(#58)
I invited two legendary Delta State University baseball coaches, Boo Ferriss and Mike Kinnison to be the featured speakers at our Step Up to the Plate pre-season banquet when I coached almost a full season at Pearl High School in 2006. 🙂
It was held at what is now the Farm Bureau Grill behind right field at Trustmark Park.
In the weeks before the banquet, I had searched the internet and finally found a Boo Ferriss baseball card and my plan was for him to autograph it that night and then we would auction it off to the highest bidder to raise some funds for the team.
Before we got started I asked Pearl Superintendent Dr. Stanley Miller to kick off the auction by jumping up and making a bid of $500. He was quite a showman and could really pull this off.
When I asked for someone to open the bidding for the card, Dr. Miller jumped up and shouted “$500!”
I replied, “Sold!”
A five second auction.
Dr. Miller was surprised his opening bid was accepted and acted as if he was going to charge the podium. He played the part well. Everybody roared. It was great!
Coach Ferriss looked stunned that we could get $500 for the card so quickly. But I had no intention of really bidding it off… just trying to get a laugh.
And setting up Stan Miller was the fun part.
The auction prank was really funny and Coach got a kick out of it.
The speakers were great and everybody had a good time. And in the end, I had an autographed card from a Mississippi baseball legend. It certainly was not worth $500.
It is priceless!
And Stan Miller, who never paid for the card, suspended me from coaching my team a couple months later, right after we defeated Tim Dowdy‘s Ridgeland Titans for the district championship at their home field.
Insubordination. Imagine that. That’s a story for a another day.
My real punishment was having to teach 10th grade World History for the rest of the school year, or at least act like I was. 😁
Rick Clarke's Diary of a Mad Baseball Coach 