April 2020 - Page 2 of 2 - All Mississippi Baseball

11 Apr

film study

Dave Parker, stricken with Parkinson’s Disease, is a very sympathetic figure these days, quite a contrast to his playing career, when he was robust and brash and a lightning rod for controversy. If you’re catching up on baseball films you’ve missed, be sure to watch “The Cobra at Twilight,” released in December 2019 as part of the MLB Network Presents series. Though not often associated with Mississippi – the film never mentions his birthplace — Parker was born in Grenada in 1951. According to a Society of American Baseball Research story, he was one of six kids of Richard and Dannie Mae Parker. Dave came by his athletic gifts naturally. “My mother had a cannon for an arm,” he said in the SABR piece. “My dad never got to play organized ball. But he’d crush that ball. And he could run like a scalded rabbit.” The Parkers moved to Cincinnati when Dave was 5, and he became a three-sport star in high school there. A knee injury curtailed his football career, but the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted him in 1970 and by 1973 he was in the big leagues. By the time he was through – 18 years and five teams later – the Cobra was a seven-time All-Star, three-time Gold Glove winner, two-time batting champion, two-time World Series champ and one-time National League MVP. He also endured weight problems, injury problems and drug problems and said and did some unpopular things, such as skipping the Pirates’ 1979 World Series victory parade. He was a frequent target of criticism, sometimes racially tinged, from fans and media in Pittsburgh, where he played through 1983. (Time heals all wounds, as they say, and one of the great scenes in the MLB Network film is Parker’s return to Pittsburgh for a ’79 Pirates reunion.) Parker, who belongs on any list of the greatest athletes from Mississippi, is not in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, a theme of the film, and is no longer on the writers’ ballot. Tony LaRussa, Pete Rose, Barry Larkin, Dennis Eckersley and others offer strong testimonials to Parker’s talent and impact. Parker, when asked about his possible election someday by a veterans committee, remarks, “I might not show up.” It was hard to tell if he was joking, which might have been his point.

08 Apr

make a toast

Most local baseball aficionados are well aware that this year marks the 15th anniversary of the arrival at Trustmark Park in Pearl of the Mississippi Braves, who moved from Greenville, S.C., in 2005. (Hopefully, there will be a 2020 season during which to celebrate that fact.) This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the Jackson DiamondKats’ one and only – and otherwise forgettable — season at Jackson’s Smith-Wills Stadium and the 30th anniversary of the Jackson Mets’ final season at Smith-Wills. The 1990 JaxMets, managed by Clint Hurdle, won a division title and made the Texas League playoffs, marking the 10th postseason appearance for the Double-A club in its 16 years in Jackson. This year also marks the 80th anniversary of a somewhat forgotten championship team, the 1940 Jackson Senators. Playing in the Class B Southeastern League, the Senators went a league-best 89-58 that season and crushed both the Selma Cloverleafs and the Pensacola Fliers in the playoffs, going 4-1 in each series. Managed by Footsie Blair, the unaffiliated Senators played at League Park, a stadium near what is now the Fairgrounds. (It was destroyed by a tornado in 1953.) That team was led by future big leaguer Tom McBride, a .316 hitter who topped the SL in hits with 194 (according to statscrew.com); Paul Fugit, who batted .317 with 11 homers; and 16-game winners Harry Durheim and Gordon Maltzberger, who led the loop in ERA and later coached in the majors for several years. The Senators’ championship in 1940 was the last league title celebrated in the Capital City until Davey Johnson’s JaxMets won the TL pennant in 1981.

02 Apr

if you build it

Today’s challenge is to build a player. Drawing from the pool of Mississippi-born big leaguers, put together a Super Player based on the five tools scouts evaluate in a position player. Those are hit, hit for power, field, throw and run. Start with the latter, which might be the easiest call here. Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton, currently signed to a minor league contract with San Francisco, is one of the fastest to ever play the game, a modern day equivalent of Starkville native Cool Papa Bell, the Negro Leagues legend and Hall of Famer. Hamilton has 299 career steals in his seven MLB seasons and holds the all-time pro record with 155 bags in the minors in 2012. Check. Hamilton also is a standout defender in center field, but Jackson native Chet Lemon arguably was better. Lemon, who played from 1975-90, recorded 509 putouts in center field for Detroit in 1977 to set a major league record. He had three more as a right fielder that year, and that 512 total ranks as the fourth-most all-time in a single season. Lemon ranked among the top 10 center fielders in putouts in a season seven times and among the fielding percentage leaders five times. No less an authority than Sparky Anderson called Lemon the best center fielder he had ever seen. Good enough. When it comes to throwing ability, one can’t go wrong with Grenada native Dave Parker. Anecdotal evidence: His throw from right field to nail a runner at the plate in 1979 All-Star Game is widely regarded as one of the most jaw-dropping ever. When players dared run on him, Parker made them pay. A three-time Gold Glover, he recorded 143 assists – 26 in 1977 alone — over a 19-year career from 1973-91, though he played little outfield the last four years. The best hitter, based on average alone, among Mississippi natives is Buddy Myer, the Ellisville native who played from 1925-41. A lefty-swinging singles hitter, Myer batted .302 for his career and won a batting title with a .349 mark in 1935. Gulfport’s Gee Walker, who played from 1931-45, batted .294, including a single-season best of .353 in 1936. Among more recent players, the best hitter is, surprisingly enough, Dmitri Young, the big (6 feet 2, 295 pounds) switch-hitter from Vicksburg who batted .291 from 1996-2008. He had more pop, with 171 career homers, than Myer or Walker, but for just pure hitting, Myer is the pick. When it comes to raw power, there are several great candidates, from Parker to George Scott to Ellis Burks to Hunter Renfroe. But, from many accounts, there was something special about the threat that Luke Easter brought to the plate. The 6-4, 240-pound Easter, from Jonestown, clubbed 93 big league homers in the 1950s and another 247 in a long minor league career. He hit some legendary bombs, including a 500-footer in Buffalo’s Offermann Stadium and a 477-footer in Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium. So, that’s Hamilton’s wheels, Lemon’s glove, Parker’s hose, Myer’s bat and Easter’s power. A star is born.