Roger Clemens coming to Jackson

For the first time since before the pandemic began nearly three years ago, the Phillip Trey Lindsey Memorial Scholarship Endowment will be having a public event to raise funds later this year.

And they’re bringing one of the most successful pitchers in Major League Baseball in the last 40 years to do it.

Roger Clemens won a record seven Cy Young awards during his career while playing for the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees and Houston Astros. He won both of his World Series championships with the Yankees in 1999 and 2000.

“Trey was like me in that he would watch whatever sport might be on, but he loved baseball,” said Trey’s father, John, who’s coordinating the event. “So having someone like Roger Clemens coming to Jackson speaking on Trey’s behalf is something I think he would think is pretty special.”

The scholarship endowment is in honor of Trey Lindsey, who was from South Jackson and went to UT Martin after graduating from South Side. After graduating from UTM’s wildlife program on his 24^th birthday (May 7) in 2016, he went to Nebraska for the summer to do some work on a project to add to his resume.

While in Nebraska, he had a blood clot in his leg that caused him to die suddenly before local physicians could treat him in July of that year.

“When we had Trey’s funeral, there were two guys who he went to school with who were doing similar work in South Dakota who pretty much quit their summer jobs to drive down and get his truck and personal belongings and bring them back home to us,” John Lindsey said. “And so many people from Martin was there for his funeral, it really touched us how many people were there from Trey’s UTM family.”

Because of that, John wanted to do something to honor Trey’s legacy but also help the wildlife program at UTM.

“That’s how the scholarship program really came about – to honor him and do something for students at the school,” John Lindsey said.

The scholarship is available to wildlife students at UTM in their junior or senior year of college.

There were a few events held in the following three years to raise funds with MLB stars Will Clark and Adam Laroche doing speaking engagements at UTM, and John Lindsey said there have been less public events in which people including Clark, Chipper Jones and Jackson native Al Wilson signing memorabilia for donors.

There was another public event in 2019 when Dale Murphy spoke at an event at The Barn at Snider Farms in Denmark.

“This will be the first event we’ve had actually in Jackson,” John Lindsey said. “And it’s right across the road from the baseball field where he played in high school.”

Clemens is coming to Jackson and speaking at Meridian Baptist Church on Hart’s Bridge Road just past the South Side campus on April 13. For ticket and sponsor information, call 731-217-7187 or send an e-mail to RocketRoger2023@gmail.com.

There will also be a silent auction with items including tickets to a Shania Twain concert in Nashville this summer, a football signed by late Mississippi State coach Mike Leach, travel packages to different places including the Gulf Coast and various University of Tennessee and other sports memorabilia.

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news