Mississippi Today
Dickerson’s power surge reflects Southern Miss strength program
HATTIESBURG – Southern Miss shortstop Dustin Dickerson, from nearby Laurel, hit two home runs in his first three seasons with the Golden Eagles.
At the Auburn Regional last weekend and Monday, Dickerson slammed four round-trippers, twice as many in one extended weekend as he had in three previous seasons. All totaled at Auburn, Dickerson hit safely eight times, including a triple and a double, in 22 at bats. He scored five runs and batted in 11 to help the Golden Eagles win four straight games to advance to the Super Regional this weekend against Tennessee in Hattiesburg. Little wonder he was selected the Regional’s most outstanding player.
“Same swing I’ve always had,” Dickerson said, after the tournament. “I’m not doing anything differently.”
Perhaps not, but clearly there’s so much more power packed in Dickerson’s swing. Those weren’t wind-blown balls that just got over the fence at Auburn. No, he whacked a couple of tape-measure shots over Auburn’s green monster wall in left field and also hit another well over the 396-foot sign to straight-away centerfield.
Dickerson for three seasons had been a huge asset for the Golden Eagles, but mainly as a slick-fielding shortstop who could make all the plays. He batted ninth in the order for much of that time. He hit for average, but not for power. This season, he has hit .328 with 10 home runs, 20 doubles, and three triples. Moved up to the No. 2 hole in the batting order, he has driven in 50 runs.
“When I came here I weighed 155 pounds soaking wet,” Dickerson said smiling.
“Dustin was a twig,” is the way Southern Miss strength and conditioning coach Todd Makovicka put it.
He’s a sturdy oak now, having added 30 pounds to his physique. “All muscle,” Dickerson said. “Coach Mac has been really, really good for me.”
Dickerson still doesn’t look like a body builder. But his shoulders are much broader, his chest is thicker, and his upper legs are much more muscular. Said Makovicka of Dickerson, “He wasn’t born with it. He wasn’t naturally strong. He has had to work for it.”
Makovicka and his two graduate assistants have been invaluable to the entire Southern Miss program. Scott Berry, the head coach, swears by them. In fact, Berry will tell you that perhaps the best move of his 14 years as the head man was to raise $540,000 for a strength and conditioning building behind the third base stands at Pete Taylor Park in 2015.
“Just look at our records before and after,” Berry said. “There’s your proof.”
Let’s do just that. In 2010, Berry’s first season as head coach, the Eagles were 36-24. Their victory totals over the next five seasons were 39, 32, 30, 35 and 36.
In their first full year of the weight room, the Eagles won 41 games in 2016, followed by 50 in 2017, 44 in 2018, 40 in 2019, 40 in 2021, 47 in 2022 and 45 this season. They were 12-4 in the COVID season of 2020.
“That increase in victories is no accident,” Berry said. “We lifted before but we shared a weight room with every other athletic program on campus at the football facility. There were only certain times we could lift and sometimes the time we had wasn’t conducive to fitting in our baseball schedule. To me, getting our own weight room, at our ballpark, right next to our clubhouse, right behind our dugout, was the missing piece of the puzzle. I think it shows in our record.
“And its not just what it has done for us on the physical side,” said Berry, a long-time lifter himself. “There’s definitely a mental advantage to it, too. You put in the work, you see the results. You’re stronger physically, but you are also more confident mentally because you know how much stronger, more durable you are.”
Dickerson is Exhibit A. Balls that were Texas League singles two years ago, are gappers for doubles and triples now. Balls that were fly balls even a year ago are sailing far beyond the fences now. It’s not just at the plate. Dickerson has added pop on his throws from the hole at shortstop. The son of Philadelphia Phillies coach Bobby Dickerson, he always has possessed at Major League glove. He can make all the plays at shortstop.
The added muscle presumably will improve greatly his value in this summer’s Major League Draft. Dickerson has much more pressing matters that consume him currently. Southern Miss defeated LSU in its own Regional last year, then got blown out and shut out by eventual national champion Ole Miss is a Super Regional at Pete Taylor Park.
“We’re a year older,” Dickerson said. “We’ve been here before. We know what it takes. The moment is not going to be too big for us. We expected to win the Regional last week. We expect to win the Super Regional this week.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
On this day in 1997
Dec. 22, 1997
The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers.
In the court’s 4–2 decision, Justice Mike Mills praised efforts “to squeeze justice out of the harm caused by a furtive explosion which erupted from dark bushes on a June night in Jackson, Mississippi.”
He wrote that Beckwith’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had not been denied. His “complicity with the Sovereignty Commission’s involvement in the prior trials contributed to the delay.”
The decision did more than ensure that Beckwith would stay behind bars. The conviction helped clear the way for other prosecutions of unpunished killings from the Civil Rights Era.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Medicaid expansion tracker approaches $1 billion loss for Mississippi
About the time people ring in the new year next week, the digital tracker on Mississippi Today’s homepage tabulating the amount of money the state is losing by not expanding Medicaid will hit $1 billion.
The state has lost $1 billion not since the start of the quickly departing 2024 but since the beginning of the state’s fiscal year on July 1.
Some who oppose Medicaid expansion say the digital tracker is flawed.
During an October news conference, when state Auditor Shad White unveiled details of his $2 million study seeking ways to cut state government spending, he said he did not look at Medicaid expansion as a method to save money or grow state revenue.
“I think that (Mississippi Today) calculator is wrong,” White said. “… I don’t think that takes into account how many people are going to be moved off the federal health care exchange where their health care is paid for fully by the federal government and moved onto Medicaid.”
White is not the only Mississippi politician who has expressed concern that if Medicaid expansion were enacted, thousands of people would lose their insurance on the exchange and be forced to enroll in Medicaid for health care coverage.
Mississippi Today’s projections used for the tracker are based on studies conducted by the Institutions of Higher Learning University Research Center. Granted, there are a lot of variables in the study that are inexact. It is impossible to say, for example, how many people will get sick and need health care, thus increasing the cost of Medicaid expansion. But is reasonable that the projections of the University Research Center are in the ballpark of being accurate and close to other studies conducted by health care experts.
White and others are correct that Mississippi Today’s calculator does not take into account money flowing into the state for people covered on the health care exchange. But that money does not go to the state; it goes to insurance companies that, granted, use that money to reimburse Mississippians for providing health care. But at least a portion of the money goes to out-of-state insurance companies as profits.
Both Medicaid expansion and the health care exchange are part of the Affordable Care Act. Under Medicaid expansion people earning up to $20,120 annually can sign up for Medicaid and the federal government will pay the bulk of the cost. Mississippi is one of 10 states that have not opted into Medicaid expansion.
People making more than $14,580 annually can garner private insurance through the health insurance exchanges, and people below certain income levels can receive help from the federal government in paying for that coverage.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, legislation championed and signed into law by President Joe Biden significantly increased the federal subsidies provided to people receiving insurance on the exchange. Those increased subsidies led to many Mississippians — desperate for health care — turning to the exchange for help.
White, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, Gov. Tate Reeves and others have expressed concern that those people would lose their private health insurance and be forced to sign up for Medicaid if lawmakers vote to expand Medicaid.
They are correct.
But they do not mention that the enhanced benefits authored by the Biden administration are scheduled to expire in December 2025 unless they are reenacted by Congress. The incoming Donald Trump administration has given no indication it will continue the enhanced subsidies.
As a matter of fact, the Trump administration, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is looking for ways to cut federal spending.
Some have speculated that Medicaid expansion also could be on Musk’s chopping block.
That is possible. But remember congressional action is required to continue the enhanced subsidies. On the flip side, congressional action would most likely be required to end or cut Medicaid expansion.
Would the multiple U.S. senators and House members in the red states that have expanded Medicaid vote to end a program that is providing health care to thousands of their constituents?
If Congress does not continue Biden’s enhanced subsidies, the rates for Mississippians on the exchange will increase on average about $500 per year, according to a study by KFF, a national health advocacy nonprofit. If that occurs, it is likely that many of the 280,000 Mississippians on the exchange will drop their coverage.
The result will be that Mississippi’s rate of uninsured — already one of the highest in the nation – will rise further, putting additional pressure on hospitals and other providers who will be treating patients who have no ability to pay.
In the meantime, the Mississippi Today counter that tracks the amount of money Mississippi is losing by not expanding Medicaid keeps ticking up.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1911
Dec. 21, 1911
Josh Gibson, the Negro League’s “Home Run King,” was born in Buena Vista, Georgia.
When the family’s farm suffered, they moved to Pittsburgh, and Gibson tried baseball at age 16. He eventually played for a semi-pro team in Pittsburgh and became known for his towering home runs.
He was watching the Homestead Grays play on July 25, 1930, when the catcher injured his hand. Team members called for Gibson, sitting in the stands, to join them. He was such a talented catcher that base runners were more reluctant to steal. He hit the baseball so hard and so far (580 feet once at Yankee Stadium) that he became the second-highest paid player in the Negro Leagues behind Satchel Paige, with both of them entering the National Baseball Hame of Fame.
The Hall estimated that Gibson hit nearly 800 homers in his 17-year career and had a lifetime batting average of .359. Gibson was portrayed in the 1996 TV movie, “Soul of the Game,” by Mykelti Williamson. Blair Underwood played Jackie Robinson, Delroy Lindo portrayed Satchel Paige, and Harvey Williams played “Cat” Mays, the father of the legendary Willie Mays.
Gibson has now been honored with a statue outside the Washington Nationals’ ballpark.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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