LSU leap-frogged Alabama to take over the top spot in the college football polls this past weekend. LSU, with its win over Auburn will now travel to Tuscaloosa on Nov. 9 to tangle with the Crimson Tide. Both teams are 8-0 on the season. The game will definitely have a huge bearing on the final four teams that will take part in the College Football Playoffs.
MHSAA CROWNS CHAMPS
The Mississippi High School Activities Association has been busy this week. They crowned the last slow-pitch softball champions in Neshoba Central and Lake. Then last week, executive director Don Hinton sent out a press release saying the sport is down to only 75 teams and would be discontinued.
The tremendous growth of volleyball is one of the main reasons for dropping slow pitch. Clinton, Center Hill, Vancleave, and OLA of Bay St. Louis won the state volleyball titles at Mississippi State this past weekend.
MHSAA is also in the midst of swimming championships as well as cross-country state championships. In the swimming championships St. Andrews boys and girls each won the swimming championships in Tupelo.
BIG BETTING MACK
Jim McIngvale is called “Mattress Mack” in Houston, Texas. The Starkville native owns Gallery Furniture, a chain of furniture stores in the area. He has made news in the sports world betting on his favorite team the Houston Astros. He has bet over $10.6 million dollars on the series. He started his spree with a $3.5 million bet in D’lberville at the Scarlet Pearl on October 1. Since then he has bet a half dozen more times on his Astros. Mack even bet on his team after they lost the first two games of the series to the Washington Nationals. He plans on giving away the possible $18.2 million winning in a store mattress promotion.
ODDS & ENDS
— Jerry Boatner, Pete Brown, Antonio McDyess, Janet Marie Smith, Larry Templeton and Patrick Willis will join the HoF on August 1, 2020.
—Alcorn defeated Southern University and also retired Steve McNair’s jersey this weekend. Jackson State (3-5) and Mississippi Valley (2-6) also won. Millsaps (4-3) and Mississippi College (4-3) also won on Saturday while Belhaven (1-6) and Delta State (4-3) took the week off.
— Drew Brees, the old master, hit on 34-of-43 passes for 373 yards and three scores in leading the Saints past Arizona, 31-9, Sunday. Brees is now the only NFL quarterback to throw for 75,000 yards in his career. New Orleans (7-1) is open this week but will host rivalsAtlanta in two weeks.
— Forest Hill graduate Lance Barksdale worked behind the plate in the fifth game of the World Series this past Sunday night. He began calling in the pros in 2006.
Dale McKee is a native of Waynesboro and has been writing sports in Mississippi since 1973. His column appears in several weekly papers throughout the state. You may contact him at ddmckee18@yahoo.com
