It was in the late summer of 1982. Our baseball team, along with our coach, Jim Dixon, was practicing one evening at the Wood River High School baseball field. The grass surrounding the area was tall but very brown from the long, dry summer we had had.
As usual, the mothers on our team showed up with their children. One mom had an active child about 3 years old running around the sidelines. Suddenly there was a shrill yell as someone yelled "Don't move!" The little boy had come upon a rattler just beyond the field in the tall grass just off of first base. We all held our breath, wondering what to do when suddenly Jimmy sprung into action, grabbing a silver aluminum bat as he ran toward where the child stood. He quickly pinned the snake's head down while the child's mother scooped up her child. Even though we all knew how much Jimmy respected snakes and would ordinarily not harm them, he didn't hesitate to use the bat to kill the snake in short order.
Coming back toward home plate with the bloodied bat in one hand and the dead snake in the other, he was welcomed with cheers and many thanks from all of us who were relieved that now the children were out of danger. After that, we considered that bat to have been infused with special snake mojo, and used it whenever we were trying to put a little extra bite into our games. In fact, that year we cleaned up the Hailey league, and went on to place second in state and to participate in the regional championships.
Lisa Cochran
Moscow
