LUMBERTON — The World Series is fast approaching as the Major League Baseball playoffs are underway this week.

Though some of the older folks in the area may have heard some things, chances are most people who make Lumberton home don’t realize that the city once fielded a professional minor-league baseball team.

The Class D-level Lumberton Cubs, who were renamed the Lumberton Auctioneers during their last two seasons, won a pennant in 1950 in the old Tobacco State League before losing to the similarly defunct Rockingham Eagles, 4 games to 2 in the playoffs.

In that series, the renamed Auctioneers (who were generally referred to as the Auks) played their last game, a 7-6 loss to the Eagles in 17 innings.

(It should be noted that most of the historical information used in this story is largely pulled from online accounts.)

As for the Tobacco State League, it folded permanently following the 1950 season.

And with that, the Lumberton minor-league club — which also earned wildcard playoff berths in 1947 and 1949 — ended its four-year run from 1947 to 1950.

Notable players over that stretch included Mel Bosser, Mike Milosevich, Charlie Osgood, Bob Spicer, Turkey Tyson and Verlon Walker, online accounts state.

In journalist Tom Wicker’s memoir, he recounted covering the team as a writer for The Robesonian. Regarded as one of postwar America’s most distinguished journalists, Wicker became a political reporter and columnist for The New York Times.

“He got into a tiff with a player named Turkey Tyson, who must have been in a slump,” said Scott Bigelow with the Robeson County History Museum, who provided the anecdote. “Anyway, Tyson — who was a slugger — got out of the slump after Wicker’s comments.”

Lumberton first hosted minor league play in 1947.

After initially playing as the Lumberton Cubs in ‘47 and ‘48, the franchise took the field as the Lumberton Auctioneers over the ‘49 and ‘50 seasons. The team served as a minor-league affiliate of the parent Major League Chicago Cubs from 1947 to 1949, accounts state.

The ballclub played without a Major League affiliation for its final season.

According to online accounts, a group of 10 local businessmen reportedly led an effort to apply to the Tobacco State League for membership. The league accepted the application and expanded from six to eight teams, adding Lumberton and Red Springs as new members for the 1947 season.

In league play, those two Tobacco State League expansion teams joined the Clinton Blues, Dunn-Erwin Twins, Sanford Spinners, Smithfield-Selma Leafs, Wilmington Pirates and Warsaw Red Sox.

A Lumberton physician named Dr. Bowman played a role in bringing the team to Lumberton. Bigelow said.

“He was a big sports fan, among other things,” Bigelow noted. “He and another doctor built the Carolina Civic Center in 1928. He was also a partner in the first radio station in Lumberton — WTSB (1340 AM).”

In 2012, The Robesonian reported that Lumberton’s parent club was to pay the players’ salaries and supply some equipment. The city of Lumberton was to provide, improve and maintain the facilities as well as provide players’ transportation to and from games away from home.

That first year, Jack Sheehan (also seen in accounts as Sheahan) served as president of the upstart Lumberton franchise that played home games at the former Lumberton Armory Field at 1100 North Cedar Street. Improvements were made to the facility, included a sodded infield.

Thanks to one of the Works Progress Administration programs that had been created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of the New Deal during the 1930s, the stadium had been built for $120,000, Bigelow said.

It is now the site of the Bill Sapp Recreation Center.

Sheehan was a scout for the parent Chicago Cubs. He is known to have helped form the World War II era All-American Girls Baseball League that was the source of the 1992 film “A League of Their Own” that starred Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and pop singer Madonna. It has since been rebooted as a television program.

The 91-year-old Finley Read coached his first baseball game at Lumberton High School in 1960 at the Lumberton Armory Field. The Lumberton High School baseball field is now named for Read.

“All my coaching career was right there in Lumberton,” he said last week. “Several of the old players stayed right there in Lumberton. The ones that played on the professional team,” he said of some of the ballplayers who were with the Lumberton Cubs and Auctioneers. “Once they came here, they never moved. Lumberton was a small, fine town then. It really was.”

Bigelow said some of the players “married local girls and stayed.”

As an example, The Robesonian has reported, young left-handed pitcher Doug Lorman was shipped down to the team from Chicago. Here, he met Ellenor French, a young copywriter for WTSB radio, while walking on W. 5th Street in Lumberton. They struck up a conversation.

It resulted in a 62-year marriage, The Robesonian said, and Lorman would spend the rest of his life in Lumberton.

“I knew some of the boys who played on that team,” Read said, “but they’re all dead now. That was the old Tobacco League.”

“Not to my knowledge,” he replied, when asked if any of the club’s players went on to play in the Major Leagues.

Read would coach baseball for 17 years at Lumberton High. The old high school coach now lives in the Wesley Pines retirement community in Lumberton.

According to online accounts, admission during the Lumberton Cubs inaugural season was 65 cents for adults, 35 cents for high school students and a quarter for children younger than 12.

The home opener was held on April 24, 1947, sources say. The Lumberton and Fairmont High School bands performed at the game with the Rev. R.L. Alexander serving as the master of ceremonies.

Three thousand fans attended the opener, accounts state, with then-Lumberton Mayor “Rom” A. Hedgpeth addressing the crowd. A Mrs. M.F. Townsend and Henry McDuffie sang the National Anthem before Lumberton lost to fellow expansion club Red Springs, 14-3.

The Cubs concluded their debut regular season with a 71–49 record under manager Red Lucas.

The Robesonian reported in that 2012 story that first baseman Elzer Marx hit .315 with 17 homers and 122 runs batted in. Lorman and Bob Spicer were the top pitchers, with 16-6 and 16-7 records, respectively.

The team drew nearly 51,000 paying customers that first season, the newspaper reported.

The following year, its second, the team posted a 55-81 record, finishing in seventh place under manager Charles Jamin. As a result, the Cubs failed to reach the playoffs.

Playing as the newly named Lumberton Auctioneers in its third season, the club posted a regular season record of 75-61 under managers Red Lucas and Jim Guinn. The Dunn-Erwin Twins eliminated them in the first round of the playoffs, 4 games to 1.

The 1950 season proved to be Lumberton’s best, winning a divisional pennant in the Tobacco State League.

With a 93–41 regular season record under manager John Streza, the Auctioneers placed first in the regular season standings, finishing 1.5 games ahead of the second-place Sanford Spinners.

On July 12, 1950, accounts state, Lumberton’s John Gerace tossed a no-hitter in a 5–0 victory over the rival Red Springs Red Robins.

But the Rockingham Eagles ended any Auctioneers thoughts of capping that glory year with a league championship, eliminating the Auctioneers from the playoffs and, as it would turn out, relegating them to become a sepia-toned memory.

Lumberton has not hosted a minor-league baseball team since.

“To my knowledge, no,” Read, the former Lumberton High coach, said. “They just had some semi-pro baseball.”