Lane High graduate Mike Cubbage played Major League Baseball for eight seasons, once challenged Rod Carew and Fred Lynn for a batting title and then managed in The Show after his playing career in an interim role for the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox.
And his path to the majors got a jumpstart by playing in the Valley Baseball League at a young age for his hometown team in 1970. “I was 17 and my first game was at Waynesboro,” Cubbage, who passed away last August in South Carolina, told this reporter in 2020. “My first two at-bats, I struck out against some really good curveballs. My third at-bat I hit a home run.”