Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

To the ones who never made it back home, thank you for your sacrifice.

Memorial Day is one of the biggest days of the year for boating, cooking out and watching baseball. Like a lot of holidays, it has almost grown bigger than its original purpose. To honor the ones who died in defense of our country.

When reading about sports history in Mississippi, you can not help but notice gaps in the years 1942-45. These are the lost years as young men from our State’s colleges put down their books and grabbed a rifle to go off to war.

In World War Two, 3,555 men from Mississippi died. Forty-Five of those men were from Adams County. Their sacrifice was the ultimate sacrifice, that allowed their homes to remain free.

When you are grilling hotdogs and hamburgers this weekend or cracking open a cold one, take a moment to reflect.

Those numbers above are just from WW2. Think about the men from Adams County who gave their lives in the Spanish-American War, World War I, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Iraq wars. Their efforts, their sacrifice allowed our nation to keep going.

It is fitting America’s pastime of baseball is the sport enjoyed the most on Memorial Day. There is nothing more American than baseball with refreshing hot dogs, snow cones and cracker jacks. Baseball is a game timeless and without limits. It is a game where anything is possible.

Sometimes I think about the fathers who never got to play catch with their sons, and mothers who never got to play catch with their daughters. Then I think again, about how so many sons and daughters can pick up a glove and bat and play ball because of their sacrifice.

Let us try to never forget about the ones who never made it back home, let us work to ensure their sacrifice was not in vain and let us enjoy the freedom they have blessed us with.