Crooked Letter Sports

By Rick Cleveland and Tyler Cleveland

What's Crooked Letter Sports about?

Mississippi-centric sports talk and stories with Hall of Fame columnist Rick Cleveland and Scorebook Live senior reporter Tyler Cleveland. Produced in Jackson and made by Mississippians, for Mississippians.

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Crooked Letter Sports episodes:

06.26.2024
Chris Harris, the excellent communications director and play-by-play broadcaster of the Mississippi Braves joins the pod to talk about the last season of the Mississippi Braves.
A veteran of 15 years in the business of minor league baseball, Tennessee native Chris Harris is experiencing perhaps the most unusual year of his career. We talk Mississippi Braves baseball, Atlanta Braves baseball and the College World Series.
06.19.2024
A U.S. Open to remember (and one Rory McIlroy surely would love to forget)
For three rounds and 15 holes of the fourth round, Rory McIlroy made every single short putt he stood over. Then, he didn’t. And when McIlroy faltered, Bryson DeChambeau came through with one of the greatest sand saves in U.S....
06.12.2024
It’s U.S. Open Week and Mr. Golf Randy Watkins joins to discuss whether anybody on the planet can beat Scottie Scheffler right now.
The U.S. Open will be played at Pinehurst No. 2 this week. It’s a golf course with which Randy Watkins is extremely familiar. Watkins says it will be a test, even for Scottie Scheffler. Today’s discussion also covers the College...
06.05.2024
The NCAA Regional wrap-up podcast.
NCAA Super Regionals are this weekend but Mississippi will not be represented for the first time in a while. Both Mississippi State and Southern Miss lost out in the finals of their prospective regionals. The Clevelands discuss all that, plus...
05.29.2024
Matthew Russo of the red-shot Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles joins the pod.
After one of the busiest baseball weekends of the year, Southern Miss first baseman Matthew Russo – one of the hottest players on one of the hottest teams in college baseball – joins the podcast to discuss the Golden Eagles’...
05.22.2024
Tournament Time for Mississippi Baseball.
The SEC Tournament is underway in Birmingham. The Sun Belt Tournament has begun in Montgomery. And, closer to home, the MHSAA State Tournament has begun at Trustmark in Pearl. The Cleveland boys have thoughts on all of it, but not...
05.15.2024
In or out (of the NCAA Tournament)? Ole Miss baseball Rebels, hot of late, have some work to do. State’s in, and could host. Southern Miss looks solidly in as well barring a collapse.
College baseball’s regular season is in its last week, which means baseball bracketology is a popular activity. State needs to finish strong to become a Regional host. Southern Miss probably has already punched its ticket as a 2- or 3-seed....
05.08.2024
It’s crunch time in both college and high school baseball.
We are into the second week of May, which means the college and high school baseball seasons have reached the point where every pitch matters. At present, Mississippi State is a likely 2-seed, Southern Miss is a 3-seed and Ole...
05.01.2024
NFL referee and Pascagoula native Sarah Thomas talks football, family and health
It’s been a wild ride for Sarah Thomas since she first walked into a high school football officials’ meeting. The first woman to officiate a college football game, a college bowl game, an NFL game and a Super Bowl joins...
04.24.2024
Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer Jay Powell joins the pod to talk – what else? – baseball.
Mississippi State baseball great Jay Powell won Game 7 of the World Series, among many other career highlights and then had his career ended by one of the most gruesome arm injuries in baseball history. Who better to talk about...
04.17.2024
It’s Scottie Scheffler’s world and the rest of us golf in it, plus college baseball, the WNBA draft and Lane Kiffin’s brand of spring football.
His Masters performance reinforces Scheffler’s role as golf's No. 1 guy, but watch out for Ludvig Aberg. Plus, Ole Miss baseball team shows that reports of its early demise were greatly exaggerated. And Kiffin shows what many of us have...
04.10.2024
It’s Master’s Week, so, naturally Mississippi’s Mr. Golf, Randy Watkins, joins the podcast
Former PGA Tour player and national junior champion Randy Watkins talks Masters favorites and joins in a discussion about the recent NCAA naitonal championship basketball games.
04.03.2024
Talking Final Fours, college and high school baseball and Mississippians on PGA Golf Tour….
We’ve got two compelling Final Fours coming up this weekend and the women’s version might be the more interesting of the two. It certainly has more star power. There’s also plenty to talk about with college baseball, college baseball recruiting...
03.27.2024
The Women Take Center Stage
With both the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments in full swing, it feels like the women are stealing the show. Caitlin Clark, Juju Watson and Mississippi’s own Madison Booker are quickly becoming household names nationwide. The Cleveland boys weigh...
03.20.2024
Exploring the baseball factory known as Lewisburg.
The Desoto County town of Lewisburg can lay claim to being the baseball capital of Mississippi. The defending state champion Lewisburg High Patriots, with a roster that includes 13 Division I baseball signees, currently rank No. 10 nationally and play...
03.13.2024
Touching all bases: football, baseball and basketball with interesting news all around.
We’re at that time of the sports year when all sports seem to converge. In Mississippi, there are big doings in all three major sports.
03.06.2024
Out of the gym and into the yard
Rick and Tyler recount the week that was at the MHSAA and MAIS state basketball championships and take a look ahead to the upcoming college baseball and basketball weekend
02.28.2024
Balls are bouncing all over town…
The MHSAA and MAIS State Tournaments are in the Jackson metro area this week and the Crooked Letter Cleveland boys are all over it. Every game is an emotion-packed passion play in which dreams are both realized and dashed. And...
02.21.2024
Egg Bowl Basketball
With their sneakers planted firmly on the NCAA Basketball Tournament bubble, the Ole Miss Rebels and Mississippi State Bulldogs meet Wednesday night for Round 2 of Egg Bowl basketball. The game is always important, but this one really matters to...
02.14.2024
Mississippi at the Super Bowl.
Patrick Mahomes was the MVP and the cameras were often on Taylor Swift, but there was plenty of Magnolia State on display at the Super Bowl. Mississippi State alum Chris Jones dominated for the victorious Chiefs on the defensive line....
02.07.2024
A busy February in Mississippi sports…plus a Taylor Swift/Super Bowl rant…
It was a bad weekend to be a Mississippi college basketball fan, and it’s a bad week to be an NFL fan, if you hate Taylor Swift, as apparently many do.
01.31.2024
And then there were two, the Chiefs and the 49ers…
The Clevelands recap the NFL conference championship games and look ahead to the Super Bowl, plus some college basketball thoughts. Father and son agree on two things: Patrick Mahomes is the best quarterback in the game, and all the fuss...
01.24.2024
It happens every 32 years or so, an amateur wins a PGA Tour Tournament, and Nick Dunlap just did it.
Just-turned-20-year-old amateur Nick Dunlap shot 29 under par this past weekend to win the PGA Tour’s American Express Classic in the desert this past weekend and Jacksonian Wilson Furr had an up close and painful look at history being made....
01.17.2024
Remembering a frigid day in Chicago with Walter Payton and his sweet mama, plus a whole lot more.
The arctic temps in mid-Mississippi bring back some memories, plus a college basketball update, a look at the NFL playoffs, an homage to Nick “The GOAT” Saban, the college coaching merry-go-round, and Wilson Furr’s PGA Tour debut.
01.10.2024
Smash-mouth football rules the day as Michigan claims national championship.
Most college football teams play an offensive style that pundits have started calling basketball on grass. They spread the field, go fast, and throw it constantly. But Michigan showed Monday that old school smash mouth football, on both sides of...
01.03.2024
Happy New Year: It’s Michael Penix’s world, and we get to watch.
Like most of America, we watched college football all day and all night on the first day of 2024. The takeaway: Washington quarterback Michael Penix stole the New Year’s Day show. Meanwhile, Ole Miss will be in the hunt in...
12.27.2023
Stories from the sports writing road, holiday edition.
For sports writers, sometimes the trips to cover the games are more interesting than the games themselves, especially for two sports writers named Cleveland with classic cases of attention deficit disorder.
12.20.2023
Signing Day story lines, an Ole Miss-Southern Miss basketball preview, and how ‘bout dem Saints?
The high school football season is in the history books, which means it’s time for the best, biggest, and fastest to decide where they are going to play college ball. The Cleveland boys discuss National Signing Day, as well as...
12.13.2023
Catching up on basketball; getting ready for Mississipppi-Alabama All-Star football
We’re nearing Christmas and Ole Miss basketball is undefeated. Nevertheless, Mississippi State, with freshman sensation Josh Hubbard, is ranked higher despite two losses and Southern Miss is playing better with two straight victories. Meanwhile, Mississippi will be a decided underdog...
12.06.2023
Oak Grove state championship coach Drew Causey joins the podcast, which covers so much going on in Mississippi sports.
The Oak Grove Warrior defeated Starkville in an exciting Class 7A State Championship game to cap a huge weekend of high school football. Warrior coach Drew Causey, who hasn’t slept much since, joins to discuss the big game and his...
11.29.2023
So much to talk about: Lebby, the Ole Miss-Missouri controversy, the Southern Miss overhaul, the Iron Bowl Miracle, Georgia-Alabama, Patrick Shegog and a fabulous State Championships slate.
This might be the most newsy week of the football season, so the Cleveland boys have plenty to cuss and discuss.
11.22.2023
Egg Bowl: Anything can happen but history tells us the best team usually wins.
The Egg Bowl Thanksgiving night headlines a huge week of football that also includes Delta State going for its second win in the DII championship playoffs, Southern Miss hosting Troy, and the semifinal games of the State High School playoffs....
11.15.2023
“They are paying him how much not to coach?”
Last Saturday night, Texas A & M slaughtered Mississippi State 51-10. On Sunday, Texas A & M announced it was firing head coach Jimbo Fisher, who the Aggies will have to pay $76 million not to coach. On Monday, Mississippi...
11.08.2023
Ole Miss-Georgia: Biggest game in years.
Tenth-ranked Ole Miss plays at top-ranked Georgia on Saturday in the biggest game involving a Mississippi football team in years. The Cleveland boys take a look at the game from a historical standpoint and at the various matchups. When it...
11.01.2023
The Mississippi high school football playoffs are underway, and that makes the two Clevelands happy boys.
The Mississippi high school football playoffs, which will wind up in Oxford later this month, are underway. The Clevelands talk about all the possibilities in play this year and who some of the favorites are. We also talk college football...
10.25.2023
So much happening: Football, baseball, volleyball and, now, basketball…
Volleyball is on the rise in Mississippi, as witnessed by the state high school championships this past weekend. Ole Miss and State get big football victories and look for more. And both the World Series and the basketball season are...
10.18.2023
Welcome to the Big League, Wilson Furr…
Jackson, Mississippi’s own Wilson Furr recently became one of the 30 newest members of the PGA Tour with his play over the last two months on the Korn Ferry Tour. Furr joins the podcast to discuss what it feels like...
10.11.2023
Buying or selling the Rebels?
The Ole Miss Rebels are 5-1 at the midway point in the season, climbing as high as No. 13 in the national polls. With Rick on vacation, Tyler is joined by WJTV sports anchor Blake Levine to discuss the Rebels’...
10.04.2023
A fall sports bonanza
With the fall in full roar, it’s hard to touch on everything going on in the Mississippi sports world, but the Cleveland boys will try. Ole Miss picks up a huge win over LSU, the Sanderson Farms Championship returns to...
09.27.2023
Delta State is 4-0, and Coach Todd Cooley joins the podcast…
It was a dark Saturday for Mississippi’s Big School football teams. Ole Miss, State, and Southern Miss all lost, but Todd Cooley’s Delta State Statesmen won again to move to 4-0, headed into the meat of their Gulf South Conference...
09.20.2023
Football, football, football…
From a big night of high school football on Friday night, through the Saints victory over the Carolina Panthers on Monday night, there was plenty to cuss and discuss on a huge football weekend. And guess what? The Saints are...
09.13.2023
David Eckert joins the podcast to talk Ole Miss football.
David Eckert, the Clarion Ledger’s excellent Ole Miss beat reporter, and Rick Cleveland both attended the Ole Miss-Tulane game in New Orleans Saturday. Tyler C. watched on TV. The three discuss the Rebels’ closer-than-it-sounds 37-20 victory and what the future...
09.06.2023
Remembering Jimmy Buffett; hailing Oak Grove Warriors
The Oak Grove Warriors last weel became the first Mississippi football team to ever knock off perennial Alabama powerhouse Hoover. Oak Grove coach Drew Causey joins the podcast to talk about the victory and his talented Warriors. Also, the Cleveland...
08.30.2023
Football is here!
The Cleveland boys watched their first high school football games of the season last week and head full throttle into college football this coming weekend. At first glance, Oak Grove and Picayune look like powerhouse teams, which is nothing new...
08.23.2023
THE Mississippi Football Book is out just in time for the season.
Best-selling author and Nautilus publisher Neil White joins the podcast to talk about the book he co-authored with Rick Cleveland. The book celebrates the most memorable players, teams, games in the rich football history of the best football state in...
08.16.2023
Legendary Mississippi high school football coach Mike Justice joins the pod.
Mike Justice coached in north Mississippi, central Mississippi and south Mississippi. He coached tiny schools and big schools. One constant: Wherever he went, wherever he coached, he won and won big. With the 2023 season fast approaching, the football coach-turned-champion...
08.09.2023
The Coaches college football poll is out! Can you trust it?
A sure sign that the college football season is upon us: The USA Today Coaches poll is out. The question for today: How accurate will it be? Well, last year it wasn’t accurate at all. Seventeen teams that were in...
08.02.2023
Over or under? Let’s look at the odds on Mississippi football teams.
Las Vegas oddsmakers have set the odds on how many football games college and NFL teams will win this season. The Cleveland boys discuss whether the Mississippi teams and the New Orleans Saints will beat the odds.
07.26.2023
Paul Maholm joins Crooked Letter for Hall of Fame Week episode
This will be Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Weekend here in the Jackson area, and Class of 2023 inductee Paul Maholm joins us to help celebrate. Maholm, one of the most decorated pitchers in Mississippi State Diamond Dog history, was...
07.19.2023
If these are the Dog Days of Summer, it must be time for SEC Media Days.
If no news is good news, then all the news is good at SEC Football Media Days, where hundreds of media types gather to hear much ado about very little. The Clevelands discuss what’s going on this week in Nashville...

What's Crooked Letter Sports about?

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Crooked Letter Sports episodes:

Chris Harris, the excellent communications director and play-by-play broadcaster of the Mississippi Braves joins the pod to talk about the last season of the Mississippi Braves.

A U.S. Open to remember (and one Rory McIlroy surely would love to forget)

It’s U.S. Open Week and Mr. Golf Randy Watkins joins to discuss whether anybody on the planet can beat Scottie Scheffler right now.

The NCAA Regional wrap-up podcast.

Matthew Russo of the red-shot Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles joins the pod.

Tournament Time for Mississippi Baseball.

In or out (of the NCAA Tournament)? Ole Miss baseball Rebels, hot of late, have some work to do. State’s in, and could host. Southern Miss looks solidly in as well barring a collapse.

It’s crunch time in both college and high school baseball.

NFL referee and Pascagoula native Sarah Thomas talks football, family and health

Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer Jay Powell joins the pod to talk – what else? – baseball.

It’s Scottie Scheffler’s world and the rest of us golf in it, plus college baseball, the WNBA draft and Lane Kiffin’s brand of spring football.

It’s Master’s Week, so, naturally Mississippi’s Mr. Golf, Randy Watkins, joins the podcast

Talking Final Fours, college and high school baseball and Mississippians on PGA Golf Tour….

The Women Take Center Stage

Exploring the baseball factory known as Lewisburg.

Touching all bases: football, baseball and basketball with interesting news all around.

Out of the gym and into the yard

Balls are bouncing all over town…

Egg Bowl Basketball

Mississippi at the Super Bowl.

A busy February in Mississippi sports…plus a Taylor Swift/Super Bowl rant…

And then there were two, the Chiefs and the 49ers…

It happens every 32 years or so, an amateur wins a PGA Tour Tournament, and Nick Dunlap just did it.

Remembering a frigid day in Chicago with Walter Payton and his sweet mama, plus a whole lot more.

Smash-mouth football rules the day as Michigan claims national championship.

Happy New Year: It’s Michael Penix’s world, and we get to watch.

Stories from the sports writing road, holiday edition.

Signing Day story lines, an Ole Miss-Southern Miss basketball preview, and how ‘bout dem Saints?

Catching up on basketball; getting ready for Mississipppi-Alabama All-Star football

Oak Grove state championship coach Drew Causey joins the podcast, which covers so much going on in Mississippi sports.

So much to talk about: Lebby, the Ole Miss-Missouri controversy, the Southern Miss overhaul, the Iron Bowl Miracle, Georgia-Alabama, Patrick Shegog and a fabulous State Championships slate.

Egg Bowl: Anything can happen but history tells us the best team usually wins.

“They are paying him how much not to coach?”

Ole Miss-Georgia: Biggest game in years.

The Mississippi high school football playoffs are underway, and that makes the two Clevelands happy boys.

So much happening: Football, baseball, volleyball and, now, basketball…

Welcome to the Big League, Wilson Furr…

Buying or selling the Rebels?

A fall sports bonanza

Delta State is 4-0, and Coach Todd Cooley joins the podcast…

Football, football, football…

David Eckert joins the podcast to talk Ole Miss football.

Remembering Jimmy Buffett; hailing Oak Grove Warriors

Football is here!

THE Mississippi Football Book is out just in time for the season.

Legendary Mississippi high school football coach Mike Justice joins the pod.

The Coaches college football poll is out! Can you trust it?

Over or under? Let’s look at the odds on Mississippi football teams.

Paul Maholm joins Crooked Letter for Hall of Fame Week episode

If these are the Dog Days of Summer, it must be time for SEC Media Days.

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