The North Carolina Mason

79. That led to a 1980 post as Director of Player Development for the Toronto Blue Jays. He retired from baseball in 1988 after spending five seasons as a coach under Blue Jays managers Bobby Cox and Jimy Williams. GIL ENGLISH spent 44 years as a member of Numa Reid, having been raised in 1952 and serving as Worshipful Master in 1966. He also served three years as the Grand Lecturer of the Grand Lodge English was born in nearby Trinity, attended high school in California, and spent six seasons in the majors. English played third base, shortstop and second, and he had a .245 batting average over his career with the New York Giants, Detroit Tigers, Boston Bees – a short-lived name change for the Braves – and Brooklyn Dodgers. He died Aug. 31, 1996, in Trinity. GEORGE ERATH had been a Master Mason in good standing for 45 years when he passed away Nov. 7, 2003. Minor-league baseball brought him from Chicago to Lumberton, N.C., to pitch for a Class D Cubs farm club, and he was later a scout for the Boston Braves. In 1949, in a game in Missouri, his streak of 22 scoreless innings was snapped when he surrendered a home run to a 17-year-old Mickey Mantle, whose blast soared over the lights illuminating the field. In 1956, as the General Manager of the High Point Thomasville Hi-Toms of the Carolina League, his roster included a young Curt Flood. Erath's more notable contribution was service to the High Point community. After selling wood veneer to the many furniture companies in the Triad and elsewhere, he started his own company in the same field. He was a significant donor and fundraiser for High Point University, and he served on HPU's Board of Trustees, including a stint as its chairman. In 2002, he was named the Philanthropist of the Year by the High Point Community Foundation, and in 2007 earned the posthumous honor of having the baseball complex at HPU named after him: George Erath Field at Willard Stadium. RAY HAYWORTH, who was born in High Point in 1904, took all three Masonic degrees in a two-week span in 1931 at McDaniel No. 86 in Christiansburg, Va. He became a member of his hometown lodge Jan. 7, 1969. At age 22, Hayworth made his MLB debut June 27, 1926, as a catcher for Detroit. He spent the next two seasons back in the minors, but returned to "The Show" in 1929 and spent much of the next 15 years there. He helped the Tigers win the American League championship in 1934 by batting .293 in 54 games, and he played in the World Series against St. Louis. A year later, Hayworth was on the roster when the Tigers beat the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. During his career, Hayworth played for managers such as Ty Cobb, Casey Stengel and Leo Durocher. At one point, he held an American League record for catchers by handling 438 consecutive chances without an error, a mark broken by Yogi Berra Hayworth was 41 years old when he played his final MLB game on June 18, 1945. He managed in the minor leagues, and was a coach with the Cubs and the Brooklyn Dodgers. He served as the scouting director for the Cubs and Milwaukee, and also worked with Montreal and the Atlanta Braves. Among the players he scouted for the Cubs was Ernie Banks. Hayworth was employed in professional baseball for nearly 50 years, and at the time of his death in 2002 at age 98, he was the oldest living MLB player. L AT E S U M M E R 2 0 2 3 | 13

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