Monthly Archives: January 2011

Still waiting for free agent Marcus Thames to land somewhere. The former East Central Community College slugger has a bat that some big league club will find a use for. Count on it. … Anyway, here’s the rundown so far on where Mississippians have moved to this off-season: Taylor Tankersley (Warren Central) to the New York Mets on a minor league deal; Fred Lewis (Gulf Coast CC) to Cincinnati; Bill Hall (Nettleton) to Houston; Paul Phillips (Meridian CC) to Cleveland on a minor league deal; Jonathan Van Every (Itawamba CC) to Washington on a minor league contract; and Jarrett Hoffpauir (Southern Miss) to San Diego as a waiver claim. Oh yeah, and Cliff Lee (Meridian CC) signed with Philadelphia. That one was hard to miss.
P.S. Eli Whiteside, the former Delta State star who got a World Series ring with San Francisco, was back in Cleveland on Thursday to be honored during a DSU basketball game. In the pantheon of outstanding catchers DSU has produced, New Albany native Whiteside might have been the best. A two-time All-American, he batted .390 with 23 homers over three seasons for the Statesmen and was a fourth-round draftee by Baltimore in 2001.

Today’s subject: Howard Battle. Battle, a Biloxi native who played high school ball at Mercy Cross in Ocean Springs, had some good fortune in what was an otherwise short and uneventful big league career. He played in only 29 MLB games with three teams, but he got into a World Series game. He can always say that. In 1999, Battle was a late season call-up by Atlanta and hit his one major league homer that season. The Braves kept the third baseman on their postseason roster all the way through the playoffs, and he made one brief appearance in the field (no at-bats) in the Series loss against the New York Yankees. Battle was a fourth-round pick by Toronto in 1990 and showed some raw power in the minor leagues, belting 20 homers in his second pro year and 17 in his third. But he couldn’t break into the Blue Jays’ lineup. He got looks from Philadelphia and Atlanta, played in Japan and finished his career in independent ball.

Fred Lewis, the former Stone County High and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College star, has found a team for 2011, signing with Cincinnati on Monday. Finding playing time in the Reds’ outfield might be tough, however. Cincinnati, which won the National League Central last season, lists Jay Bruce, Drew Stubbs and Jonny Gomes as its starting outfield and has young Chris Heisey behind that group. The Reds reportedly like the fact that Lewis can play all three outfield spots and is a leadoff-type left-handed hitter. In his one season with Toronto, he hit .262 (.332 OBP) with 8 homers, 31 doubles, 5 triples and 17 stolen bases. Lewis knows the National League, too, having come up with San Francisco.

Today’s subject: Atley Donald. Donald, nicknamed Swampy, was born in Morton in 1910 but moved to Louisiana at a young age. The right-hander, who pitched eight years in the big leagues, all with the New York Yankees from 1938-45, compiled a 65-33 record with a 3.52 ERA. That’s good stuff. And he won a World Series ring in 1941. There are two interesting tidbits from Donald’s career that bear mention. Though he reportedly threw a 95 mph fastball, he struck out just 369 batters, exactly the same number that he walked in 932 1/3 innings. And in the ’41 Series against Brooklyn, he stood to get the loss in Game 4, the game made famous — or infamous — by Mickey Owen’s ninth-inning passed ball that allowed the Yankees to mount a winning rally. On Mississippi’s all-time team, there’d have to be a place for Donald in a five-man rotation.

One of the most intriguing numbers in today’s Hall of Fame voting was 11. That’s the percentage of the writers’ vote that Rafael Palmeiro received. The former Mississippi State star had 3,000 hits and 500 homers. But he was snubbed by 89 percent of the voters in his first time on the ballot. Intriguing, yes, but not a big shock. The enduring image of Palmeiro, unfortunately for him, is that finger-wagging episode in front of Congress. When he subsequently flunked a drug test, his Hall cred was severely damaged. He’ll most likely never get in. … And apparently Dave Parker won’t either. The Calhoun City native, in his 15th and final year on the ballot, got 15.3 percent of the vote, falling far short of election. No Mississippi native has been elected to the Hall by the writers. Parker was one of the state’s best hopes.