If it seems odd having a Big 10 Conference team in the College World Series, well, it is. The last time it happened was 1984 when the Michigan Wolverines made it with Barry Larkin as their shortstop. That’s Barry Larkin, the Baseball Hall of Famer who is now 49 years old. The Big 10 is […]
(My father, Ace Cleveland, died 18 years ago, and, still not a day goes by when I don’t want to pick up the phone and call him. It might be to tell him something that just happened in the Braves game. It might be about something I just read. I might need help with the […]
Well, at least the College World Series souvenir T-shirts didn’t say “Land Mass State Rebels.” You’ve probably seen or heard by now that Mississippi State fans at the souvenir stands in Omaha Friday were greeted with T-shirts that said: “Mississippi State Rebels.” One newspaper website referred to the mistake as a “typo.” Typo? Folks that’s […]
We have been so busy here at your Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame this week, I totally missed this news: Miller Barber, the most unconventional of all accomplished golfers I have watched, died Tuesday at the age of 82. In Barber’s New York Times obituary, his golf swing was described as “unorthodox.” That’s like saying […]
(Another College World Series flashback, this one from 2007. Thanks for the fond memory Jeffrey Rea.) OMAHA, Neb. – Little Jeffrey Rea really did go down swinging. And slapping line drives. Would we have expected anything different from Rea, one of the most productive players in Mississippi State’s proud baseball history? I think not. With […]
(What follows is a column I did on Rusty Thoms and his two-year run at the College World Series (1997-98). This column was actually written in 2007, on the occasion of State’s last visit to Omaha. Thoms, more than any player I ever covered at the CWS captured the essence of the event.) June 13, […]
(Tom Smith of Madison considers Hall of Famer Shorty McWilliams “my second dad.” Smith, 56, a former Mississippi State linebacker, says he received a lot of sound advice from McWilliams growing up. He also got something else from Shorty Mac: his name. That’s right: The late Dick Smith, then a Meridian sports writer, named his […]
People ask me all the time: Do you miss writing sports for a living? Do you miss going to the games? Most times, I answer that I am quite happy with what I am doing now, that I still get to write a lot and that I am working for a cause that I so […]
