SHEPHERDSTOWN — The dust bunnies flew. One baseball diamond was carved out of a farmer’s level field that had once been used to grow alfalfa and timothy. Bad hops for infielders were almost routine. Leetown had the most pristine field that had been forged from the marl earth close to the national fish hatchery.

And the Potomac Little League could boast of an out-of-state team — the Sharpsburg Bluebirds from just across the Potomac River in Sharpsburg, Md.

The six league members were Sharpsburg, Shepherdstown, Leetown, Bakerton, Millville and Harpers Ferry/Bolivar.

Shepherdstown’s Yankees played between the ropes on the Shepherdstown High School field.

Sharpsburg had its home games on the now-defunct elementary school field tucked into a dusty corner of the facility grounds and just off the Shepherdstown Pike road.

It was Bakerton that had the field located on a generous farmer’s acreage that provided the youth of the Senators team from that area with a level place to play.

Harpers Ferry High School and its all-dirt infield was the site of home games for the Tigers. Leetown could play its home games even if a summer rain had only stopped about an hour before game time. The marl earth seemed to soak up water like a sponge and the scheduled game went on as planned.

Millville also had an all-dirt infield and was established near the town’s quarry grounds.

Baseball was king for a while and players and adults alike were just glad to have places to ply their short-summer trade with real uniforms, made comfortable by their cotton fiber with the team name written across the chest of the sneaker-clad sluggers.

The season seemed to be bob-tailed by the need to select an all-star team that would compete in a tournament against Charles Town and Martinsburg. It was in the very early stages of the Williamsport, Pa.-sponsored trail. Weeks later came the World Championship, an event where teams from all over the United States and many other countries would gather at the mecca of youth baseball.

Shepherdstown games could be seen by motorists cruising by in front of the Elmwood Cemetery toward Kearneysville or beyond.

The Yankees had many faces that would later be seen on the same grounds when the players were members of the Shepherdstown Cardinals high school nine.

John Shackelford, Jimmy Rench, Mark Osbourn, John Lucas, Dave Lucas and many members of the 1970 baseball state champion Cardinals heard the blaring horns from vehicles driving by, on their way to and from the historic town or a county farm or orchard.

No Potomac Little League All-Star team ever won a West Virginia state championship, nor sniffed the rarified air in Williamsport.

But the preteens that ran out on to the hayfield-to-be in Bakerton and the marl marvel in Leetown had places to play organized baseball, when the Potomac Little League was in its glory and providing summer entertainment.