The fans at Leggett Center watched three big screens and hung on every pitch.

Future Millsaps Majors.

A crowd of approximately 125 baseball fans watched on three big screens at the Millsaps Leggett Center, cheered throughout and then groaned at the end Friday morning and early afternoon.

Jim Page’s Millsaps Majors, playing in the Division III College World Series for the first time in school history, lost 2-1 in 10 innings to Southern Maine.

The Majors lost despite a valiant pitching effort from Kosciusko senior right-hander Will Edwards, who allowed only one earned run and five hits. Edwards pitched into the 10th inning before he was injured on a freak play.

You can watch baseball for more than half a century — as I have — and still see something new in any given game. That was the case in the 10th inning Friday when Millsaps first baseman Stephen Gates fielded a sacrifice bunt, tried to throw out the runner advancing to second and instead beaned Edwards in the side of his head just above his right ear. Edwards and Gates couldn’t have been more than 10 feet apart.

It was a scary moment. But then Edwards stood up, asked for the ball and returned to the mound as if he would continue to pitch. Millsaps coach Jim Page wisely decided otherwise and brought on Harper Grier, who inherited runners at first and second with nobody out. Grier pitched well, but couldn’t keep Southern Maine, 43-8, from pushing across the go-ahead run.

Batting in the bottom of the 10th, Millsaps managed a baserunner but not a tying run.

Simply put: The Majors couldn’t catch a break. The Leggett Center crowd booed the first base umpire when he called a Majors baserunner out at first base when replays showed he beat the throw by at least a full step. Ball and strike calls from the plate umpire was jeered on a regular basis as well.

Nevertheless, it was festive purple and white crowd, on the Millsaps campus, who dined on hot dogs and hung on every pitch.

Page, a former Millsaps player, has coached Millsaps to more than 600 victories over 25 years but never to the World Series although the Majors have been close several times.

Friday’s loss drops the Majors to 38-13. They will play in an elimination game Saturday against the Ithaca-Linfield loser at 10 a.m.

Millsaps led 1-0 when this photo was snapped. (All photos courtesy of Sophia Wolf)

(From Rick Cleveland: Many readers surely have read Michael McCann’s work in Sports Illustrated or on SI.com. McCann is director of the Sports Law Institute at Vermont Law School, a visiting professor at University of New Hampshire School of Law, and the distinguished visiting Hall of Fame Professor of Law at Mississippi College School of Law. No kidding, that’s his official M.C. title. McCann also serves as NBA TV’s On-Air Legal Analyst. McCann, teaching this week at Mississippi College, took time to answer some legal questions that should be of interest to readers of this website. McCann’s answers follow my questions.)

1) Retired NFL veterans, including many Mississippians, are suing the league for ongoing physical problems they say are due to injuries suffered during their pro football careers. In most cases, they are part of a class action suit. Many of the claims are about brain damage from repeated concussions. How do you see this playing out?

More than 4,000 retired NFL players are part of a class action lawsuit that is currently before U.S. District Judge Anita Dunn in Pennsylvania.  Their central argument is that the NFL concealed important information about the links between playing NFL football and long-term neurological problems, including those associated with concussions.

Although it is clear that many retired NFL players are suffering terribly from long-term neurological problems associated with playing football, their pathway to compensation through law will be challenging.

For one, the NFL argues that these claims are barred through the collective bargaining agreement; essentially, according to the league, NFL players gave up the ability to sue over these health issues through their union’s agreement with the league.  The NFL hopes this argument will get Judge Dunn to dismiss the class sometime this year.

If that fails, the case will move towards pretrial discovery.  There is a good chance the NFL will want to settle the case if that happens to avoid potentially damaging information from being revealed.

But the league may also feel that it would win in a trial.  It could argue that players assumed the risk; that information about long-term neurological problems associated with head injuries and concussions were no mystery (unlike the tobacco industry concealing what they know about the link between tobacco and lung cancer); that players’ injuries may have occurred while playing football in college or high school or earlier; and that some of the older players’ claims are barred through the statue of limitations on those claims expiring.

Most likely outcome: some kind of settlement where retired players, especially those suffering, receive more compensation.

Michael McCann (center) with MC School of Law Associate Dean Phillip McIntosh (left) and Dean Jim Rosenblatt.

2) The New Orleans Saints Bountygate situation was a huge deal in this neck of the woods. Seemed to this observer there was a dreadful lack of due process on the part of the Commissioners office, particularly concerning the players who were suspended. Your thoughts?

I think the NFL learned through Bountygate that a better approach the next time a scandal emerges is a more collaborative spirit with the players’ association on resolving the matter in the most efficient and fair way.  From the get-go, it seemed the league and players were at odds over what happened, and that set the wrong tone.  An adversarial approach is sometimes the right call, but with a dispute like this — one which concerned player safety and which implicated not only players but coaches — working together probably would have avoided some of the fallout, including Vilma suing Goodell for defamation.

Part of the problem is that the NFL and NFLPA have a strained relationship, to put it mildly, partly due to the lockout and partly due to years of not trusting one another.

Part of the problem is also that the NFL commissioner has tremendous, non-reviewable powers, and that the players accepted those powers in collective bargaining.  Had the lockout not dragged on right up until the 2011 season, I suspect the players would have had more time to negotiate more due process.  But they didn’t, so the commissioner’s authorities remain quite strong.

3) There have been threatened antitrust lawsuits by the non-BCS Division I schools against the BCS bowl system, claiming a monopoly. Does any such lawsuit have a chance of going forward and prevailing in court?

While the new college football playoff system may avert a legal challenge to the BCS, even if the BCS is still sued on antitrust grounds, I don’t believe the BCS would be found unlawful.  I wrote about this topic for Sports Illustrated and argued that while the BCS has clear and unattractive anti-competitive qualities, a court would probably find, on balance, it promotes competition.

The BCS uses empirically-influenced rankings to promote fairness and objectivity.  The BCS also provides an efficient, if imperfect, device for postseason play.  I also find it noteworthy that in spite of calls for a college football playoff system, none existed prior to the BCS’s creation in 1998; if a playoff system was such a good idea (as critics of the BCS contend) why did none exist in the 50+ years of organized college football?  Seems like the BCS fits the saying, “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good”.

4) The NCAA recently banned twitter hashtags on college football fields. How can they legally do so?

The NCAA and its member institutions have certain legal powers over game presentation, and those powers probably allow the NCAA to enact this policy.  It is not clear that this ban implicates the First Amendment, especially since it seems directed more at commercial speech than free speech.  But this seems like an odd, almost counter-intuitive policy in a world where twitter has become increasingly part of the sports conversation.

5) There is a pending Ed O’Bannon vs. the NCAA class action suit that some have suggested could bring down the NCAA. A ruling is expected next month. Is this a big, big deal? And why?

The O’Bannon case is one that I have written about for Sports Illustrated, both on-line and in the magazine, about a half dozen times and I expect to keep writing about it.  It could “the big one” – the case that leads to college athletes being compensated.  His basic argument is that when players image and likeness is used for profit by others, including the NCAA and its member schools and video game companies, players should be paid.  This is true even though college players sign paperwork each year in college that arguably relinquishes their right to be paid – at least while they are in college — for their image and likeness.  On the other hand, student-athletes don’t seem have much choice since if they don’t sign, they aren’t eligible to play.  If they aren’t eligible to play, they lose their scholarship.  If they lose scholarship, they may not be able to afford college.

If O’Bannon prevails, former and possible current D1 men’s basketball and football players would be paid for their image and likeness, and that would mean potentially billion — yes, billion with a “b” — of dollars might have to be paid to past players, for all the years they weren’t paid.

But the case is likely a long way from being resolved.  Next month U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in California will hear arguments on whether O’Bannon’s class should include both current and former players or just former players.  If the class is certified — meaning the judge indicates who is in it and allows the case to proceed — the case would progress towards a trial, but that would be a number of months away, possibly into 2014.  Before a trial there would be attempts at settlement, and the NCAA may seek a settlement to avoid a trial.  If it goes to trial, the losing side would likely appeal and an appeal could take years.  One concern for the NCAA is that if O’Bannon wins and is awarded damages for violation of antitrust law, those damages would be trebled under antitrust law.

I would be very surprised if O’Bannon v. NCAA does not end in a settlement.  This case, to me at least, is screaming “settlement”.

Millsaps players celebrate NCAA Regional Championship at Millington, Tenn.

Will Elmore deals.

Millsaps College heads to the NCAA Division III Baseball World Series for the first time, and the grandson of a Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer has helped the Majors reach that lofty goal.

Will Elmore, grandson of the late, great Doug Elmore, pitched a complete game, 7-0 shutout to get the Majors into the NCAA Regional championship game last Friday night. The Majors then defeated the same opponent, Salisbury (Md.) College 7-6 on Saturday to earn entrance to the Division III World Series, which begins Friday in Appleton, Wisc.

Will Elmore, a senior right-hander from Houston, scattered four hits and struck out seven in what his coach, Jim Page, called “the best performance of his career.”

Salisbury had pounded out 18 hits in defeating Millsaps 11-5 the day before in the Regional at Millington, Tenn.

“We couldn’t do anything with their hitters,” Page said. “They just pounded us. That’s what makes Will’s performance so amazing. He shut them down. He gave us a chance. He was as clutch as clutch can be. And he went all nine innings which saved the pitching we needed for the championship game.”

“Clutch” was the term teammates and coaches used to describe Doug Elmore, an Ole Miss football and baseball standout (1959-61). Elmore was an All American quarterback and an All-SEC center fielder.

Says Art Doty, one of Doug Elmore’s closest friends and a former Ole Miss teammate, “Throw Doug a ball, any kind of ball, and he could play with it. He was just a special athlete.”

Will Elmore apparently gets his versatility from his grandfather. He played both football and baseball at Clear Lake High School in Houston. At Millsaps, he has concentrated on baseball, but besides pitching, he plays any position in the infield and has played in the outfield as well.

“One of the most versatile players I’ve had in my 25 years at Millsaps,” Page said of Elmore. “He can play anywhere on the diamond and as a pitcher he has a Major League curve ball.”

Will Elmore was used mostly in relief this past season, so imagine his surprise when he got a start in his team’s do-or-die game — and not only started, but finished.

“I was hoping to go five innings and give my team a chance,” Elmore said. “I never thought about going the entire game, but my teammates got me some runs and I just kept going inning by inning until it was over.”

He threw a career-high 150 pitches.

“I was fatigued, no doubt about that, but my arm still felt strong,” Elmore said. “I guess it was just adrenaline.”

Elmore already has graduated from Millsaps with a degree in business administration and will spend this summer coaching a select 16-and-under team in Houston.

And then?

“I am going to go to culinary school,” Elmore said. “I want to be in the restaurant business. I’ve worked for Bill Latham at Babalu and Table 100 and he’s been kind of a mentor to me.”

Doug Elmore died when Will was eight years old, but the grandson has vivid and fond memories of his grandfather.

“He was always at my little league games or my peewee games,” Will Elmore said. “I heard all the stories from other people about how great he was at Ole Miss, but to me, I just remember him as being just a great grandfather, a nice man.”

Doug Elmore was all that — a splendid athlete, a nice man — and a Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer.

•••••••

Millsaps will play Southern Maine Friday at 10 a.m. in the first game of the D-III World Series.

••••••

Follow the Majors at www.millsaps.edu and http://gomajors.com/sports/bsb/

••••••

Millsaps will hold a viewing party Friday at 10 a.m. in the Leggett Center on campus. It’s free, open to anyone.

Hunter Renfroe of Mississippi State accepts the 2013 C Spire Ferriss Trophy as the award’s namesake Boo Ferriss (left) and Rick Cleveland (right) applaud along with a capacity crowd at Monday’s luncheon at your Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Musem. (Photo by Ed Gardner)

Hunter Renfroe, Mississippi State’s slugging junior outfielder from Crystal Springs, Monday was named the 10th winner of the C Spire Ferriss Trophy, which goes to the most outstanding college baseball player in Mississippi.

“It’s the greatest honor of my baseball career,” said Renfroe afterwards. “It was an honor to be on the platform with these other talented players and such a thrill to win an award named after Coach Ferriss.”

Renfroe was chosen by a panel of Major League scouts and college coaches as the winner over the other four finalists: pitcher Josh Branstetter of  Delta State, pitcher Andrew Pierce of Southern Miss, catcher Stuart Turner of Ole Miss and pitcher Bobby Wahl of Ole Miss. All five of the Ferriss finalists are among candidates for still-to-be-named National Player of the Year awards.

“I have been covering these C Spire awards series in football, basketball and baseball for years, and I cannot remember a single instance when we had this many deserving finalists,” said Rick Cleveland, executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. “In any other given year, any of these five finalists would have been a deserving winner.”

Renfroe led the Southeastern Conference in home runs with 15 and in slugging percentage with .696. He batted .362 and is expected to be a first round draft pick in the upcoming Major League draft.

John Cohen, in introducing Renfroe, noted that Renfroe almost didn’t receive a Division I scholarship out of Copiah Academy three years ago.

“Hunter had signed with Meridian Community College, but my coaches kept telling me we really needed to sign him,” Cohen said. “My response was that if he’s so good, why is he still available this late in the game? How come nobody else is recruiting him?”

State assistants finally convinced Renfroe to take a look, and one game was all it took.

“Hunter is a guy who can do it all,” Cohen said.

All five finalists brought gaudy statistics to the podium Monday, including:

• Branstetter, who had 9-3 record as the ace of the Delta State staff, striking out 82 and walking just 19.

• Pierce, USM’s ace from Stringer, who was 9-2, striking out 92 and walking just 18.

• Turner, the Ole Miss catcher, who was excellent defensively and hit .377 for the Rebels.

• Wahl, the Rebels’ right-handed ace, who finished 9-0 with an earned run average of 1.99.

By far the largest crowd in Ferriss Trophy history, right at 250,  attended the luncheon, at which the undefeated state champion Magnolia Heights Academy baseball team also was recognized for its achievement.

There were three standing ovations: one for Boo Ferriss, one for the Magnolia Heights 37-0 team and, finally, for Renfroe.

Hunter Renfroe, center, along with Boo Ferriss, left, and Jim Richmond, C Spire vice president for corporate communications. (Photo by Ed Gardner)

From left, Andrew Pierce, Josh Branstetter, Boo Ferriss, Hunter Renfroe, Jim Richmond (C Spire), Stuart Turner, Bobby Wahl. (Photo by Ed Garner)

Chuck Muncie, who died this week at age 60, evokes vivid memories of when he wore the black and gold for the New Orleans Saints and always had coaches, teammates and we sports writers guessing at when he might show up and what amazing feat he might pull off next.

For those too young to remember the always-bespectacled Muncie, he was like a football Superman wearing Clark Kent glasses. And, to borrow from Batman, he had a lot of The Riddler in him, too. His problems with cocaine and accountability are well documented. But, heavens, what a talent! He was the lightning to go with Tony Galbreath’s thunder in the Saints’ remarkably gifted backfield that also included a quarterback from Drew named Manning.

Muncie was a huge, strapping back with sprinter’s speed and Jim Brown-like power. He could run around you, past you, or just flat over you. And he could do more.

Chuck Muncie, a beast in the open field.
(Photo courtesy The Times-Picayune)

“He was a tremendous pass catcher,” says Archie Manning. “He could have played wide receiver. He could throw the ball, too. Chuck was a world-class talent. And he was a good guy, but he had his demons.”

Manning laughs when asked if he has a favorite Muncie anecdote.

“Well, we both went to the Pro Bowl after the 1979 season,” Manning says. “The coaches had us in the game at the same time. I had a great game, completed all but one of my passes, but I wanted to feature Chuck, so I gave him the ball a lot and called one halfback pass, which, of course, he threw for a touchdown.

“It was the best Pro Bowl I ever had, but damned if they didn’t give Chuck the MVP.”

The Saints traded the unpredictable Muncie to San Diego the following year. And what might have been a Hall of Fame career fell far short of that. Still, he finished his nine-season career with 6,702 yards rushing and 74 touchdowns.

Coincidentally, Muncie finished his career in Minnesota and with Manning, which suited Archie’s young sons, Cooper and Peyton, just fine.

“Chuck loved my kids and, boy, they loved him back,” Manning says. “Chuck was great with kids. He really related to kids. I’ve been told he turned his life around in recent years and worked with kids. I’m glad about that.”

Muncie played his college football at California and the Saints drafted him as the third overall pick of the 1976 draft. He was the first running back taken, and then the Saints took Galbraith in the second round. Hank Stram, the Saints coach at the time, was giddy. He beamed like a kid on Christmas morning over his new backfield.

But Muncie quickly became what Winston Churchill might have described as a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.

Hattiesburg native Tim Floyd, the former NBA coach now at UTEP, was Stram’s right-hand man at training camp back in those days when the Saints trained at Vero Beach Fla. In 1976, Stram dispatched the 21-year-old Floyd to meet Muncie’s scheduled arrival at a Miami airport. The plane arrived, Muncie didn’t.

This went on for four days.

“They kept rescheduling flights for Chuck and Coach Stram kept sending me to pick him up,” Floyd said. “Before it was over I went to the Melbourne airport, the Miami airport again, the Orlando airport twice.”

The sixth time was a charm. Muncie finally touched down in Miami. Floyd, whom Stram nicknamed “Dipper” because of his tobacco habit, retrieved him.

“The talk around the locker room was that Chuck was on cocaine,” Floyd says. “Everybody knew it. I told Coach Stram that was the talk but he didn’t want to hear it. ‘Dipper,’ he said, ‘I just can’t believe that about Chuck.’”

It was, of course, true.

“Chuck wasn’t a bad guy, but he was addicted — trapped, really,” Floyd said. “It was amazing that he could still perform the way he did, all things considered. God, he was good.”

He really was. And although Muncie never will be enshrined in Canton, the Saints traded him to San Diego in 1980 for a second round draft pick. With that pick, the Saints took Rickey Jackson, who became the first New Orleans Saint in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

•••

Rick Cleveland is the executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. His blog can be read at msfame.com and he can be reached at rcleveland@msfame.com

One tweeter says: “Bobby Wahl, undefeated for year, obvious choice for Ferriss Trophy.”

Another chimes in: “Not a State fan, but Hunter Renfroe should win in a landslide.”

Those are just a sampling. No matter who wins the trophy named for Boo Ferriss next Monday, there will be disappointed fans. Such is the nature of these awards.

But let’s look at the big picture here. We’ve got five finalists for the award that goes annually to Mississippi’s most outstanding college baseball player. All five are still in the running for national player of the year, either the Golden Spikes Award or the Tino Martinez Award that goes to the best player in NCAA Division II.

In other words, there are no losers in this group.

The five finalists — Delta State pitcher Josh Branstetter, Southern Miss pitcher Andrew Pierce, Mississippi State outfielder Hunter Renfroe, Ole Miss catcher Stuart Turner and Ole Miss pitcher Bobby Wahl — have all put together amazing seasons. All are winners.

This speaks to the quality of Mississippi college baseball. This is why we went from three to five finalists for the C Spire Ferriss Trophy.

All five could be winners in another year. Branstetter’s numbers are off the charts and he is the ace of a team that has been ranked No. 1 most of the season. Here’s the stat that tells you all you need to know about Pierce: USM is 10-3 when he pitches, 16-20 when he doesn’t. That’s like Ferriss was in his rookie year when he won 21 games for the seventh place Red Sox.

Renfroe, the slugging SEC home run leader, has numbers that remind us of what college baseball was like before they scaled down the bats. Turner can hit and is splendid defensively behind the plate. Wahl has been just about as good as a pitcher can be this season.

These finalists were chosen by a panel of the college head coaches and Major League scouts who cover Mississippi. All those scouts and coaches keep talking about the guys who are not finalists. In another year, several other players might have been not only finalists but winners.

Mississippi State shortstop Adam Frazier is a fielding whiz and a clutch hitter. State closer Jonathan Holder has been close to untouchable. His breaking pitch breaks batters’ backs. Ole Miss closer Brett Huber is the school’s all-time leader in saves. I could go on.

The point is, on Twitter and elsewhere, you can make a case for all these guys. In college baseball, we have much to brag about in Mississippi.

C Spire Ferriss finalists include three pitchers, a catcher and an outfielder. The award, which goes annually to Mississippi’s most outstanding collegiate baseball player, will be presented at a May 20 luncheon at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. A limited number of $35 tickets remain for the 11:15 luncheon. Call 601 982-8264 to order tickets.

The finalists, in alphabetical order:

Josh Branstetter (Delta State), a senior right handed pitcher, is a finalist for the Tino Martinez Award as Division II’s most outstanding player. He is 9-2 in 13 starts with a 1.68 earned run average and 74-16 strikeouts-to-walks ratio.

Andrew Pierce (Southern Miss), another senior right handed pitcher, is 9-1 on the season with a 2.37 ERA. He has 84 strikeouts in 95 innings of work. USM is 10-3 in games Pierce has started, 16-20 in games he hasn’t pitched.

Hunter Renfroe (Mississippi State), a junior outfielder/designated hitter, leads the Southeastern Conference in home runs with 15 and slugging percentage at .750. He is tied for third in batting average at .390.

Stuart Turner (Ole Miss), a junior catcher, is tied with Renfroe with a .390 average and leads Ole Miss with five home runs, 15 doubles and 46 runs batted in.

Bobby Wahl (Ole Miss), a junior pitcher, never left or finished a game with Ole Miss trailing this season. Wahl is 9-0 with a 1.43 earned run average and opponents hit .177 off him.

All five finalists and their coaches will be present for the luncheon. The award is named for Mississippi baseball legend Boo Ferriss, who pitched at Mississippi State, coached at Delta State and is a Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer. Voters include the state’s collegiate coaches and Major League scouts whose territory includes Mississippi.

In alphabetical order:

Josh Branstetter (Delta State) was named to the Gulf South Conference All-Tournament team after going 2-0 in two starts, including a shutout of West Alabama to get to the championship day.  Branstetter is now 9-2 in 13 starts on the year with a 1.68 era. He has pitched 91 innings, including four complete games. He has given up only 74 hits, while striking out 74 batters, limiting them to a .221 batting average and only 16 walks. Branstetter moved into second on the all-time Statesmen list for innings pitched in the tournament with 325. He also moved into the top five in strikeouts for his career with 249.

Chase Fowler (USM) Hitting .321, third best on the team Fowler, who has caught 46 games for the Golden Eagles this season,  has excelled defensively.

Adam Frazier (MSU) slick fielding shortstop has a .330 average with 15 doubles and six triples. Had a two-run double to pull State within 6-5 and then a two-run single to give the Bulldogs a 7-6 victory over Ole Miss on Sunday.

Chris Good (Belhaven) did not pitch last week. finished the season with a 14-3 record a 2.18 earned run average with 51 strikeouts and 34 walks. He is a sophomore from the Dallas area. Opponents hit .237 against him.

Jonathan Holder (MSU) pitched two innings, giving up one hit and no earned runs in Styate’s 7-6 win over Ole Miss Sunday.  Has 2-0 record with 13 saves and a 1.19 earned run average on the season.

Brett Huber (Ole Miss) picked up his 12th save and the career-record 37th at Ole Miss. Has a 1.80 earned run average and teams are hitting .180 against him.

Ben Kingsley (Delta State) was named to the All-GSC first team prior to the Gulf South Conference Tournament. After the tournament, Kingsley sits at a .363 batting average with 73 hits and 38 runs scored. He has 59 RBI on the season with 23 extra-base hits, including six home runs.

Wes Perkins (Millsaps), a senior catcher, leads NCAA Division III in hits (79 in 45 games), doubles (23) total bases, and is fourth in RBI with 56. His on-base percentage is .477.

Andrew Pierce (USM) registered a no-decision in his only start last week. Pierce is 9-1 on the season with a 2.37 ERA. He has 84 strikeouts in 95 innings of work. USM is 10-3 in games Pierce has started, 16-20 in games he hasn’t pitched.

Hunter Renfroe (MSU) finished the week with a .390 batting average and 15 home runs. He has batted home 51 runs in 47 games. Was 4 for 12 with three RBI in weekend series with Ole Miss.

Keith Shumaker (Millsaps), a sophomore infielder/pitcher leads Division III in runs scored with 59 and is third in hits (670) and sixth in RBI (51). He was 6-0 in nine starts as a pitcher, including four complete games.

Stuart Turner (Ole Miss), a junior catcher, finished the week with a team-leading .390 batting average with a team leading five home runs, 15 doubles and 46 runs batted in.

Bobby Wahl (Ole Miss), made a rare two starts in a weekend series with State, taking the mound in game one and striking out the side before the game was suspended due to rain. He then started the Sunday game, working 5.1 innings before leaving the game with the bases loaded and Ole Miss leading 6-0. Wahl, 9-0 with a 1.43 earned run average, started 14 games and never left or finished a game with Ole Miss behind.

The game was called baseball, but the scores were often in the 20s. In Hattiesburg, we called it the Morning League. It was, I suppose, a precursor to T-Ball, back before mankind made the startling discovery that little boys can’t throw strikes.

The games began at 7 a.m., before the dew had dried and the sleep was out of the eyes. We played in T-shirts and cut-offs, with only our caps to distinguish the Senators from the Yankees or the Dodgers. There were no Astros or Blue Jays yet.

Most kids rode their bicycles to the games. Older kids umpired and coached. The baseball was often comical, with more errors than hits and more walks than anything. Did I mention that 7-year-olds can’t throw strikes?

Attendance was sparse. Most fathers and mothers were headed to work or beginning the day’s household chores. Some mornings, there’d be only four or five folks in the bleachers. One gray, drizzly morning, only one fan sat through it. She was enthusiastic, nonetheless. All the players and umpires knew her by her voice. I knew her by name: Mom.

My Mom, Carrie Cleveland, never missed a game.

•••

An under-sized, four-eyed 7-year-old never had a better fan or friend. She helped celebrate the victories and, much more importantly, helped ease the pain of the defeats. Anyone can say, “You’ll get ’em next time.” Mom made us believe it.

True story: We lost a game one morning something like 14-10. I pitched and I must have walked 20. Finally, the ordeal over, I trudged off the field, feeling lower than pond scum.

“Congratulations,” Mom said, brightly.

“For what?” I asked.

“You just threw a no-hitter,” she answered, and the next day she cut the brief article out of the newspaper and taped it into the scrapbook she kept so diligently. Never mind the headline: “Pitcher throws no-hitter, loses 14-10.”

She was always there for baseball, football and basketball games, practices, PTA meetings, for splinters and scrapes, to help with homework and to patch both jeans and egos with equal care.

In our family, Dad was often on the road or busy at work, so when her sons needed extra practice, Mom was right there in the backyard with us.

“Mama, you throw like a girl,” I told her one day.
“Well, Rickey, you know, I am one,” she answered.

•••

Whether it was school, or sports or teaching us how to slow-dance, Mom was there, always involved. She would have each of our elementary teachers over for dinner early in the school year. We didn’t have a lot in those days, so she would borrow a nice tablecloth and silver from her in-laws.

Mrs. Olsen, my first grade teacher, came over one night.

“Mrs. Olsen, how do you like these heavy forks and spoons?” I asked while Mama cringed.

“Why, they’re very nice,” Mrs. Olsen said.

“I’m glad you like them,” I said. “Mama borrowed them from my Grandma just for you.”

That was not the first embarrassing moment I provided my mother and it certainly wasn’t the last.

The point is, she always handled such moments and much worse with grace, warmth and kindness. What’s more, she married one sports writer and raised two more, which deserves either a medal or sympathy and probably both.

So it is, that I will borrow a line from Bear Bryant who used to tell his players after practice: “Boys, go back to your dorm and call your mama. I shore do wish I could go home and call mine.”

•••

Carrie Cleveland, who died on July 4, 1996, was married to Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer Ace Cleveland, who died on April 15, 1995.

Sunday is Mother’s Day. This is about a Hall of Fame mother, surely one of the most warm, loving, caring mothers who has ever graced this planet. If mother’s wore jerseys, Alyne Payton’s number would long ago have been retired.

The world knows Alyne Payton as Walter Payton’s mother, but the world knows only a smidgen of her motherliness. Eddie and Pam Payton know far more. They were Mrs. Payton’s other two blood children.

Mrs. Payton died earlier this week at the age of 87. She leaves behind not only Eddie and Pam, and their children, but so many other children she nursed and fed and changed their diapers and bathed and taught and disciplined and loved. Mostly, Alyne Payton loved.

The first words should go to Eddie, her oldest, a former star football player himself and the longtime highly successful golf coach at Jackson State.

“I had 61 years on this earth with Mama,” Eddie said. “I can tell you that every minute of time I had with her was quality time. She was simply the best.”

Now Pam, a year younger than Eddie and two years older than Walter: “My mama was the toughest person I’ve ever known. She’s had one surgery after another after another. Her doctors said she should have been gone last September. She just had such a spirit about her.”

And you wondered where Walter, the greatest football player these eyes ever saw, got his toughness, his spirit, his durability? Now you know.

But there’s so much more to learn about Alyne Payton.

Meet Mrs. Gloria Walker, who was married to the late Bill Walker, founder of Bill’s Dollar Stores. The original Bill’s was in Columbia. Gloria married Bill Walker in 1965.

“That’s when I met Alyne Payton,” Gloria Walker said. “I don’t know how long she had been working for the Walker family then, but she’s been an integral part of my life ever since.

“I lost my mother when I was 15, and Alyne Payton became like a second mother to me,” Gloria Walker continued. “She raised my three children. She has helped raise 10 of my grandchildren. ”

And what made Alyne Payton so special?

“My only answer is that you’re born like that,” Gloria Walker answered. “She was an incredibly strong Christian and that’s part of it, but you have to be born with the qualities she had. She grew up dirt poor. She learned to cook when she was 8 years old because she was told she could either pick cotton or she could learn to cook. So she learned to cook, and she taught herself and, as a cook, she was unsurpassed.”

Motherhood requires so much more than cooking. . . .

“Alyne Payton was instinctively wise,” Gloria Walker said. “When I had trouble with my children, she knew just what to do, how to discipline, when to discipline. And she was incredible with babies. She just loved babies.”

When Walter Payton died of a liver disease in 1999, it was just before the birth of Katie Walker, Gloria Walker’s granddaughter, now 13.

“Alyne said Katie Walker is what got her through the grieving process,” Gloria Walker said. “She focused her love on Katie. She told me, ‘That baby saved me. I don’t know what I would have done without that baby. She got me through.’”

You have probably guessed by now that Gloria Walker was much more than an employer to Alyne Payton. And Alyne Payton was much more than “the help” to Gloria Walker. They were even more than best friends.

Says Mrs. Walker, “She was my soulmate. She had enough money she could have retired years and years and years ago, but her work ethic was unbelievable and she loved her work. She loved to work with children.

“She loved to laugh. Oh, we had so much fun together.”

Despite all her contributions to others, Mrs. Alyne Payton will go down in the history books as Walter Payton’s mother. She would not mind that.

“Walter was her baby,” Eddie said.

But for the past 13 years, Mrs. Payton had fretted about the fact that Walter had been cremated.

Said Pam Payton, “That’s why I’ve always kept Walter’s ashes at my house. Mama didn’t like that he was cremated. She didn’t like that he didn’t have a final resting place.”

That changes Saturday, the day before Mother’s Day, Alyne Payton will be buried in Columbia, beside her late husband’s grave and with her baby’s ashes.