(#102)
Back in the 20th century, the Forest Hill Rebels under the leadership of a young Bill “Moose” Perry won the MHSAA District 6 Baseball Championship!
“The spotlight embarrasses me.”
Forest Hill baseball coach Bill Perry after winning Forest Hill’s baseball’s first District 6, Class AA Championship in 1972.
I call “BS” on the quote from Coach Perry. He loved the spotlight!
Jackson Daily News sportswriter Larry Kiedrowski put it like this: “But the Rebel mentor stands with both feet squarely therein (the spotlight).
But winning that title over three other high school baseball powerhouses, Jackson Central (20-2, 8-2), Callaway (18-7, 7-3), and Wingfield (16-3, 7-3) certainly put the Rebs and Coach Perry “in the spotlight.”
Sadly, many years later, there is no Central High School or Wingfield High School and the other two are no longer baseball powerhouses.
Forest Hill was 24-5 overall and 10-0 in District 6 play. We beat Central 5-4 with the great Joe McCaskill on the mound, Callaway 3-0, with Sandy Sanders pitching a four-hitter, and Wingfield 3-1 over David Ray. Jay Shelby drove in a pair of runs and Stan Cliburn added an RBI single in the 3-run sixth.
A suicide squeeze bunt was the difference in both the Central and Callaway games. One by Mike Sahler against McCaskill to score Stewart Cliburn, although the call at the plate was controversial, and the other by me (Rick) scoring Mickey Culberson in a 3-run fourth. Cliburn pitched a one-hit shutout with 10 Ks against the Chargers.
Stewart picked up all three big wins on the mound. He was the winning pitcher in 9 of our 10 district wins. Overall he was 11-2, with 136 strikeouts and and ERA of 0.58 entering post-season play.
“The hardest thing about winning the district is how to accept it,” mused a thoughtful Perry, who now owns a 52-20 record in his three seasons at Forest Hill. “This just proves that hard work pays off,” he added. (Editor’s note: Hard work and Stewart Cliburn pitching!)
The Rebels also beat Warren Central 9-6 to win the Little Dixie Conference Title, Forest Hill’s first in 14 years.
But as I remember, Pascagoula High School was not very impressed with all of our accomplishments.
And that was over a half a hundred years ago. OMG!
Rick Clarke's Diary of a Mad Baseball Coach 