Photographs courtesy of
Halls Nostalgia
The Red Hats finally won the Florida State League Championship... the first for DeLand's Conrad Park. The return of Al Pirtle and John Jancse would almost guarantee it. Al Pirtle was so good in 1950 for this team and in 1951, he did it again... 38 doubles, 14 triples and a record tying 11 homers... tying himself that is. Herbert McLeod, the team's best hitter was even better than the previous season, batting .361 but would unfortunately only play in 55 games for 219 At Bats. While the hitting was good, real good... John Jancse was great. putting up a 2.21 ERA, Jancse would tie the all time wins record putting up a fantastic 26-8 on the board tying Hal Toenes. Frank Radler (12-5, 1.94) meanwhile would have taken the all time ERA Conrad Park ERA title had Walter Jasinski not done one better going 16-4 with a 1.70 ERA. The 1950 Red Hats were a hot team, this DeLand entry however was on fire, breaking their all time wins record going 90-50 (.643)... 40 games above .500. Did this team have the legs to make it two in a row? The first thing they had to do was get past the 1st round... and they did... and then the won the second round too. The DeLand Red Hats had won their 2nd Florida State League Champion title in a row. These were exciting times in DeLand!