“Rocket Ron,” Mr. Lindsey and Johnny Beckett made major marks in area

Bittersweet. A week of highs and lows in my mind’s eye. A dynamic duo who excelled in successful careers, punctuated with life-long associations in area athletics, passed from the stage. Both “Johnny” Beckett, 76, and Richard “Bum eye” Lindsey, 86, grew up in Four Seasons Country, moving through it in hard-working fashion while never losing their concern for others and always holding a fondness for sports of all kinds. Mr. Lindsey was laid to rest Thursday and Mr. Beckett’s service will be held this morning.

Also this week – the unprecedented baseball game held at old Shaw Park in Bristol, Virginia, 73 years ago on May 13, 1952. Ron Necciai, a lanky 6-5 flame-throwing right handed pitcher for the Bristol Twins of the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, struck out 27 batters of the Welch Miners to set a record that stands alone in the long history of organized baseball.

Both of our friends knew about that game, although Mr. Lindsey recalled it more easily. He was 13 years old, even then a devoted baseball aficiando, and saw both Necciai and another Bristol pitcher, Bill Bell. Bell pitched two no-hitters that year and one came against Bluefield. Richard was right there. In those days before the city signed an agreement with the Baltimore Orioles, Bluefield’s minor league team was known as the “Blue Grays,” a title recognizing the state lines between two differing sides in the Civil War.

The Bluefield team began in the Mountain States League, playing in the old ball park on the East End adjacent to the Norfolk & Western Railway. Later, that became the site of the main building for Craft Bus Lines, which served a wide area of the Pocahontas Coal Fields. By 1939, the new facility of Bowen Field was opened on the Virginia side as part of the City Park and the team began playing there, changing the name to the Bluefield Orioles in 1955.

Both men grew into student-athletes. Mr. Lindsey graduated from Tazewell High in 1957 and Mr. Beckett from Bluefield High a decade later. Richard played sports, became an official for many years and entered into education. John was part of a great tradition in Bluefield, from Little League baseball to a multi-sport career with the Beavers including the 1965 state football championship.

Both Richard and John became educators before moving into the business world. John became a banker while Richard gained a position as a mining supervisor. The Becketts – John and Becky – moved across the region before his career settled back in the city. The Lindseys – Richard and Janet – stayed closer to the area.

In one of Richard’s more interesting assignments working for Pocahontas Fuel Company, his crew was assigned to clear the underground area between Jenkinjones and Boissevain mines. It included the old stables where the mules were housed and worked. He talked about the equipment, bridles, halters, and other materials still down there years after electric motors took over. He said he wished he had kept some of that as souvenirs. What coalfield history he saw.