the Head” was the manager back in the good ole days and coach made him famous! Fred “the Head” knew when to go on field or not. He was smart like that. I wish him well because he got many a good, cool drink before conditioning. Then we would go to Mrs. Carvers after practice to eat chili dogs and get a cold beverage. We all made it!

Fred “the Head “Swindell was water boy extraordinaire! He was what it was all about! He was superb at his job and I think he was Manager. Best of luck to you today!

They were the best times with the best of friends and in the best of places Washington, NC! The Original Washington!

Harold Jr.