Author of several baseball books, including the newly released "The Best Little Baseball Town in the World" which highlights Crowley LA and the Evangeline Baseball League, Gaylon White joins Discover Lafayette to flip through the pages of his own story and his lifelong love of baseball.

Born in 1946 in Los Angeles, White started his journey as a sportswriter for the Denver Post, Arizona Republic, and The Oklahoma Journal. His passion for sports writing led him to write four baseball books of his own after he retired from the corporate world.

Starting in 2014 he wrote The Bilko Athletic Club: The Story of the 1956 Los Angeles Angels. In 2018 he wrote Singles and Smiles: How Artie Wilson Broke Baseball’s Color Barrier. In 2019 he wrote Left On Base in the Bush Legends, Near Greats and Unknowns in the Minors.

His latest baseball book, The Best Little Baseball Town in the World: The Crowley Millers and Minor League Baseball in the 1950s, was released in March 2021. His aim is to keep alive the legacy of the Crowley Millers, the ballpark in Crowley, and the memories of the Evangeline Baseball League. Many minor league ballplayers who played for the Millers became major-league players, including Hal Newhouser, Virgil "Fire" Trucks, and Ed Lopat. George Brunet was another famous professional ballplayer highlighted in his latest book who pitched for nine major league teams.

The Crowley Millers’ biggest star was Conklyn Meriwether, a slugger who became infamous after he retired when he killed his in-laws with an ax. Their former manager, Johnny George, turned out to be a con man, who died in jail awaiting trial on embezzlement charges. During the team's heyday in first place in the league, they were torn to pieces after their star centerfielder, Andy Strong, was struck and killed by lightning during a game which he desperately tried to avoid playing. Yet, with all the irony, the Crowley Millers played great baseball and led pitchers George Brunet and Dan Pfister to stardom and careers in the majors.

White was enraptured by the magic of the world of minor league baseball from an early age. He mentioned that many of the major league teams that we know today were once minor league teams that he grew up with. Los Angeles was a minor league city until The Dodgers moved from Brooklyn in 1958. Houston, Texas was also the site of a minor league team before they landed the Houston Astros. He remembers being four years of age, living in LA, and having the opportunity to bond with his father, a busy minister, as they watched minor league teams play in his hometown.   

Peppered with statistics about baseball’s minor and major leagues and the small world of Crowley, The Best Little Baseball Town in the World caters to a wide-ranging audience. “One of the reasons for writing the book was to keep alive the legacy of the Crowley Millers, the Miller ballpark that they played in that’s still open in Crowley....in fact it’s looking better than ever, and the story of the history of the Evangeline League,” White said.

The famous Miller Stadium, originally built in 1948, was revamped during the pandemic with an investment of $5 million by the City of Crowley. According to Gaylon White, it is in better shape now than it was when built in 1948.

White stressed that in the heyday of baseball, minor league baseball appealed to Americans because so few cities had major ball clubs in the day. Only five cities in the U. S. had major league teams. The majority of America was enamored with the play of local minor league teams that were hosted in small towns across the U. S. “Most of the country, in terms of baseball being its national pastime (where it earned that reputation),