Latest / The Jake Wimberly Podcast / Mississippi Baseball Legend Tom Gladney discusses his Hall of Fame Induction into the MAAA

Transcript

Mississippi Baseball Legend Tom Gladney discusses his Hall of Fame Induction into the MAAA · The Jake Wimberly Podcast

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  We're pleased to visit with Tom Gladney on the program. Mister Gladney, thank
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  you so much for taking some time. Congratulations on your ward. Thank you
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  and appreciate you being here at our conference. Absolutely glad to be here.
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  Take us back, you know, born in Jackson, Wingfield High School.
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  Boy, those were the days, and you know you talk about McDill road
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  and uh, people getting up down you know, South Jackson. Kind of
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  take us through that growing up there, and then of course, uh,
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  you know how your career kind of manifested it so well. Uh, I
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  grew up right next to lovel Woods Park and I could walk out my front
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  door and be at Lovewood's Park. I could walk out my back door and
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  be at Sykes Park down there. So we were at the park all the
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  time. You know. Now they don't even play games there anymore. And
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  uh, my education has gone Noel and Boyd. Jackson Public Schools is closing
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  some schools. They closing Sykes Elementary where I went, Whitten Junior High where
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  I went, and Wingfield High School where I went. So my education is
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  Noel and Boyd right now. But uh, it was a great time in
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  great schools, and uh I hate to see it go in that direction,
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  but uh, they they've lost a lot of students and they trying to do
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  the best they can. Sure, and before we moved into you know,
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  some of the highlights of your career, you'd reference Level Woods and those parks
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  down there. I can remember growing up in the nineties, eighties and nineties,
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  and that's where baseball lived. It'd absolutely lived there. Yeah, and
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  again my dad, he just walked out there and watched games every night,
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  whether we were playing or not. But we went when we weren't playing.
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  But it was just a great time to grow up and a lot of fun
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  to be out there in that era of time. Take us through, you
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  know, playing at Mississippi College. Of course you got your bachelor's Arts and
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  Sciences and the masters at the Missisippi College. Take us through that time of
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  your life. I went out there to play football in baseball. Probably was
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  a better baseball player, but excelled more in football simply because you worked at
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  it more than you know. Back then, there weren't bating cages, and
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  there weren't pitching machines, and there weren't things that kids have today. But
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  really enjoyed playing both of them. And coach. John Williams was the football
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  coach, and then Ed Nixon was the baseball coach and gave it up.
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  He became the girls basketball coach and then coached at Alabama. But Bill moose
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  Perry became the baseball coach, and I played for him and then was a
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  graduate assistant for him out a Mississippi college before he left, and then I
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  got to be the assistant baseball coach out there and worked out there for twenty
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  years. What took you to Texas? We got our first and only granddaughter,
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  Lilah White. This my youngest daughter's little girl. She just turned two
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  on Halloween, and we're going to have a grandson in March two months from
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  now. So we're just excited to be out there close to them now.
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  Absolutely and take us through you know, your tenure, I mean as a
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  coach to eighty four seventy two and one overall at Midway High School, nine
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  district titles, one state championship, one state runner up, seven district Coaches
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  of the Year honors, and two state wide Coach of the Year awards.
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  I mean, you guys really cleaned it up during that time. It was
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  a great time to be at Midway High School. Midway had already had a
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  really good baseball but over the course of the years, I think they had
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  had ten or eleven guys to play minor league or pro baseball. And in
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  the ten years I was there, not because of me, but because the
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  baseball had grown so much, there were thirteen guys that played some form of
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  Major League baseball. Forty four guys went off to play college baseball. And
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  it was just a great time to be at Midway High School and it was
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  a lot of fun. We're visiting with mister Tom Gladney. He has an
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  INTROPLA Hall of Fame inductee twenty twenty four. He's kind enough to give us
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  some time and talk a little bit about his career. Tommy also served as
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  chairman of the Gulf South Conference Baseball Coaches on two different occasions and served six
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  years on the NCAA Division two All American Committee. Also six years on High
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  School Baseball Coaches Association All American as well. So, I mean, when
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  you talk about baseball and just you know, you're kind of hands folding young
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  men, I mean, college, high school, you've kind of been everywhere
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  well, and it was a lot of fun. The GUFF South com it's
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  one four, Jacksonville State, Troy State, Southeast Louisanna Nichols, Northwestern State,
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  Delta State, Missisippi College, Livingston which is now West Alabama, Valdosta.
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  I mean, it was an unbelievable league and now a lot of those
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  schools have moved to Division One. Now Goup South Conference is still good,
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  but it was really dominating in football, basketball and baseball at that time.
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  So it was a tough challenge, but a lot of good years there and
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  a lot of good years at Midway High School. So take us to what
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  you do when you look at baseball today and you see how the game is
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  played. Obviously it's it's played at a high level. There's tournament ball everywhere.
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  You know, guys as long as eighty nine right now are in cag
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  just getting ready for tournament ball. Just your thoughts on the evolution of baseball
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  where it's at today. It's at a good place and it's in a bad
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  place. You know, I think they might play too much. You know,
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  there are a lot of arm injuries, and that goes back to there's
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  only so many throws in your arm, and they start off throwing at eight
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  and nine and trying to throw breaking balls at eight and nine. And they
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  get to high school and they may be okay, but then they get to
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  college or they may have the surgery in high school or whatever, but you
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  know that the arm needs some rest, and you know, I don't know
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  the answer to it. I've had buddies who played for me and their kids
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  are playing and that they'll say, Coach, I know, but he said,
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  all his buddies are playing, you know, and they want to be
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  on the same team with them and do those things, and they get a
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  lot of exposure. But I'm just not sure we're not doing too much when
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  you look at the high school game, and of course you get to it
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  from high school to college. And we talk a lot about this because of
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  what we're talking about with the tournament ball. It's so hard now to get
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  to college to play because there's so many players. When you look at the
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  state of Mississippi, just when the MHSA has their state baseball championships at Trustmark
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  Park, just that along the talent that's on the field, it's very,
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  very tough to get to college. Now. Mississippi does not lack in baseball
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  as far as kids who can play college level. The transfer portal has hurt
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  kids coming out of high school that you know, the big schools, if
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  they need a player that can play right away, they look at the transfer
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  portal first, yeah, and then they look at a high school kid.
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  But for another year or two. It's probably tough on high school kids.
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  Not to say they can't sign with, you know, a Division one school
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  at Power five school, but uh, there are just so many transfer portal
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  guys out there that it does make it a little tough. Before we finish
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  it up here, and of course we're visiting with Tom Glad Andy m Triple
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  a Hall of Fame inductee today along with Bobby Hall. You were a scout
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  as well, high school scout for the Kansas City Rolls, Boston Red Sox,
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  Colorado Rockies, and Milwaukee Brewers. Take us through some of that,
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  because I know that can be kind of a grind. It was really what
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  they call a high school associate scout. And basically when I go to games,
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  if I saw somebody, I would send it to the guy. My
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  my last one was with the Brewers and I was on the Guff Coast and
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  you know, they brought the Brewers double a team to Biloxi or whatever.
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  Right, and probably my biggest I guess you'd say involvement. It was a
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  former player of mine who had done really well and was with the Red Sox
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  at the time, and the Brewers guy called me and asked me all about
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  him. I said, are y'all trading for him? He said, oh,
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  we're just looking at some options. Well, the next day they traded
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  for Aaron Wilkerson. He comes to Biluxion. I get to see him pitch
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  every five days, so it was really neat to get to see him,
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  and he got a touch of you know, the big League cup of coffee
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  here and there. But he's in Japan playing right now, so hopefully,
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  you know, maybe get another chance. As you we put a rap on
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  it, put a b on it right here down here at the IP.
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  You get this award to day kind of looking back, what does this mean
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  for you? It's a great honor. There's plenty of people that probably should
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  have been in there before me or whatever, and the people that have been
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  in there that are already in there really set the standards and everything, and
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  it's a great honor to be able to be in that class. So I'm
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  glad he Thank you, sir. I appreciate your time today. M Triple
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  A Hall of Fame inductee on your radio. As we carry on, we're
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  visiting with Joe Odom, Yazoo County High School M Triple A Athletic Administrators of
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  the Year, along with the Tabitha Beard Oxford High School. Are Oxford High
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  School? Joe, thanks so much for taking some time. How are you,
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  oh good man? How are you man? We're doing good. A
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  lot of people here, obviously a lot a lot of good stuff happening here.
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  Congratulations on the award for you. I appreciate it. Take us through
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  what this means for you guys. Twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three Yazoo
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  County Athletic Director of the Year. Oh man, it's been a long road,
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  a lot of hours put in. My wife, she came with me
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  and she's my biggest support and I couldn't deal without her and my family.
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  Talk a little bit about Yazoo County, about you. You know, we
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  talk a lot about Central Mississippi, we talk you about Oxford, we talk
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  here, we talked there, but let's let's talk about Yazoo County. Oh
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  Yazu Kenny is a great place. Born and raised there. It's been my
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  entire nineteen year career at Yazoo County. Great people, great kids. Couldn't
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  ask for a better place to be when you got there. What have you
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  guys done differently to kind of move Yazoo County forward? I started working at
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  the elementary school there in two thousand and five. We had very few sports
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  to the high school to speak of, and now we offer everything except for
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  bowling, swimming, and diving. We offer pretty much in bass vision.
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  That's the only thing we don't offer there. So we offer the kids there
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  a wide range of activities and athletics to participate in. You know, when
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  you go into a place and I'm I'm preach into the choir here that typically
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  has not done a lot of things, maybe just for whatever reason, not
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  doing what you guys are doing now. Sometimes it's hard to get the community
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  and the parents to buy in. But it sounds like they have absolutely done
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  that for you guys. Oh yes, yes, we have participation through all
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  of our athletics and activities. Our parents and our community, they do whatever
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  they have to do to help out. We're visiting with Joe Odom Yazoo County
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  High School twenty twenty two twenty three Triple A Athletic Administrators of the Year Award.
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  Before we get you out of here, just kind of talk a little
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  bit about the ward and what it means means for you. Man, it
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  means it means a lot. I put it. I put it in a
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  lot of hours. I had to sacrifice a lot with my family and to
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  get where I am today. I've been, like I said, I've been
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  in the stition for nineteen years and it just means a lot for me to
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  be here. Well, congratulations, thank you, and I appreciate you.
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  Jakie, thank you.