For those of you out there who are US Geography buffs, I applaud you and please be kind to those who are not. For the rest of us that are geographically challenged, I feel your pain. I give you two baseball experiences less than 20 miles apart in two different states. Here is the back story. I am in Tennessee this week for work (ArcBest) and started my week in Memphis, TN. When I left the airport, the GPS took me due south, to Mississippi and the City of Southaven. So, I stayed in Southaven, MS and worked in Memphis on Tuesday. After work, I headed over to the Memphis Redbirds home stadium, AutoZone Park.
This is my second trip to Memphis, first solo and business trip. About 10 years ago, Rachel and I came to Memphis for a 3 or 4 day vacation to see the sights, Beale Street, and a concert (Rob Thomas, Plain White T’s) at the Memphis Zoo. During my first trip, Rachel and I did the tourist trap stuff like BB Kings Restaurant, Gibson Factory, Sun Studio tour, and was able to check out the outside of Redbirds Stadium, but did not go to a game. So, when I learned a few months ago that I was heading to Memphis for work, I checked the Redbirds schedule. Alas, they were not going to be home. In fact, they are playing on the road this week in Jacksonville, FL. So, I took a ride downtown to see if I could get into the stadium through the Pro Store. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to enter the stadium. No worries, I captured some shots outside the front gate area.
Including this baseball display set up just inside the gates…
And this map of Downtown Memphis for anyone interested…
So, after returning to my hotel in Southaven, getting some dinner, and returning to Google Maps to check out nearby baseball stuff, I found a very interesting baseball field near the hotel that has a very famous alumni. Author John Grisham, widely regarded as one of the best authors of the past 50 years, and one of my favorite authors, attended and graduated and played baseball at Southaven High School, Southaven, Mississippi. And here is the baseball field, maybe Grisham played on this very field.
After taking a few photos of the field from the perimeter and on the field (gates were open, field was being worked on), I noticed something really interesting about the field’s name. Take a look…
It turns out the Southaven Chargers Baseball team plays at Tim Robbins Field. I was instantly intrigued so I researched the famous actor, if he had any sort of connection to Southaven, and if he had also played baseball on this field. Well, it turns out the actor Tim Robbins (Shawshank Redemption, Bull Durham) was born in California, schooled in New York City, finished college back in California, and has no apparent connection whatsoever to Southaven, Mississippi. Bummer, that would have been a really cool find!
So, I visited two baseball fields in two cities in two separate states in the span of less than one hour. Memphis, TN and Southaven, MS are just under 20 miles apart. Actually, Tennessee and Arkansas and Mississippi all border each other very closely in this part of the United States. One minute you are in TN, then next you could be in MS. Very cool. Overall, it was an awesome day of baseball experiences in Memphis and Southaven checking out some amazing baseball fields that support the Redbirds and Chargers baseball communities.
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