Look of a competitor defined Hinds Community College pitcher
Published 12:00 am Thursday, March 23, 2006
March 23, 2006.
It’s the tongue you notice first when looking at the picture that ran on the front of this newspaper’s sports section on March 12.
It’s not the eyes peering out from under the Hinds Community College baseball cap, or the ball in the upper left hand corner. The left-arm’s follow-through is near perfect, but even it is drowned out by that tongue.
It’s the tongue of a competitor in the middle of a battle. Anyone who has played sports at any level knows that in heated moments, key situations or pressure spots, that tongue finds its way out. Most think of Michael Jordan. When he would defy gravity carrying a basketball, invariably that tongue would stick out.
So there it was. Drew Carlisle with that tongue sticking out, pitching for the Eagles in a weekend game at Halls Ferry Park. The tournament named for former player Wes Cliburn, who was killed in a car accident.
Less than a week later emergency workers, an 18-wheeler and the crushed remains of a car dominated the front page.
Carlisle, 20, of McKinney, Texas, and Marc Basye, 20, of Terry, had been killed in the carnage. More young people. Gone.
Carlisle was Hinds’ ace pitcher, a lefty with promise. Basye was busy rehabbing an injury. Both played a part on coach Sam Temple’s first team at Hinds.
Saturday morning, Drew Carlisle’s aunt phoned. It had been more than 24 hours since he had been killed and yet her words were staggered. Emotions and tears mingled with choppy sentences.
“We heard ,.. your paper ran a picture of … Drew Carlisle,” she said. “It was probably… the last, mmm, picture ever taken of him.”
So we look again at the picture and it’s more than that tongue now. His eyes should have been darkened out under his cap, yet they sparkle. The veins in his neck and chin strain with every ounce of energy behind that pitch. His gloved right hand presses against his chest, left leg caught a split second before swinging around like we were all taught in little league.
One frozen moment on an overcast Saturday afternoon – a final look directly into the face of a competitor.
Temple and the rest of the Eagles are battling just like Carlisle battled in that picture. The team is battling to regain focus. Four games were postponed directly after the wreck.
The season will carry on, though. A look at Carlisle’s eyes, the fire in his face seems to be saying he would want it that way.
That’s what competitors do. They battle in baseball as well as in life. Carlisle battled on that Saturday, leading Hinds to a victory over Southwest Community College.
Tongue out, eyes sparkling.