george scott, 1944-2013

Sad news: One of Mississippi’s all-time greats, George Scott, has died. The Greenville native was 69. A large and colorful character who was nicknamed Boomer, Scott played 14 years (1966-79) in the big leagues, most famously as a member of the Boston Red Sox. He was on the Impossible Dream team of 1967. A three-time All-Star and eight-time Gold Glove winner as a first baseman, Scott batted .268 for his career with 271 homers — “taters,” he called them — and 1,051 RBIs. He led the American League in RBIs with 109 in 1975 and tied for the lead that same year with 36 homers. “I was born poor, I was born black, and I was born in Mississippi. When you’ve been through that, you can deal with anything,” he once told Sports Illustrated.