Ken Griffey Sr. to speak at the Nashville Old Timers Baseball banquet
The Major League Baseball winter meetings wrap up this week at Gaylord Opryland Resort, but there's more baseball coming to Nashville after that.
Ken Griffey Sr. will be the featured speaker at the 86th annual Nashville Old Timers banquet on Jan. 14 at the Sonesta Nashville Airport Hotel.
Griffey spent two seasons in Seattle as a father-son combo with Ken Griffey Jr.
In 2,097 games during 19 seasons, Griffey Sr. posted a .296 lifetime batting average and had 2,043 hits. He finished his career with a .981 fielding percentage, primarily as an outfielder.
In his book, “Big Red: Baseball, Fatherhood, and My Life in the Big Red Machine,” Griffey reflects on his time as a scout, coach and manager, as well as being the father of Ken Jr. and Craig. Griffey, a three-time All-Star, will sign his book at the banquet.
The Nashville Old Timers’ Mr. Baseball annual award and Nashville Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame selections will be announced soon and presented at the banquet.
Several local high school baseball players will be awarded scholarships at the banquet. Scholarship applications are being accepted from players in the Nashville area. Applications are available at otbaseball.com/scholarships; the deadline to submit is Dec. 15. The association has awarded more than 350 scholarships worth $675,000 since 1999.
Banquet tickets are $100 and available, along with more information, at otbaseball.com or by calling the association's president Randy Bostic at 615-300-3391 or Skip Nipper at 615-483-0380.
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Nashville Kats unveil logo
The Nashville Kats, who will return when the Arena Football League relaunches in 2024, released their new logo. The logo is blue and gold and features "Kats" laid over an oval.
“We wanted to have our logo portray our vision for a new era of Nashville Kats and the return of Arena Football League to the Music City,” said Gregg Johnson, Kats general manager and partner. “We want the Kats logo to be seen all over Nashville and Middle Tennessee, the region and nationally in a variety of ways and be an automatic identifier for a winning football team and amazing game-day experience at an affordable cost.”
The franchise also recently acquired the trademark for the team to be called the Nashville Kats, a nod to its origins in the original AFL. The former logo will be used as an alternative logo in a variety of specialized plans.
“While we are forging a new path for the Nashville Kats, we not only want to acknowledge the great run the Kats previously had in Nashville, but embrace all those fans while growing new ones," Johnson said.
The season begins April 27 against the Minnesota Myth at Municipal Auditorium.
TSU's Terrell Allen is a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award
Tennessee State defensive end Terrell Allen was named a finalist for the 2023 Buck Buchanan Awards, which goes to the FCS national defensive player of the year. The other finalists are Albany linebacker Dylan Kelly and Lafayette linebacker Billy Shaeffer.
The winner, selected by a national voting panel after the regular season, will be announced at the Stats Perform FCS National Awards Banquet on Jan. 6 in Frisco, Texas.
Allen, the defensive player of the year in the inaugural Big South-OVC Football Association, led the FCS in sacks (14.5), sack yardage (123), tackles for loss (28) and tackle yardage for loss (149).
Austin Peay's Mike DiLiello eighth in Walter Payton Award voting
Austin Peay quarterback Mike DiLiello, a transfer from Middle Tennessee State, finished tied for eighth in voting for the Walter Payton Award, which honors the FCS national offensive player of the year.
DiLiello led the Governors to a 9-3 record and the FCS playoffs. He completed 242 of 362 passes for 3,164 yards, with 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. DiLiello tied Fordham quarterback CJ Montes on the ballot.
Quarterbacks Max Brosmer of New Hampshire and Mark Gronowski of South Dakota State, and running back Jaden Shirden of Monmouth were invited to the announcement.
Former Lipscomb AD Steve Potts retires
Steve Potts, who led Lipscomb's athletic department in its transition from NAIA to NCAA Division I, retired this week from Pepperdine.
Potts, who is from Madison, was Lipscomb's athletic director from 2002-08. After spending four years as an NCAA Division I provisional member Lipscomb made successful passage into active membership in 2003. Potts also orchestrated Lipscomb's acceptance as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference.
He was inducted into the Lipscomb Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.
Potts spent the last almost 14 years as Pepperdine's AD.
Former East Nashville star Jaylen Jones is OVC freshman of the week again
Former East Nashville basketball standout Jaylen Jones' career at Tennessee State is off to a good start. Jones, a guard, repeated this week as the Ohio Valley Conference freshman of the week. He shared the honor this week with Tennessee Tech's Rylee Samons.
Jones, who recently cracked the Tigers' starting lineup, averaged 12.5 points, five rebounds, five assists and one steal last week in games against Alabama A&M and Austin Peay.
Samons, a 6-foot-7 forward from Pikeville, Kentucky, came off the bench to score a season-high 20 points in a 108-82 win over Alice Lloyd. Samons made five 3-pointers, was 6-for-6 on field goals and 3-for-3 on free throws.
If you have an item for Midstate Chatter contact Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Ken Griffey Sr. to speak at the Nashville Old Timers Baseball banquet
