blasting impressions

Baseball has produced some memorable fireworks on the field on the Fourth of July, with perhaps the most unforgettable of those games occurring in Atlanta’s old Fulton County Stadium in 1985. On a rainy night in Georgia, the Braves and New York Mets played 19 innings over 6 hours, 10 minutes (well into July 5) with the Mets finally winning 16-13. Six former Jackson Mets played in that game, including Darryl Strawberry and Lenny Dykstra, who were among the 11 players to get three or more hits in a 46-hit affair. Keith Hernandez hit for the cycle for the Mets and Atlanta’s Terry Harper got five knocks, but the most famous hit of that game was Braves pitcher Rick Camp’s pinch-hit home run – the only bomb of his career – in the bottom of the 18th. … Another of the great July 4 shows occurred at Fenway Park in 1977, when the Boston Red Sox hit eight home runs in a 9-6 victory against Toronto. Greenville native George Scott hit two of them. … Also on July 4, in 2006, former Jackson Generals star Billy Wagner, pitching for the Mets, notched his 300th save. … Unable to wait a day to blast off, Harrison Central High product Bobby Bradley homered, tripled and doubled – alas, no single – for Double-A Akron on Monday. The Cleveland Indians prospect is batting .267 with 15 homers and 56 RBIs. … The Mississippi Braves had a big crowd (an announced 6,500-plus) and a big fireworks show at Trustmark Park on Monday night but produced another dud on the field, falling to Chattanooga 4-2 to complete an 0-6 homestand. The M-Braves, contenders in the first half in the Southern League South, are off to a 3-8 start in the second. … Biloxi Shuckers alum Orlando Arcia, who put on a baserunning show on Monday, scoring from first on an infield hit, is emerging as a star in Milwaukee. He is batting .295 with eight homers, 28 RBIs and 33 runs for the first-place Brewers. … Former Ole Miss star Lance Lynn will be on the bump today for St. Louis against Miami looking to iron out some wrinkles against a team he has never lost to. Lynn (6-5, 3.90 ERA) has yielded 17 runs in his last three starts, going 1-2 in that stretch as his ERA jumped by more than a run. … Mississippi State alum Tyler Moore hasn’t seen the field much for the Marlins since Justin Bour came off the disabled list, getting just 11 at-bats since June 19. Moore got a two-run pinch single on Monday in a 14-6 loss at St. Louis and is batting .280 with six homers and 21 RBIs in 45 games. Maybe he should play more … .