fireworks at fenway

With, sadly, no big league games to watch on this Fourth of July, we can only look back at some of the many great moments that have happened on this day of national celebration. Here’s one with a Mississippi flavor: Take a trip in your mind to Fenway Park, 1977. With Greenville native George Scott leading the way, the Boston Red Sox hit a record-tying eight home runs in a 9-6 win over Toronto. Scott hit two of the homers — “taters,” he called them — and was joined on this bomb squad by Fred Lynn (who also hit two), Butch Hobson, Bernie Carbo, Jim Rice and Carl Yastrzemski. Must have been quite a day for the Fenway faithful. Scott, a 12-year veteran in 1977, was on his way to a 33-homer season. He made the All-Star Game that year for the third and final time of his career. It was his first year back in Boston, his original club, after five seasons with Milwaukee. The ’77 season was also the last truly productive year of his 14-year career. One of the best players the Magnolia State has ever produced, “Boomer” finished with 271 home runs and eight Gold Gloves. He died in Greenville on July 28, 2013.