The attached picture shows the team picture of the Shenandoah Indians in 1971 when they were playing in the Valley Baseball League (VBL).
This picture appeared...
in the Thursday July 29, 2021 edition of the Page News and Courier newspaper in the Out of the Archives section, from August 5, 1971.
The caption reads “VL Series Hopefuls – Members of the Shenandoah Indians baseball club, making an appearance in the VL Series, are front row, (left to right) manager Larry Dofflemyer, Rick Coffin, Bill Hall, Preston Douglas, Tommy Law, Steve Goodman, Bill Gland and assistant manager herb Johnson; second row, Donnie Knighton, Steve Brindle, John Harbin, Dean Hahn, Tommy Toms, Gene Collins, Eddie Oats and Sam Rixie. The Indians finished the regular season with a 28-14 record, good enough for the number two spot in the play-offs. They were one game behind league-leading Harrisonburg who had a record of 29-13”
Harrisonburg went on to win the championship over Shenandoah in the best of seven game series, Harrisonburg 4, Shenandoah O.
Shenandoah went on to win the Valley League championship for the next 3 years! In 1972 they won over Charlottesville 4 games to 2. Shenandoah repeated as Valley League champions in 1973 winning out over Madison 4 games to 2 and again in 1974 winning out over Waynesboro 4 games to 2.
In 1975 the Shenandoah Indians finished in 4th place in the VBL with a record of 20-25.
Team stats obtained from the book The Valley Baseball League, A History of Baseball in the Shenandoah Valley by Chaz Weaver. This book is available on line at such places such as Barnes & Noble, AbeBooks, Amazon etc.
See our related article on the Shenandoah Indians winning the VBL Championship in 1972.
http://shenandoahnewz.com/sports/shenandoah-indians-baseball/292-shenandoah-indians-1972-valley-league-champions
