Through the Years: Baseball 1971-2015
June 30, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
It's often a surprise to fans that the first MHSAA Baseball Finals were played in 1971, despite a long history of the sport among the state's high schools.
But that history, while shorter than for some of our other sports, has had its share of highlights as one of our final good-byes to the school year every spring.
Check out below our recent feature on the tournament's history from our spring issue of benchmarks, built and written by Rob Kaminski, and scroll to the bottom of the page for a link to our first installment on softball. We'll look at more MHSAA postseason events every Tuesday and Friday throughout this summer.
Previous installments
June 28: Softball - Read
Moment: Carey Calls Hillman Tigers' Win
May 2, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Hillman and Athens combined to scatter 15 runs on 18 hits during the 1992 Class D Final, one of the highest-scoring baseball championship games in MHSAA history.
And calling them all was a familiar voice that should bring comfort to baseball fans at least 35 and older as we wait for a return to the diamond this spring.
Longtime Detroit Tigers broadcaster Paul Carey, along with his nephew and also longtime broadcaster Mike Carey, called the action for PASS Sports as Hillman went on to an 8-7 victory to clinch its first Finals championship in the sport. The win also started a string of three Hillman Tigers titles over six seasons.
Hillman won on a one-out, bases-loaded bunt single in the bottom of the seventh inning by Mark McMurray, who plated Tim Jones. McMurray, a freshman at the time, also pitched four innings in the contest.
Click for coverage from the Battle Creek Enquirer and watch the game in its entirety below from PASS (click on the YouTube player and open full screen for better viewing).