C'est Vrai: Baseball star caught attention of majors

Linton Pierre Landry was the talk of Broussard in spring 1948, after he got the letter inviting him to try out for the St. Louis baseball organization.

The 23-year-old was a native of Lafayette but played well enough as a catcher for the semi-pro Broussard Red Sox in 1947 to get a letter from George Sisler, who had been player-manager of the old St. Louis Browns in 1924, 1925 and 1926, and presumably was acting as a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1940s.

Sisler invited Landry to try out for the Class D Albany, Ga., team, which was then one of the teams in the Georgia-Florida League.

Harold Hollier of Broussard remembers Landry as "a muscular kid who could really rap the ball."

Landry battled .333 in the 1947 Teche League season against teams in Youngsville, Crowley, Lafayette and other communities and led the league in home runs.

He came to the notice of the St. Louis organization when he attended a tryout camp at the SLI diamond, but the invitation to Albany forced him to make a decision.

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