Small-town Mississippi rocks sports world

What is it about small-town Mississippi?
Last night, Amory’s Mitch Moreland hit two home runs for the Texas Rangers and now has 12 for the season. He is hitting .300. In Cincinnati, Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton swiped four more bases and now has 40. In the same game, Brian Dozier of Fulton launched his 16^th home run, a three-run shot.
In the Big Leagues, as in all sports, small-town Mississippi rocks.
Just last week, Tori Bowie of the tiny community of Sandhill won the national 100 meters sprint championship. She is one of world’s fastest women.
Coming up August 1, Brett Favre of Kiln, Clarence Weatherspoon of Crawford and Fred McAfee of Philadelphia will be small-towners going into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.
Favre is the leading passer in NFL history. Jerry Rice of Crawford is the leading receiver and touchdown scorer in NFL history and Walter Payton of Columbia is the second leading rusher in NFL history.
Steve McNair of Mount Olive is the total offense leader in NCAA football history.
It just goes on and on and on.
Recently, I visited Roy Oswalt, one of the most dominant Major League pitchers of his era, in Weir, where he was raised. And he talked about growing up and playing football and baseball in a town where high school sports was the center of the community. If you were a kid, you played. If you were a grownup you attended all the games and cheered. If you were a little kid, you waited your turn.
That’s what small-town Mississippians do, other than become some of the world’s best authors, musicians and entertainers.
We get a lot of bad pub in Mississippi, much of it earned.
Today seems a good day to celebrate what we do especially well.
Which is what we do every day at your Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.
•••
Order your Induction weekend tickets here.
•••
Sign up for the Farm Bureau Watermelon Classic here.
•••
Support your Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum here.