ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Archives - All Mississippi Baseball

rickwood connections

Historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham is the center of the baseball universe today, hosting the San Francisco-St. Louis MLB game that pays tribute to the Negro League clubs and players, many of them Mississippians, that called the ballpark home from 1924 into the 1950s. An array of black stars, Hall of Famers among them, passed through Rickwood during those years, and quite a few of the game’s great white players also appeared in exhibitions there. Hall of Famer and former Alcorn State player and coach Bill Foster pitched for the Birmingham Black Barons in 1925, throwing a one-hit shutout in his lone appearance, per baseball-reference.com. The legendary Satchel Paige broke into pro ball with the 1927 Black Barons, and one of his teammates was Jackson native Columbus Lance. The real heyday of the Black Barons was the mid-1940s, when the team won three league championships in a six-year span. The primary catcher on the 1943 title winner was Meridian native Paul Hardy, who played 11 years in the Negro Leagues. The ’43 Black Barons also featured the likes of Piper Davis, Clyde “Big Splo” Spearman, Felix McLaurin and Johnny Markham. The Birmingham club also won Negro American League pennants in 1944 and ’48, with the late, great Willie Mays, at 17, starring for the latter team. Jackson native Curtis Hollingsworth was a pitcher on the 1946 and ’47 Birmingham teams. P.S. Former Southern Miss standout Nick Sandlin has gone on the 15-day injured list for Cleveland with back inflammation. He has five wins and a 3.49 ERA in 33 relief appearances for the first-place Guardians. … Mississippi State alum Rowdey Jordan hit a seventh-inning grand slam for Double-A Binghamton on Wednesday, accounting for all the team’s runs in a 4-1 win vs. Akron. Jordan, a fourth-year pro, is batting .264 with six homers and 28 RBIs for the New York Mets’ affiliate. … Congrats to Northwest Mississippi Community College outfielder Cade Greer, who won an ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove. Greer, from Olive Branch, handled 108 chances without an error as a sophomore for the Rangers.

gimme some glovin’

In one of the many great scenes in the movie “Moneyball,” the Scott Hatteberg character tells Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s GM, he’s never played first base. “It’s not that hard, Scott,” says Beane. “Tell him, Wash.” To which Ron Washington, the A’s infield coach, replies: “It’s incredibly hard.” Mississippi can proudly boast of two college players who mastered that underrated position this past season, both of whom anchored the infield for championship clubs: William Carey University’s Jake Lycette and East Central Community College’s Ramie Harrison. They are among the six state college products who received ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove honors on Wednesday. Southern Miss pitcher Tanner Hall, who was error-free in 2023 while also winning 12 games, was named to the NCAA Division I Gold Glove team. He is the first Golden Eagles player to earn this award. Lycette, a former Northwest Rankin High star, made the NAIA team; he handled 412 chances without a boot for the SSAC regular season champions who reached the NAIA World Series. Harrison, a Neshoba Central product, made one error in 308 chances, a .997 fielding percentage, for state champion and NJCAA Division II World Series participant ECCC. Pearl River CC pitcher Luke Lyon, an Oak Grove alum, and second baseman Blaise Breerwood, out of Poplarville High, also made the juco D-II team, as did Southwest CC outfielder Jerod Williams, a Gulfport High product who did not commit an error in 2023. P.S. Tonight is Southern Miss Night at Pearl’s Trustmark Park, where the Mississippi Braves will host Birmingham at 6:35. Scheduled to appear in pregame ceremonies are retired coach Scott Berry and players Dustin Dickerson and Nick Monistere, who prepped at Northwest Rankin. Basketball coach Jay Ladner is also on the guest list. Fans in USM gear can get a $5 ticket. … The M-Braves, winding down the first half of the Southern League season, are 32-32 after a 7-2 win Wednesday in which Scott Blewett threw six shutout innings and Justin Dean celebrated his return from Triple-A with an inside-the-park home run.