Baseball Almanac Archives - All Mississippi Baseball

arrivals and departures

July 7 is a red-letter date for a large number of players with Mississippi ties. On this date in 2011, former Ole Miss standout Zack Cozart made his MLB debut with Cincinnati. He went 1-for-3 against Milwaukee, launching a nine-year big league career that saw him bat .247 with 85 homers and make the 2017 All-Star Game. Three former Jackson Generals debuted on July 7 (per Baseball Almanac): Todd Jones in 1993, Trent (Trenidad) Hubbard in ’94 and Wade Miller in ’99. Jones and Miller debuted with the Double-A Gens’ parent Houston Astros, Hubbard with Colorado. On July 7, 2005, former Mississippi Braves star Jeff Francoeur crashed The Show with Atlanta, homering in his first game. Two years later, M-Braves alum Jo-Jo Reyes got the call from the big Braves. Also on July 7, in 1990, former Jackson Mets ace Jay Tibbs threw the final pitch of his seven-year MLB career, and in 1996, Jeff Ware — a player/coach for the 2002 Jackson Senators — threw his last MLB pitch, capping an 18-game career. Most notably, July 7, 2012, marked the final game of Tim Dillard’s major league career — but not his pro career. The former Itawamba Community College standout posted a 4.70 ERA over four seasons with Milwaukee. The colorful right-hander, now a Brewers TV analyst, would continue pitching in various leagues until 2020, working 18 pro seasons overall. P.S. Konnor Griffin, the former Jackson Prep star, swiped three bases for High-Class A Greensboro on Sunday, running his season total to 40 over two levels in the Pittsburgh system. He is batting .333 overall with a .532 slugging percentage and 13 homers, but speed might be his best tool. He swiped a jaw-dropping 85 bases at Prep last year, when he won Gatorade national player of the year honors. … Former Southern Miss and Meridian CC star Dalton McIntyre was recently promoted by Atlanta from rookie ball to High-A Rome, where he joins forces with ex-ICC standout Will Verdung. McIntyre hit .388 at USM in 2024 and is batting .259 with 18 steals in his first pro season. Verdung, a 2023 Braves draftee after earning MACCC player of the year honors, is hitting .285 for the Emperors.

a quick trip

It takes a dash of speed and a pinch of luck to hit an inside-the-park home run. Jake Mangum had both going for him on Wednesday. The former Mississippi State star from Flowood banged a high fly ball off the wall in center field at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. Denzel Clarke, the A’s remarkably athletic center fielder, just missed making the catch, crashed into the wall and fell to the ground in a heap as Mangum flew around the bases and scored standing up. It was just the third IPHR of the MLB season — the 24th in Rays history — and it contributed to a 6-5 win that moved the team within a half-game of first place in the American League East. Mangum was timed at 14.98 seconds making the circuit. The record in the Statcast era (since 2015) is Byron Buxton’s 13.85 in 2017, per mlb.com. Known more for his speed than power, Mangum has two homers and 11 steals in 51 games in his rookie season. In 437 minor league games, Mangum hit 24 homers and stole 81 bags. He said after Wednesday’s game that he doesn’t recall ever hitting an inside-the-park homer, even in his amateur days. They are rare. Consider that former Taylorsville High star Billy Hamilton, regarded as one of the fastest ever to play the game, never hit one in his 11-year big league career. (He reportedly circled the bases in a hand-timed 13.8 seconds on an IPHR in Double-A.) McComb native Jarrod Dyson, another well-known speedster, hit one IPHR in his 12-year MLB career. Gulfport’s Matt Lawton, another fast man who played from 1995-2006, never got an IPHR. A little research in Baseball Almanac records indicates that Greenville native Frank White recorded three inside-the-parkers back in the 1970s, and Vicksburg’s Ellis Burks tallied two in the mid-’90s. P.S. Kudos to Slater Lott, new coach at Itawamba Community College. The former Pearl River CC hitting coach — he was NJCAA Division II assistant of the year in 2022 — replaces Rick Collier, who retired after 23 highly successful years at ICC. Lott, a former Clarkdale High player, also coached at Meridian CC and Delta State. He joins Brian O’Connor (Mississippi State) and Patrick Robey (Belhaven) as new coaches for 2026.