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WEST POINT – A long-time newspaperman with local ties was the guest speaker at Thursday’s West Point Rotary Club meeting. Rather than discussing the journalism profession, Dusty Nix talked about something that’s near and dear to his heart: baseball.

“I love baseball,” Nix told the large gathering at Johnny’s Pizza. “It’s a subject I can talk to anybody about any time.”

Dusty’s brother, local attorney Larry Nix, is a member of the club. Both are diehard fans of the Atlanta Braves and before that loved the New York Yankees during their heyday in the early 1960s.

Their dad, the late Charles Nix, was president of the West Point Rotary Club in 1964 and took the family to the club’s 1964 International Convention. It took place that year in Toronto, Canada. They took the long journey by car and took a side trip to New York City on their way back to West Point. As luck would have it, the Yankees were in town for a doubleheader with the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium when they were there.

“For those of us living in the South at that time, major league baseball was something we saw on black and white television,” Nix said. “It was such an experience walking into Yankee Stadium, the house that Ruth built, and seeing all that bright green grass on the field and seeing those players in the pinstripe uniforms. It was magical.”

“More than any other sport, baseball lends itself to nostalgia,” Nix said. “Baseball fans remember Hank Aaron for his 755 home runs, Joe DiMaggio for his 56-game hitting streak and Ted Williams hitting .406 in 1941.”

“Do you all remember how bad the Braves were in the 1970s?” Nix asked as many nodded their heads in agreement.

“I took my wife Judy to many games at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium back then,” Nix said. “We once sat through a two-hour rain delay the day Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine beat the Braves 19-2. The Braves were always good when my daughter was growing up. She can’t understand what they are going through right now, but we can. We’ve seen it before.”

What makes baseball different from any other sport is that it’s unpredictable. “The 1927 Yankees are considered by many to be the greatest team of all time,” Nix said. “But they lost 44 games.”

“Baseball has changed very little over the years,” Nix said. “A great shortstop from the past like Honus Wagner who played for Pittsburgh can be compared to a modern era player like Cal Ripken Jr. who played for Baltimore.”

There are always rule changes. Nix said he likes some of them but dislikes others.

One he does like is the pitch clock. It speeds up the game.

“Any of you remember Ryan Dempster who used to pitch for the Cubs?” Nix asked. “He took what seemed like forever to throw the ball. It was like playing golf behind a foursome where every player was like Bernhard Langer.”

He doesn’t like the designated hitter rule. “Baseball should be played with nine players, not ten,” Nix said. “Some pitchers can really hit, and they should be given the chance to do that. Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz were good hitters. Max Fried is pretty good with the bat, too.”

A new rule Nix despises is the so-called ghost-runner rule which applies only in extra-inning games and is designed to keep the game going for many innings.

“Why should a team be able to win a game on one single?” Nix asks. “If the game is still tied going into the bottom half of an inning that’s all it takes to win the game. To me, it’s like the overtime rule in college football. You don’t have to drive the length of the field to score. All you have to go is 25 yards.”

Nix also dislikes baseball fields having corporate names. “Has anyone ever chosen someone to do their banking, to invest their money, or to have a phone plan based on the name of a ballpark? I like to see stadiums named after cities, streets, or people. I liked that about Turner Field in Atlanta. There probably wouldn’t be a major league team in Atlanta without Ted Turner. I also liked Atlanta having their baseball stadium on our side of town. At Turner Field, you could drive to a Braves game in a little more than an hour.”

Nix said that baseball has given him some of the best memories of his life. “In 1973 I was able to go to a World Series game and got to see Tom Seaver, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers and Tug McGraw pitch in the game. Because of baseball, I got on a plane in Atlanta one day, flew to Oakland, California, saw a baseball game and then flew back home in the same day,” Nix said.

“I will never forget being at the stadium in 1992 when Sid Bream slid across the plate to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in the bottom of the ninth to put the Braves in the World Series. I will also never forget being there that night when Tom Glavine pitched that great game against the Cleveland Indians to win the 1995 World Series. We were sitting in the outfield stands when Marquis Grissom caught the fly ball that ended the game,” Nix shared.

There’s also a lot of frustration in being an Atlanta sports fan. “I think the Atlanta Falcons defense and Braves relief pitching are on the same level,” he said, getting some laughter from the crowd.

Nix wrote for The Valley Times-News from 1980 to 1985. He then wrote for the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer from 1985 until he retired in 2022. His wife Judy is a professor emeritus from Auburn University’s journalism department.