Harrisonburg was adopted home of two ex-Major Leaguers: One won a World Series ring

It was a clear, quiet evening on a recent Saturday in Shenandoah County. The cloudless blue sky made Massanutten Mountain clearly visible to the east, with the sound of a few birds the only noise breaking the silence just off Route 11.

It is here – at Cedar Wood Cemetery in the small town of Edinburg – that is the final resting place of Vance Dinges, a former Major League Baseball player.

On the surface, it would seem Dinges and Gus Niarhos had little in common except that they both played Major League Baseball. Dinges was born in New Jersey in 1915 and was a first baseman and outfielder who played parts of two seasons for the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1940s. Niarhos, a catcher, was born in Alabama in 1920, went to Auburn, and had a big-league career that lasted nearly 10 years with the New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox and Phillies through 1955.

What they do have in common is that both settled in Harrisonburg after their time in The Show was over. And the last season for Dinges, 1946, was the rookie season for Niarhos.

James Niarhos, the son of Gus, told the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) what brought his father to the central Shenandoah Valley.

“He worked for a friend in Pennsylvania in the knitting industry until 1980 when [he and Gennevieve, his wife] moved to Harrisonburg,” James Niarhos said. “He enjoyed attending James Madison University sporting events. Baseball and women’s basketball were his favorites. He loved the beach and traveled there many summers. He spent many hours with my two children, which he enjoyed. He received requests for autographs on a daily basis through the mail. He signed them all and would never accept a dime. He requested that a contribution be made to the Major League Ballplayers Retirement Association. He was a good father.”

There is not as much as information on the post-career movement of Dinges, whose teammates on the Phillies included pitcher Johnny Humphries, who was born in Clifton Forge, and Richmond native Granny Hamner, who hit 103 homers in the majors and made the All-Star team three straight years in the 1950s.

But Dinges did have ties to the state before making the majors, playing in the minor leagues for Harrisonburg in the Virginia League from 1939-1941 and for Roanoke in the Piedmont League in 1943. He hit .367 for Harrisonburg in 1939, .307 the next year and then .346 with the club in 1941. Dinges stole 54 bases in the minors for Scranton in 1944 in the Boston system.

“After baseball, Vance became a salesman at a Chevrolet dealership and later, he became steward at the Harrisonburg Moose Lodge,” according to baseballreference.com. “Vance died at the Liberty House Nursing Home in Harrisonburg from complications of Alzheimer’s disease after being ill ten years (in 1990). He was 75 years of age.”

Niarhos passed away 14 years later.

“Gus Niarhos died on December 29, 2004, in Harrisonburg after a long illness. He and Gennevieve, who survived, had been married 58 years. Two sons, James and John; a daughter, Mary Ingram; four grandchildren; and Niarhos’s brothers John and Jim also survived,” according to baseballreference.com.

They are believed to be the only former Major League players who passed away in Harrisonburg.

Harrisonburg native Nelson Chittum, who pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox, died last year in Lexington, Kentucky. Doug Neff, a native of Harrisonburg who played parts of two seasons for the Washington Senators, died in Cape Charles in 1932. Elkton native Garland Shifflett, who pitched for the Senators and Minnesota Twins, passed in 2020 in Colorado.

Bill Harman, who was born in Bridgewater and starred in baseball and basketball at the University of Virginia, played for the Phillies in 1941 and died in Delaware in 2007. He taught physical education at a Waynesboro school after his playing career, according to a newspaper report.

Niarhos hit one homer in 691 at-bats in the Majors, while Dinges went deep twice in 501 trips to the dish in the big leagues.

“New Jersey native Dinges was signed as an amateur free agent by the Washington Senators before the 1938 season and played eleven seasons in professional baseball from 1938 to 1948. It would take the first baseman-outfielder eight seasons to get his opportunity in the big leagues,” according to baseballreference.com

Niarhos played in 37 games for the Yankees as a backup catcher in 1946. Other Yankees in 1946 included Virginia Beach native Bud Metheny, who went to William & Mary and would become a legendary coach at ODU – where the field is named in his honor. Another William & Mary pitcher for the Yankees that season was Vic Raschi, an all-Star who won six World Series rings during his career with the Bronx Bombers.

Niarhos began the 1949 season with a few starts in April/May for the Yankees, as future Hall of Famer Yogi Berra got most of the time back of the dish. New York went on to win the World Series as Niarhos got a ring while he played in one game on defense in the Fall Classic as the Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in five games.

“That was a tough organization if you were a catcher. They had Bill Dickey. Then Yogi came up. From 1949 on, it was just forget about being a (starting) catcher with the Yankees,” Niarhos said in Baseball’s Golden Greeks: The first 40 years 1934-74, which was published in 1999.

With the Red Sox in 1953, Niarhos was teammates with Hall of Famer Ted Williams as well as Floyd Baker, an infielder who grew up in Luray. Niarhos and Baker both played briefly for the Phillies in 1955.

Niarhos was a minor league manager in the Kansas City system, with stints at Wytheville in the Appalachian League in 1964 and with Peninsula three years later in the Carolina League. Dinges managed in 1948 with Salina in the Western Association in the Phillies’ system.

Niarhos is buried at St. Anne’s Cemetery in Phoenixville, Pa. while Dinges is surrounded by others with his last name at the cemetery in Shenandoah County, just south of the Edinburg Mill.

The Chase DeLauter story

Chase DeLauter became the 15th product of JMU Baseball to play in the Majors when he saw action with Cleveland in the postseason on Oct. 1. He went 1-for-4 on Oct. 2 against Detroit and had one hit in six at-bats in the series loss. DeLauter was the sixth player to make his MLB debut in the playoffs, and the second position player. Infielder Mark Kiger played for Oakland in the 2006 postseason but did not get a hit – and he never played in the Majors after that.

“Such a surreal feeling, hearing my name, running out and hearing everybody kind of scream for me that it’s a feeling every player kind of wishes for it,” DeLauter told reporters. “It helps you feel like you belong, you feel the support right away and, in some form, too. It calms you down on the field. You kind of feel like you should be there and should perform.”

The West Virginia high school graduate was the first JMU product to play the outfield in the majors since Rich Thompson in 2012, with Tampa Bay. Thompson broke into the majors with the Kansas City Royals in 2004, then went eight years before another appearance in The Show. DeLauter was the first former JMU player to appear in MLB postseason play since lefty reliever Mike Venafro, who went to Paul VI High in Fairfax. Venafro appeared in the playoffs in 1999 with the Texas Rangers and in 2004 with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

DeLauter became the second alum of the Rockingham County Baseball League (RCBL) to appear in the playoffs in the past two years. TA graduate Brenan Hanifee pitched for the Detroit Tigers in the 2024 playoffs. DeLauter was the RCBL MVP in 2020 with Broadway.

Notes

• Former STAB and University of Virginia player Nic Kent ended the year hitting .220 with four homers for Double-A New Haven in the Colorado Rockies farm system. He was drafted out of Virginia by the Rockies in 2021 in the 11th round.
• Waynesboro High graduate Reggie Harris broke into the Majors 35 years ago, on July 4, 1990, with the Oakland A’s. He also pitched in the Majors for the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers through 1999. The right-hander appeared in 86 games with one start and had an ERA of 4.91 but made no postseason appearances. Harris had a basketball scholarship in hand to Virginia Tech before deciding to sign with Oakland out of high school.
• Former Staunton Braves player Brian Snitker ended his 10-year run as manager of the Atlanta Braves, which included a World Series title in 2021. Snitker played in Staunton in the 1970s and one of his teammates was Keith Ebersole, who attended EMU in Harrisonburg after playing in the minors with the Chicago Cubs in 1978 in the Gulf Coast League as a first baseman. The manager for Ebersole in 1978 was Martinsville native Randy Hundley, an All-Star catcher for the Cubs in 1969. Snitker ended his college playing career at the University of New Orleans and played in the minors for the Cubs and Braves.
• The Seattle-Detroit ALDS series included one player from each team who was born in Harrisonburg – Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh and Hanifee, a reliever for the Tigers. The president of baseball operations for Seattle is Jerry Dipoto, who pitched in college at VCU.