Mississippi Today
The Braves committed to 20 seasons in Pearl. That’s exactly how long they stayed.
The Mississippi Braves are moving to Columbus, Georgia, after this coming season, and I can't say I am shocked. That's because I can't begin to tell you how many times I have been to M-Braves games at Trustmark Park over the past two decades when empty seats outnumbered warm bodies by at least five to one.
Let's put it this way: I am not nearly as shocked as I was on April 1, 2004, when we first got the news that the Atlanta Braves were moving their Class AA minor league franchise to Pearl from Greenville, S.C.
At first, I thought the news was an April Fool's joke. Both the New York Mets and the Houston Astros had moved Class AA franchises out of the Jackson area because of financial woes stemming from lack of ticket-buying customers. Con Maloney, who was Mr. Baseball in mid-Mississippi, had tried everything he knew to try to make minor league baseball work at Smith-Wills Stadium in the capital city. Despite several championship teams and a world of talent that came through here, it just did not interest enough fans.
And I remember asking John Schuerholz, the remarkably successful Atlanta Braves general manager, if the previous baseball failures in the Jackson area were a concern for his franchise.
“No,” he answered, matter-of-factly. “We don't care what other people do. We have a system and we believe in it. We made a 20-year commitment here. We have confidence in the way we operate. Excellence is our byword.”
“A 20-year commitment,” Schuerholz said. Do the math. That was 2004. This is 2024. The Braves are out of here after this coming season. And, yes, the Atlanta Braves got a sweetheart deal 20 years ago. Trustmark Park, replete with 22 suites, was built at a cost of $28 million. It would cost nearly double that today. The Atlanta Braves, who signed a 20-year lease, provided none of those millions. They just provided the talent, and there has been plenty of that, which we'll get to here shortly.
Much has changed in 20 years. Back then, the Braves' Class A team had just moved to Rome, Georgia, and was the only Braves minor league affiliate in Georgia. Otherwise, Atlanta Braves had minor league franchises in Danville, Virginia; Richmond, Virginia; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and Pearl.
This time next year, all the Braves' minor league teams will be in Georgia. That has to be by design.
Columbus, Georgia, has agreed to spend $50 million to renovate a century-old ballpark. Ironically, when the Houston Astros moved their Class AA franchise to Jackson in 1991, it moved away from the very same Columbus stadium, Golden Park, because of a lack of attendance there.
Some terrific ballplayers, including future Baseball Hall of Famers, have come through Trustmark Park. Several have made the leap from the Mississippi Braves to Atlanta, skipping Class AAA all together.
Freddie Freeman, for sure, will have a plaque in Cooperstown. Reigning National League MVP Ronald Acuna, barring injury, is headed in that direction, too. Craig Kimbrel, who has saved 417 Major League Baseball games as a closer, was virtually un-hittable as a fresh-faced, 20-year-old flame thrower here.
Indeed, future Major League stars who played in Pearl are almost too many to name, but here are a few: Brian McCann, Martin Prado, Jeff Francoeur, Yunel Escobar, Charlie Morton, Jason Heyward, Dansby Swanson, Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, A.J. Minter, Spencer Strider, Max Fried and Michael Harris.
In all, 169 former Mississippi Braves have advanced to the Major Leagues. That's an average of more than eight per season — and that's a lot.
Brian Snitker, manager of the 2021 World Champion Atlanta Braves, was the first Mississippi Braves manager in 2005. Five of Snitker's World Series champion everyday starters were former Mississippi Braves. All five starting pitchers were former M-Braves, and much of the bullpen staff had come through here as well.
We have seen some phenomenal talent come through here. Unfortunately, too few people watched them while they were here.
Speaking at a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Pearl Mayor Jake Windham said the city, Rankin County and state officials had done all they could to keep the Braves at Trustmark Park. “We are sad to see them go,” he said. Windham also said every effort will be made to bring another minor league franchise to fill the void.
On a positive note: Trustmark Park, has been well maintained. It looks virtually brand new and is a really nice minor league ballpark. The negative: If an Atlanta Braves minor league franchise didn't draw well enough here, who would?
We shall see.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=321816
Mississippi Today
Podcast: The controversial day that Robert Kennedy came to the University of Mississippi
Retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Edward Ellington talks with Mississippi Today's Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender about former U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy's speech at the University of Mississippi less than four years after the riots that occurred after the integration of the school. Ellington, who at the time headed the Ole Miss Speaker's Bureau as a law school student, recalls the controversy leading up to the speech.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=359978
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1961
MAY 20, 1961
A white mob of more than 300, including Klansmen, attacked Freedom Riders at the Greyhound Bus Station in Montgomery, Alabama. Future Congressman John Lewis was among them.
“An angry mob came out of nowhere, hundreds of people, with bricks and balls, chains,” Lewis recalled.
After beating on the riders, the mob turned on reporters and then Justice Department official John Seigenthaler, who was beaten unconscious and left in the street after helping two riders.
“Then they turned on my colleagues and started beating us and beat us so severely, we were left bloodied and unconscious in the streets of Montgomery,” Lewis recalled.
As the mob headed his way, Freedom Rider James Zwerg said he asked for God to be with him, and “I felt absolutely surrounded by love. I knew that whether I lived or died, I was going to be OK.”
The mob beat him so badly that his suit was soaked in blood.
“There was nothing particularly heroic in what I did,” he said. “If you want to talk about heroism, consider the Black man who probably saved my life. This man in coveralls, just off of work, happened to walk by as my beating was going on and said ‘Stop beating that kid. If you want to beat someone, beat me.' And they did. He was still unconscious when I left the hospital.”
To quell the violence, Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent in 450 federal marshals.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
2024 Mississippi legislative session not good for private school voucher supporters
Despite a recent Mississippi Supreme Court ruling allowing $10 million in public money to be spent on private schools, 2024 has not been a good year for those supporting school vouchers.
School-choice supporters were hopeful during the 2024 legislative session, with new House Speaker Jason White at times indicating support for vouchers.
But the Legislature, which recently completed its session, did not pass any new voucher bills. In fact, it placed tighter restrictions on some of the limited laws the state has in place allowing public money to be spent on private schools.
Notably, the Legislature passed a bill that provides significantly more oversight of a program that provides a limited number of scholarships or vouchers for special-needs children to attend private schools.
Going forward, thanks to the new law, to receive the vouchers a parent must certify that their child will be attending a private school that offers the special needs educational services that will help the child. And the school must report information on the academic progress of the child receiving the funds.
Also, efforts to expand another state program that provides tax credits for the benefit of private schools was defeated. Legislation that would have expanded the tax credits offered by the Children's Promise Act from $8 million a year to $24 million to benefit private schools was defeated. Private schools are supposed to educate low income students and students with special needs to receive the benefit of the tax credits. The legislation expanding the Children's Promise Act was defeated after it was reported that no state agency knew how many students who fit into the categories of poverty and other specific needs were being educated in the schools receiving funds through the tax credits.
Interestingly, the Legislature did not expand the Children's Promise Act but also did not place more oversight on the private schools receiving the tax credit funds.
The bright spot for those supporting vouchers was the early May state Supreme Court ruling. But, in reality, the Supreme Court ruling was not as good for supporters of vouchers as it might appear on the surface.
The Supreme Court did not say in the ruling whether school vouchers are constitutional. Instead, the state's highest court ruled that the group that brought the lawsuit – Parents for Public Schools – did not have standing to pursue the legal action.
The Supreme Court justices did not give any indication that they were ready to say they were going to ignore the Mississippi Constitution's plain language that prohibits public funds from being provided “to any school that at the time of receiving such appropriation is not conducted as a free school.”
In addition to finding Parents for Public Schools did not have standing to bring the lawsuit, the court said another key reason for its ruling was the fact that the funds the private schools were receiving were federal, not state funds. The public funds at the center of the lawsuit were federal COVID-19 relief dollars.
Right or wrong, The court appeared to make a distinction between federal money and state general funds. And in reality, the circumstances are unique in that seldom does the state receive federal money with so few strings attached that it can be awarded to private schools.
The majority opinion written by Northern District Supreme Justice Robert Chamberlin and joined by six justices states, “These specific federal funds were never earmarked by either the federal government or the state for educational purposes, have not been commingled with state education funds, are not for educational purposes and therefore cannot be said to have harmed PPS (Parents for Public Schools) by taking finite government educational funding away from public schools.”
And Southern District Supreme Court Justice Dawn Beam, who joined the majority opinion, wrote separately “ to reiterate that we are not ruling on state funds but American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds … The ARPA funds were given to the state to be used in four possible ways, three of which were directly related to the COVID -19 health emergency and one of which was to make necessary investments in water, sewer or broadband infrastructure.”
Granted, many public school advocates lamented the decision, pointing out that federal funds are indeed public or taxpayer money and those federal funds could have been used to help struggling public schools.
Two justices – James Kitchens and Leslie King, both of the Central District, agreed with that argument.
But, importantly, a decidedly conservative-leaning Mississippi Supreme Court stopped far short – at least for the time being – of circumventing state constitutional language that plainly states that public funds are not to go to private schools.
And a decidedly conservative Mississippi Legislature chose not to expand voucher programs during the 2024 session.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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