07 Feb

preseason poll-pourri

A dose of perspective is necessary when digesting the SEC coaches preseason poll released on Wednesday. Mississippi State is ranked ninth, in the bottom half of the 16-team league. Seems a bit disrespectful for a Bulldogs team that won 40 games and made the NCAA Tournament in 2024 and is a consensus top 20 in the national polls, of which there are many. Such is life in the dog-eat-dog SEC, which has the top four teams and seven of the first 10 in Baseball America’s national Top 25. MSU is No. 18 in the BA poll as well as the d1baseball.com rankings plus No. 19 in the NCBWA and USA Today polls. Ole Miss, which has one of the best newcomer classes in the nation (per BA), is pegged to finish 15th in the SEC but still got votes in the NCBWA and USA Today national polls. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Rebels in a regional this spring. Southern Miss was picked as the preseason No. 1 in the Sun Belt coaches poll. The Golden Eagles, an NCAA Tournament team as the SBC champion in 2024, show up in only one national poll, ranked 27th (in a Top 30) by the NCBWA. USM got votes in the USA Today poll. Jackson State also got some votes in the NCBWA poll and is ranked third among large school HBCUs by Black College Nines. The Nos. 1 and 2 teams are also SWAC schools: Grambling State and Bethune-Cookman. All of this will start shaking out a week from today when the NCAA Division I season launches. … Of note: MaxPreps named Sumrall High, the defending MHSAA Class 4A champion, as the “best team” in Mississippi heading into the 2025 campaign. East Union’s Landon Harmon and Purvis’ Jacob Parker are on MaxPreps’ preseason All-America squad. P.S. Itawamba Community College’s Madden Butler (Corinth) was named the NJCAA Division II player of the week after batting .545 with two homers, six RBIs and seven runs in the Indians’ 3-1 start last week. … East Central CC, ranked No. 2 in the juco D-II preseason poll, opened its season on Thursday with a 14-4 win over South Arkansas.

03 Feb

historic significance

Much attention is being given to the fact that two black quarterbacks will face off in the Super Bowl for the first time on Feb. 12. As a nod to Black History Month, let’s highlight a less-celebrated but perhaps equally significant event that occurred in baseball 70 years ago and involved a pioneering Mississippian. Dave Hoskins, a Greenwood native, faced future Hall of Famer Satchel Paige in an American League game on Sept. 7, 1953, marking the first time in history that African-Americans opposed each other as starting pitchers in the traditional major leagues. This was six years after Jackie Robinson broke the color line. Hoskins was a major league rookie at age 35 in 1953 with Cleveland. Hoskins, who had attended G.H. Jones Industrial School in north Mississippi (per a SABR article), pitched several years in the Negro Leagues and was the first black player to appear in two minor leagues, including the Texas League in 1952. He became on May 10, 1953, the first black Mississippian to win a game in the major leagues. On May 24 of that year, he and Paige, with the St. Louis Browns, faced each other as relief pitchers in a game in Cleveland. Months later, they met again as starters at old Cleveland Stadium. Neither pitched well. Hoskins gave up five runs in 3 2/3 innings, Paige seven in 4 2/3. Neither was involved in the decision as the Indians prevailed 10-7. Hoskins won nine games for Cleveland in ’53 but would last just one more year in the majors, finishing 9-4 with a 3.81 ERA — and a piece of history — over 40 games. P.S. Jackson State is ranked eighth among the big schools and Rust College No. 3 among the smalls in Black College Nines preseason HBCU Top 10 polls.

20 Aug

celebration

The Mississippi Braves in conjunction with Jackson State will pay tribute to the Negro Leagues during tonight’s doubleheader against Pensacola at Trustmark Park in Pearl. The M-Braves will don the uniform of the 1938 Atlanta Black Crackers. JSU officials, as part of their Family and Friends Night celebration, will also honor former Tigers players who went on to big league careers. The M-Braves’ Negro Leagues tribute was originally planned for 2020, marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro National League, but the season was canceled by the pandemic. Cool Papa Bell, a National Baseball Hall of Fame member, is the most recognizable former Negro Leagues star from Mississippi; the entrance road into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum and Smith-Wills Stadium is named after the Starkville native. But an array of others from the Magnolia State also made a mark in black baseball. Here’s a few names to know: William Foster, who grew up in Rodney and attended and coached at Alcorn State, is also in the national Hall of Fame and is widely considered the best left-handed pitcher in Negro League annals. He starred on three pennant winners with the great Chicago American Giants teams of the late 1920s and early ’30s. Howard Easterling, from Mt. Olive, was a five-time All-Star and won a Negro League World Series title with the 1943 Homestead Grays. Jonestown native Luke Easter, the first black Mississippian to play in the majors, got his start in the Negro Leagues. The legendary slugger played until he was 49 and hit 385 career homers, 93 in the majors with Cleveland. Sam Hairston, from Crawford, won a batting Triple Crown with the Indianapolis Clowns in 1950 and played briefly for the Chicago White Sox in 1951. He is the patriarch of MLB’s first three-generation black family. Rufus Lewis, a Hattiesburg native, was a star pitcher from 1936-50 and won 18 games plus Game 7 of the Negro League World Series for the 1946 Newark Eagles. JSU officials will give a nod to Kelvin Moore, the first school alumnus to make it to the big leagues. Among those who followed are Oil Can Boyd, Dave Clark, Marvin Freeman and Wes Chamberlain. HBCU notes: Mississippi Valley State has named Milton Barney Jr. as its new coach. The former Gulfport High star and Alcorn State assistant coach replaces Stanley Stubbs, who resigned after one season reportedly due to health concerns. Barney is the son of Milton Barney Sr., a former Alcorn State football star, and grandson of Pro Football Hall of Famer Lem Barney, who starred at Jackson State. … JSU lost longtime assistant coach and former player Chadwick Hall, who has taken the reins at Tuskegee. … JSU recently added a power bat to its roster for 2023 with the signing of Peeko Townsend from Northwest Mississippi Community College. The 6-foot, 230-pound outfielder hit 11 homers in 42 games for the Rangers and belted eight in 18 games in the Cotton States League this summer.

21 Jan

spotlight on …

Jackson State’s baseball team will get some prime exposure on MLB Network next month. The Tigers are playing in the annual Andre Dawson Classic, a showcase event for HBCU programs, and will face SWAC rival Southern University on MLB Network on Feb. 19 (1 p.m.). The Andre Dawson Classic runs Feb. 18-20 in New Orleans and features seven HBCUs in its eight-team field. JSU is playing in the event for the first time. The Tigers open on Feb. 18 against Grambling State and will play Prairie View on Feb. 20. JSU went 24-0 in the SWAC and 34-9 overall in 2021 but lost in the ninth inning of the league tournament title game and missed out on an NCAA bid. JSU returns Nik Galatas and Chenar Brown, picked by Collegiate Baseball Magazine as the preseason pitcher and player of the year in the SWAC. P.S. The start of the college season is less than two weeks away. On Feb. 2, NAIA member Rust College visits Tuskegee for a doubleheader. William Carey University, another NAIA program, opens at home in Hattiesburg on Feb. 4 against Lindsey Wilson. NAIA Tougaloo College starts Feb. 5 with a twinbill at Xavier in New Orleans. … Defending MACCC champion Pearl River Community College starts its season on Feb. 9 at home against Baton Rouge CC. PRCC is one of four state jucos ranked in Collegiate Baseball’s Division II Top 20. East Central (the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament runner-up) is No. 6, Pearl River No. 9, Meridian No. 14 and Itawamba No. 17. Jones College has a new coach for 2022 with Wes Thigpen moving to Ellisville after a stint at Gulf Coast. The Bobcats open on Feb. 7 at Shelton State (Ala.). Bob Keller is the new coach at Gulf Coast, which opens Feb. 5 in a tournament at Bay Minette, Ala.