In the Record Book - And I Was There.

Carlsbad has always been a baseball town. The first mention of baseball in early Eddy/Carlsbad newspapers was in the Eddy Argus in 1892. And at one time we had our own semi-pro team. Yes, our small New Mexico town, hosted a semi-professional baseball team, The Potashers, from 1953 until 1961. They played at Montgomery Field, located near the Beach and owned by Real Estate developer C.F. Montgomery.

At various times, the team was ranked B level, C level, or sophmore league. The longest homerun ever recorded was hit at Montgomery Field on August 11, 1959 by Potasher, Gil Carter. It was my birthday and my Dad took me to the game for my birthday. We sat in the second row right behind the catcher. Gil Carter never made it to the bigs. But he has his name in the record book for that hit - 730 feet.

If you are from Carlsbad you might remember the field as the Connie Mack Field. I have a lot of good memories of keeping score at the Connie Mack games in the summers when I was in high school. The field is gone now. It was the soccer field for a while, and now it is a new development project.

According to Sports Illustrated reference (Dorbin, Jerry. Elysian Fields Quarterly Review, 2001)

The date was August 11, 1959. It was Carter's 28th homer, a new league record in the circuit's second season. Carter was a 218 pound former boxer from Topeka. He'd been an all-star fullback in high school, but lived in Kansas City when the Chicago Cubs assigned him to the little potash mining city on the Pecos River near the Caverns which bear the town's name.
The sports editor for the Carlsbad Current Argus, the official scorer that night was also a service trained aerial photographer. He was flown over the field the next day and photographed the scene. Prints were laid out on Montgomery's desk. The monstrous stroke was measured and triangulated. Give or take a couple of inches, the ball was found 730 feet from home plate.

Carlsbad is still a baseball town. We have always had a good Little League program and a great High School baseball program that has sent a few players to the "Big Show". Right now our current local Major League star is Cody Ross, who plays for the 2010 World Series Champions, the San Francisco Giants.