Locust Hill’s Syd Thrift Jr.: Most famous baseballer in Middlesex Co. history

by Larry Chowning  – 

The most famous baseball figure in Middlesex County history was the late Sydnor W. Thrift Jr. of Locust Hill.

Syd Thrift made baseball his life and went on to become one of the greatest baseball minds in the history of the game. He became general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates and a top executive with the Baltimore Orioles.    

As a seventh grader at Syringa High School (SHS), Thrift had grown to be 6-feet tall and he was recruited to play baseball by the baseball coach. The coach was the Rev. Steve Cowan, who was also minister at Urbanna United Methodist Church.    

Thrift stated in his autobiography “The Game According to Syd” that it was one of Rev. Cowan’s sermons on the parable of the talents, “ . . . which made an everlasting impression on me . . . I believed my gifts were in baseball.”        

After graduating from SHS in 1945, Thrift entered Randolph Macon College as a left-handed pitcher on the baseball team. In his first year, he was named All-state as a left-handed pitcher. The All-state, right-handed pitcher was the University of Richmond’s Lew Burdette, who would later win 203 games in 18 major league seasons.

After graduation from college, Thrift was drafted on the New York Yankees farm team. After suffering a back injury while fielding a ball, Thrift quit and came home. He got a job as an American Literature teacher and…