(#12)
I got a newspaper clipping from Bill Marchant a few years before he passed away. He was making fun of the time I got run over at home plate by Meridian High School’s Mike Boyd in a game between his Wildcats and the Forest Hill Rebels on March 24, 1971.
“In the bottom of the second inning, the Cats knocked the Forest Hill starting battery “out” of the game – the starting pitcher Tommy Shumate when he gave up four runs and the catcher Rickey Clark (-2 for spelling on both names when he and Boyd collided at home plate. Clark was knocked semi-unconscious, but Boyd was unhurt.” (Story by Lloyd Gray, The Meridian Star, March 24, 1971).
Bill used a pen to draw a smiley face on that paragraph.
Editor’s note: Fake news, Lloyd. Boyd collided with Clarke who was nowhere near home plate and not even looking in his direction. Boyd was unhurt because he instigated the whole thing. It was a cheap shot; targeting, worthy of ejection. I was semi-CONSCIOUS. And you misspelled each one of my names. 🙂
My dad (Bob Clarke) who had made one of his rare appearances at a ballgame that Saturday, talked about Mike Boyd in a derogatory way from time-to-time until the day he died. 😁
Bill was my friend, my mentor, and my roommate when he was the head coach at Hinds Junior College and I was his lowly volunteer assistant coach in the fall of 1982 and the spring of 1983. He was a great coach, a great man, a great competitor and a funny guy.
We roomed together in an apartment in the brand new Sheffield-Wooley Dormitory on the Raymond Campus. Bill’s wife Cheryl and their kids, Stacy and Brett, were smart and had remained in Texas for the school year. He got the bedroom and I got the couch in the den. He blew up food in my microwave every single day. He told the most outrageous stories.
When he left Hinds after his only season, I was homeless and jobless and became a squatter in that apartment.
I really believe I got the job as the head baseball coach (actually, the only baseball coach) at Hinds only because I agreed to move out of that apartment…. and coach football, too Ugggh!
Patty and I had just gotten married in June. My mom made me a small pillow with the words “Marriage Interrupted by Baseball Season” on one side and “Marriage Interrupted by Football Season” on the other.
I made a vow the day I was hired to be the best JUCO baseball coach I could be and the worst JUCO football coach I could be. I accomplished one of those feats.
Rick Clarke's Diary of a Mad Baseball Coach 