Loran Smith: Remembering Charlie Bagby

Loran SmithYou would have to be something of a seasoned historian or a baseball aficionado with a bent toward gleaning the lore of ole timers to recall the father-son pitchers of the Jim Bagby families.

The senior Bagby was born in Barnett, 51 miles west of Augusta, a little more than a long toss from Interstate 20. He played nine years in the Big Leagues, and his son, Jim Jr., born in Cleveland when the father was pitching for the Indians, spent 10 years in the majors—bringing about one of the most successful father-son combinations in baseball history.

In something akin to a threepeat, Junior’s son, Charlie, was a two-sport student-athlete at Georgia, a basketball forward and a first…