“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.