Chuck Griffin
Sen. Bob Corker

Hacker Caldwell learned one important lesson from playing in the 1961 Dixie Youth Baseball World Series on Lookout Mountain: He should go into business.

“Rossville and Hueytown, Ala., beat us like a drum,” said Mr. Caldwell, now chairman of TSWII Management Co. “I was very sure after that World Series that I would not make a professional baseball player.”

Dozens of business leaders such as Mr. Caldwell and civic leaders spent their early years in Dixie Youth uniforms, though they’ve since moved on to dark suits and striped ties.

Greg Brown, now mayor of Lookout Mountain, Tenn., also played in the 1961 series.

He said it was “a great experience,” even though the host team, which won an automatic bid, did lose its first two games in the double-elimination tournament. Rossville’s team went on to win that series.

Mr. Brown said playing in the league gave him the skills to be a leader and deal with people, even elected officials.

“It’s not about you, it’s about the ultimate goal,” he said. “You’re working with all the different commissioners and just trying to achieve a goal.”

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Chattanooga, who played Dixie Youth Baseball on Signal Mountain, said the game taught him civility.

“To be able to compete, to be able to shake hands and keep your word, I think that’s what sports teaches,” he said.

And, he pointed out, he pitched a no-hitter in the subdistrict tournament at Red Bank Junior High School in 1964. But even when the games weren’t no-hitters, Sen. Corker said he learned “when things were not going your way, not to get down.”

He said he still catches baseball games when he can, but can’t keep up with it the way he used to.

That’s not so for Chuck Griffin, who went by the nickname Chucker when he played in Red Bank’s Dixie Youth league in the 1970s. Now president of BarberMcMurray Inc., an architecture firm in Knoxville, Mr. Griffin was president of Farragut Baseball Inc. because of an enduring love of the game, he said.

“I was able to help with my two younger sons and coach them growing up,” Mr. Griffin said.

For Monty Millard, who played on Red Bank league founder Skipper Fairbanks’ first baseball team in 1955 and followed him to Dixie Youth in 1962, the social networks he made in Dixie Youth remain strong.

“I still run into people today,” said the Red Bank city commissioner and local banker.

And Mr. Millard still appreciates the quality of the facilities and the play he got once Red Bank joined up with Dixie Youth.

“We thought we had gone to the major leagues,” he said.

But Sen. Corker said the players in the major leagues of government could take a lesson in athleticism from the 11- and 12-year-olds in Dixie Youth.

“I wish our Senate softball team was up to our Dixie Youth standards,” he said.