something special

The exploits of Bill Hall and Fred Lewis, a pair of ex-big leaguers from the Magnolia State, made mlb.com’s list of 11 recent memorable Mother’s Day moments. Hall, from Nettleton, hit a walk-off home run in 2006, with his mother sitting in the stands at Milwaukee’s Miller Park while using a pink bat with his mother’s name inscribed on it. It can’t get much better than that. Hall enjoyed the best season of his 11-year career in ’06, belting 35 homers. Lewis, a Hattesburg native who played at Stone County High and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, hit for the cycle on Mother’s Day 2007, becoming just the fifth Mississippi native to achieve a cycle. Lewis was making just his fourth career start when he went 5-for-6 for San Francisco that day. He would hit .287 in 58 games that season, the second of his seven in the majors.