The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time … It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again.

&045; James Earl Jones as Terence Mann in Field of Dreams

With a tattered but precious scrapbook full of memories and his lovely wife Betty in tow, Jack Chandler returned to Natchez Thursday.

On his way to Oxford to see one of his four grandchildren accept a doctorate from Ole Miss, the World War II veteran, who batted cleanup and played center field for the Natchez Indians in the Cotton States League in 1948, made a two-day stop in the town he and his wife remember so fondly.

&uot;After being gone for 50 years, it’s still a beautiful place,&uot; Betty said. &uot;There weren’t many restaurants here back then, and people would invite us in to their homes to eat.&uot;

Without the luxury of a private apartment, the Chandlers called Natchez their residence at a house, which they shared with another family.

Jack, who doles out personalized ball-point pens to a stranger, was one of two boys out of nine altogether that went on to play professional baseball from tiny Pinson, Ala.

&uot;My brother Eddie played for the Dodgers and Cubs, but he was only up long enough to make enough money to drink coffee with,&uot; Jack said. &uot;Baseball was in my blood. And Natchez was a part of that. People were so nice to us here.&uot;

With cut-out articles and pages stained yellow due to father time, some of Jack’s most memorable headlines read:

&uot;Big Chandler Bat Leads Hot Attack,&uot; &uot;Jack Chandler Hitting Leads Tribe in Miracle Batting Spree,&uot; and &uot;Left fielder Jack Chandler Hit Home Run in Ninth With 2 On Base.&uot;

No extravagancies back in Jack’s day like teams are pamperedwith today, such as flights across the states. No sir. Games were played in the afternoon and teams piled in the bus afterward to make it to the next designated stop or crossed the Mississippi River via ferries.

&uot;The fact is, a lot of times I drove the bus,&uot; Jack said. &uot;We’d finish a ball game, take a shower and head to the next place. We’d always make those road trips that night.&uot;

Jack was a big stick for the Indians, who defeated El Dorado, Ark., that year for the championship.

There was the night before the ’48 All-Star game, which he was selected to, when he was 4 for 6 with three triples, a pair of home runs &045; one in which was a walk-off job &045; and a single to help sweep a doubleheader.

Or the time he smashed three home runs in consecutive at-bats only after the umpire forced him to switch bats after the first one because it was chipped.

Back home in Pinson, where he and Betty still live, Jack has anywhere from 75 to 100 balls with something significant about that day’s game written on each one.

&uot;The Lord has blessed me with a mind where I can remember things so freshly,&uot; Jack closed. &uot;I still bet you I can hit a curveball.&uot;

Chuck Corder

is a sports writer for The Natchez Democrat. You can reach him at (601) 445-3633 or by e-mail at

chuck.corder@natchezdemocrat.

com.