“[White] was a great, great man,” Lamore recalled. “And you could tell that he was going to turn the baseball program around.”
For the 18-year-old Lamore, it was a heady spring and summer. With college plans made, he could focus on playing his favorite sport. Soon, he and other players, many of whom he’d known for a decade, formed a Palomino League team.
“It was an incredible summer league team,” he recalled. “We were off the charts good.” Victory after victory came the team’s way in district, state, and regional tournaments—and by August, members of the team were packing their bags to play in the Palomino World Series, held in San Jose, California.
There was just one problem: The day of the Palomino World Series was the day before matriculation at VMI. Thinking that a late arrival might be possible, Lamore reached out to White, who in turn contacted Lt. Gen. Sam S. Walker ’45, then superintendent. Walker’s decision was firm: Big game or no big game, Lamore had to matriculate on the same day as the rest of the Rat Mass.
What happened that day has been etched in Lamore’s mind ever since. Lamore’s team won the Palomino World Series, but there was no time to celebrate or even let that incredible triumph sink in—Lamore had a cross-continental red-eye flight in front of him.
“My Dad picked me up at the airport when landing that morning, and we drove straight to Lexington,” Lamore recounted. “I was the second-to-last rat to matriculate. I showed up having just been in the paper and on the news in San Jose as a World Series player. Within 15 minutes of being dropped off, the VMI cadre took me downstairs, shaved my head, and started screaming at me. … I went from being a celebrity to being a rat (the lowest thing ever) in a matter of six hours.”
The leveling effect of the Rat Line was harsh at the time, but today, Lamore can see its value. “One of the reasons I have great feelings about VMI is because it really helps you mold yourself from a high school kid who thinks they know more than they do into somebody who is actually responsible. The VMI education pounds the weaknesses out of you and gets rid of the baggage,” he said.
Academically, Lamore discovered an aptitude for civil engineering almost from the start of his cadetship. He’d learned that no one yells at rats if they’re studying outside of barracks, so he’d relocate to an academic building in the evenings. “I just developed good study habits early on.”
Dedicating himself to academics just as much as to baseball paid dividends, and Lamore quickly came to respect VMI’s high academic standards and its honor system. Continuing to excel on the playing field as he did in the classroom, Lamore was named Southern Conference Freshman of the Year at the conclusion of his rat year.
With such accomplishments, Lamore had every right to contemplate professional baseball—and he did. But sometime around his 2nd Class year, Lamore had a realization: A VMI diploma and degree in civil engineering offered a promising future—and getting drafted to play professional baseball is iffy at best, with years often spent in the minor leagues.
“I was doing well in civil engineering,” he said. “I was second in my civil engineering class and carrying a 3.5 [accumulative grade point average], wearing academic stars. I saw that there was probably greater potential long term in [civil engineering].”
After graduating from VMI, Lamore accepted a position in oil and gas production with Exxon Corp., now ExxonMobil. Later, Lamore’s professional career intersected with those of several VMI alumni. Lamore held a vice president position with a company called ETI, owned by Jim Wheat ’41, which was later sold to Tyco International. Lamore stayed on with Tyco for a decade after the company was sold and often engaged with VMI alumni in related companies.