Smooth, Flap, Mac, Kid, and Jaybird

(#83) Fined-tuned in November, 2024

“Magnolia Academy Baseball – Striving for Baseball Excellence.”

These words, which appear in Magnolia‘s game program, are the best way to describe the efforts of Coach Rick Clarke‘s Raiders, who captured their third straight Academy State AA baseball championship.

Last week Magnolia brought the year to a climax by blasting Kirk Academy of Grenada 8-0 and 17-4 in the state best-of-three final series. The Raiders looked awesome in destroying Kirk.

If that wasn’t enough, Clarke’s team went even further this year — 40 wins in 45 games, the most ever by any Mississippi high school baseball team.

Excerpt by Robert Wilson, FOCUS Sports Correspondent, May, 1981

Looking back half a lifetime ago at the remarkable accomplishments of this team, I was reminded of and am still impressed by the tremendous individual performances that were on display from start to finish during this record setting season.

The big five producers in ’81 were the ones who were so good they had nicknames.

Smooth, Flap, Mac, Kid and Jaybird were the nicknames of seniors Steven Dickey (Smooth), Jeff McClaskey (Flap), Tim McMillian (Mac), and juniors, Todd Ross (Kid) and Jay Albright (Jaybird). Of course, there were other productive team members who helped make it all happen, but none quite like the ones with the nicknames.

Dickey, McClaskey, McMillian, Ross and Albright were great players, but they couldn’t help it. They were born and raised that way and then became part of a baseball factory where good players became great players and great players won lots of games and lots of championships.

They produced 98 wins over a three year period, 124 wins in four years and 40 in one season. Altogether, the Magnolia boys won 168 games, an average of 28 per season, and an unprecedented 26 championships in a six-year period.

The 40 wins is a pretty big deal, because no Mississippi high school team, public or private had ever done that before. Only two teams have done it since, Corinth and New Hope and both were years later. The 40 wins was a MSAIS record four decades later (tied by Magnolia Heights in 2023. Jackson Prep won 39 in 2024). But the consistent performance that produced all those wins is what’s really remarkable.

We believed in the universal rule of baseball… the team with the most runs wins; always. This team scored an incredible 442 runs and hit .348 as a team. That’s almost ten runs a game and on top of that we had a pitching staff and defense that kept the other teams from scoring much, too.

Our goal was never perfection, just excellence, day-in and day-out, game after game, one pitch at a time. Discipline, consistency, and sound fundamentals was our mantra. Those things were achievable and produced results. Years later when coaching at Hinds and we started talking about discipline, confidence, motivation and determination… toughness, these guys at Magnolia had all these things years before.

They were always good baseball players. They had been playing since they were old enough to walk; not playing video games on the couch, but games where they had to go outside and play with the other kids in the neighborhood, improvising their own fields, or just playing in their backyards or on the streets, mostly in the Queens of West Jackson.

There were no select teams or travel teams, just some American Legion teams, no turf fields, no showcases to go to, no private coaches or training facilities, no fancy uniforms or great equipment. We did have great looking uniforms though, with our jersey and cap logos designed by the late Coach Bill “Moose” Perry, improvised an indoor hitting facility in the gym and Greg Carpenter‘s dad, John actually welded us a roll-up batting cage for the field before they were commercially available and/or before we could afford one.

Dickey, McMillian, and Albright were with us from the beginning. McClaskey and Ross joined us in their sophomore years. I glad they did.

They were great competitors. They all had what I now call, “intesticle fortitude;” toughness, a term which is the sum total of that discipline, confidence, motivation, and determination… the big four (or five).

They all loved the game and each other. They played hard and had fun, just what you’re supposed to do. They expected to win. But they understood that winning games was the result of the processes of hitting, bunting, running, fielding, throwing, and pitching… consistently doing the things it took to win and doing them well and also some good old fashioned hard work mixed in. Winning doesn’t just “happen.”

They had been surrounded by great, productive players of previous championship teams and the experiences, the lessons learned and the quality of play compounded each year.

Every baseball team has one or two ballsy players, but no team had as many ballsy players in one lineup as the Magnolia Academy Raiders… and not just in the 1981 season, but from the very beginning four years earlier.

They all had a lot in common… short, compact strokes and consistently got the barrel of the bat in the right place at the right time, walking more than they struck out, running the bases aggressively and putting pressure on the pitcher and defense, dropping down a bunt when needed, getting clutch hits consistently, playing multiple positions well to accommodate the pitching rotation (all pitched except McClaskey), and making the routine plays most of the time and the great plays some of the time.

And the amazing thing about their baseball success was that they played all the other sports, too.

They were all winners, plain and simple. They are still winners even after baseball. And what do winners do? They win. And these winners have won a lot and keep winning after baseball.

McClaskey was the leadoff man and centerfielder. I have said over the years that he was the best leadoff hitter I ever coached. He did everything a leadoff hitter was supposed to do. Jeff hit .446, the highest average on the team, reached base an incredible 113 times and scored 77 runs. He had 58 hits, including 5 homeruns, walked 40 times and stole 36 bases.

Albright, batting second in the order, hit .402, drove in 40 runs, walked 39 times, and reached base 108 times for a .620 on-base percentage. He was a third baseman, catcher, and pitcher.

Now think about that. The first two hitters in the lineup set the stage for all the others by reaching base 221 times in 45 games. That’s 64% of the time; .667 for McClaskey and .620 for Albright. And this was the era where the importance of on-base percentage was at a premium in baseball at all levels.

Dickey hit in the three hole. He batted .423 with 66 hits, including 24 doubles, and had an unbelievable 69 runs batted in. In addition to that, Steven was 16-2 on the mound with 154 strikeouts in 113 innings pitched. His earned run average was 2.48.

McMillian, who injured his right thumb early in the season and missed two weeks, hurried back and still managed to hit .400 with 5 home runs and 35 RBI. As a pitcher, he was 8-2 with 81 strikeouts in 50 innings. He broke his left arm late in the season and missed the championship series against Kirk.

Ross, who I considered a great clutch hitter from the time he arrived on campus as a sophomore, batted .383 and only struck out 3 times in 148 plate appearances. On the mound, he was 7-1 with a 2.99 ERA. He hit .442 as a sophomore during the 1980 season.

In case I forgot to tell them, congratulations to all of these guys, 40+ years later, for their unprecedented success in Mississippi high school baseball. They, like their teammates in 1977, 1978, 1979, and 1980, were “Striving for Baseball Excellence and achieved it.“

There should be a plaque or monument somewhere as a tribute to their success. I think I will create one and put on display in the Clarke Baseball Museum and Garage. 🙂