(#56) My whole purpose of writing Diary of a Mad Baseball Coach is to share great baseball stories and put them in a place for everybody to read and share, so they won't be forgotten. Too many of those great characters of the game are no longer with us and those great stories will eventually … Continue reading Great Baseball Stories
Category: Baseball: General
Congrats to Stan Cliburn!
(#55) Congratulations to Forest Hill teammate Stan Cliburn for being name the 2021 Atlantic League Manager of the Year! Stan is the manager of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs in Waldorf, Maryland. The Blue Crabs won the North Division of the ALPB, an independent "partner league" of Major League Baseball. Once a Rebel, always a … Continue reading Congrats to Stan Cliburn!
A Tribute to The One and Only Coach D.M. Howie
(#51) He was the first “real” high school baseball coach in the state of Mississippi, circa 1967. He was not just a football coach coaching baseball for the $500 supplement, but a real, full-time baseball coach . His baseball facility, Bobby Jaquith Field at St. Joseph High School in Jackson was the first “real” baseball … Continue reading A Tribute to The One and Only Coach D.M. Howie
Greatest Moments in Baseball
(#45) This is one of the greatest moments in sports. Right after the Delta State Statesmen won the Division II National Baseball Championship on May 3, 2004 at Patterson Field in Montgomery, Alabama, DSU head coach Mike Kinnison climbs over the third base dugout and into the stands to present the trophy to his mentor … Continue reading Greatest Moments in Baseball
Top Performances
Call the Coach! (#42) This page recognizes outstanding individual performances through the years. This is a on-going page updated on a regular basis. Chad Bradford pitched 192 2/3 innings between 2007 and 2009 with the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays and earned $10,499,999.00. That's $54,404.14...... per inning. (before taxes). Steve Bourgeois pitched for … Continue reading Top Performances
The Hitter’s Game Plan
(#37) Over many years, here's what our Hitter's Game Plan developed into. 2 approaches and 2 actions. This is the recurring theme: "Hitting is timing and timing means getting the barrel of the bat in the right place at the right time." "Repetition of the same physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently … Continue reading The Hitter’s Game Plan
Thanks Jeff!
(#30) Here are some kind words from Jeff McClaskey, one of my great players at Magnolia and Hinds, who went on to an outstanding coaching career, mostly at Northwest Rankin where the baseball stadium he built is named in his honor. This was included, at his request, in a newspaper article about his retirement from … Continue reading Thanks Jeff!
Bo and Sam
(#16) We were in the Superdome in New Orleans years ago, watching an exhibition game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. My friends, George McQuitter and Richard Kelly, were having a friendly argument about whether or not Bo Jackson could hit the video screen on the wall in the third deck … Continue reading Bo and Sam
Yodel-ay-hee-hoo!
(#13) It was the comeback that made the yodeling stop! During the Spring Break of 2006, about a month before I would be suspended and stripped of my coaching duties, an ambush by the Pearl High School athletic director, principal and board, officially for insubordination, but really because I was the new guy who got … Continue reading Yodel-ay-hee-hoo!
My Mentor and Friend (and Roommate), Bill Marchant
(#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 … Continue reading My Mentor and Friend (and Roommate), Bill Marchant
Rick Clarke's Diary of a Mad Baseball Coach 