Tibbee Rambler Baseball

Stanley Jackson October 30, 2018, at 9:19 pm

I love baseball also and the Cubs are my Team! I also root for the Yankees in the American League because of Reggie Jackson.

My Dad was a damn good ball player in the back woods of Mississippi. The Tibbee Ramblers was the negro team in Clay County, Mississippi and I have heard enough folk tales over the years to believe the team dates back to the 20s and actively played at least a 60-game schedule until around 1990. My Dad’s sister married the Rambler’s last active manager/owner, my Uncle Joe B. Amos.

The South was full of these teams and they were the fertile crescent that lead to the Negro Leagues. Every black man in Tibbee was introduced to baseball and the ball yard was the town square and a business. The owner/manager had an attraction. My aunt and uncle sold beer, peanuts, hot dogs, and barbeque and kept a damn good team on the field that played at least 4 games a weekend. I have seen countless cousins play on the lit field next to their house with the Classic Coca Cola Metal Scoreboard.

Tibbee is the Negro bottom from the main town of West Point, Mississippi the longtime home of Bryan Foods. The Bryan Family to this day has a significant interest in Clay County. The blacks from Tibbee provided a stable source of labor to the packing house for decades. When my parents graduated HS it was either get out of Mississippi, work in the packing house, or pick cotton. They got the hell out of Mississippi.

My dad introduced to me to the game at an early age in our backyard in Glenwood. I caught on pretty quick and played the game almost every day the weather permitted starting at age 5 with tee-ball. I actually played my last game in Holland in the Summer of 1992. I made some kind of All-Star or traveling team every year I played. I played varsity ball at Bloom Township all 4 years. I played outfield and pitched.

My mother was a school teacher and we did not have cable in our house. My mother always spent the summer with me and my sister. On summer days as early as 6, I vividly remember going to the floor model TV in our family room hoping and praying Andy Griffth would not be on the tube. I wanted to hear Van Halen and Harry Cary start the pre-game show. No lights were in Wrigley yet, and usually the fourth of July meant I was in Mississippi watching Cubs games after or between Rambler games in my Uncle’s house. They had a Satelite Dish and WGN and YES had my Uncle hooked with Cubs and Yankees games every day.

In 1984 the Tibbee Ramblers had a Team! My Uncle was a floor Supervisor in the Packing House, and as look back, he used his supervisor position to keep his team going. His team traveled all over Mississippi and Alabama in their pseudo league. As GM/Owner of the Ramblers, he doled out jobs like the Daley Machine to his players. He kept his players working so he could monitor his club, practice was after work when everyone got back to Tibbee from their shifts in the plant. Everyone rode to work in the back of Joe B’s pickup.

In 1984 he treated his team to a weekend in Chicago, they rented a bus and got a set of group tickets to Wrigley Field. My first Cubs game was with my Dad and the Tibbee Ramblers. Usually, my Dad would take us to Comiskey Park, but I was turned off by the Softball outfits and the pitcher did not hit. On this momentous day, I was finally going to Wrigley Field to see my team. We sat along the third baseline in the upper deck and I was forever hooked on my Cubies.

Baseball kept my Dad and I glued to one another until he introduced me to golf at 11, we played catch every day and when the Cubs were on the road, especially out West, I stayed up late with my Dad watching games. Every year would start out getting a Sticker book after signing up for the upcoming little league season. We would trade stickers for our books. The books were from the previous MLB season.

Anyway, I could go on and on, because it’s baseball, and I love baseball. Hopefully, a team in each league will commit aggressively to a bunt-oriented style of baseball. I think a team where everyone in the lineup is a threat to bunt will get rid of the DAMN SHIFT. Attention Balitmore Orioles!

Baseball in Tibbee is no longer king and the packing house is gone. Sara Lee bought out Bryan Foods some time ago. Today, West Point High School is a Football Super Power in Mississippi and Tibbee is a pipeline.

My cousin Keith graduated from West Point HS in 1990 he started at tackle in 8th grade on the varsity team. He was a Parade All American Offensive Tackle, but he always credits his time as a catcher for the Tibbee Ramblers at 6′ 5″ 335 for his dominance in Football. He went on to play at South Carolina and my Uncle and Aunt rightfully focused their time and energy on my cousin Keith.

I was in Mississippi this past 4th of July, the ballfield is overgrown, and the bleachers are rusted, but Uncle Joe B, My Dad, and I watched a game and relived the 2016 season. The Yankee game was on the YES network!