Lake Martin Classified

My wife is from Alexander City. She was raised here and has lots of family in the area. Her parents were David and Faye McCollough, who, like many thousands of others, worked at Russell Mills and/or Avondale Mills. David, known around these parts as “Dago” (for reasons unclear to us), was well known for his prowess on the baseball diamond, playing for the local mill teams.

Dago was a natural athlete – he had speed, stamina, good hands and a strong throwing arm and could hit a baseball a country mile. In the 1950s, a golden era for Major League Baseball, he was offered a contract to play for the New York Yankees. They were interested in signing another left-handed power hitter to play in Yankee Stadium, which favored left-handed batters.