Now that Mitchell Field is in the history books, here is a question? Which player who played there has had the best football career after he left the Lewistown field.

Hint number one, he is not from Mifflin County. Hint number two, he has been in the news the past month.

The answer, Micah Parsons.

Parsons played here as a freshman for Central Dauphin High School. He played two years for the Rams before transferring to Harrisburg for his final two years of high school football.

Parsons went on to Penn State and was an All-American. He then left the Nittany Lions after two years and went to the NFL. He has been All-Pro for the Dallas Cowboys for four years before being traded to Green Bay in August. He was the Defensive Rookie of the Year and is now the highest paid defensive player in the history of the NFL.

When he played at Mitchell Field as a freshman, Brian Carson, the longtime great high school football writer for the Sentinel, remembers how impressive he was.

“No one could block him,” Carson stated. “He did what he wanted to do. He had six sacks, three from the left side and three from the right side. I was on the sidelines and I got to stand beside him, even then he was a sight to see.”

Mifflin County was in the Commonwealth Conference of the MId-Penn in those days. Today, that conference is the number one conference in Pennsylvania with the likes of Harrisburg, State College, Bishop McDevitt and Cumberland Valley. Then throw in Cedar Cliff, Chambersburg and Central Dauphin and it’s no wonder that it is the top league in the state.

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Last Tuesday was supposed to be my year-end Babe Ruth story, but I had some car problems and forgot to end my story with these statistics.

West End of Williamsport, which has been to seven World Series, has a 28-15 record. Broomall-Newtown is second in wins as it has a 22-17 record. Broomall also has been to seven World Series. Mifflin County is third with a 20-13 record. Mifflin County has been to six World Series.

Pennsylvania’s World Series record is 120-82.

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Congratulations to Matt Wright on making Shippensburg University’s Hall of Fame. Matt was a key player on the Mifflin County Babe Ruth 15-year-old All-Star team in 2002 when it went to the first World Series in league history.

As a 15-year-old, he pitched and batted Mifflin County to the Mid-Atlantic championship and then to a fifth place (tie) in the World Series.

Matt was the winning pitcher in Mifflin County’s first series win against Arkansas, 16-0. At the end of the series, he gave up just three runs in 14 innings, pitching back-to-back days.

Against Omaha, Nebraska, Matt gave up just two runs in seven innings. Mifflin County lost 4-2 in eight innings.

Then the next day, Matt gave up just one run in a 1-0 loss to Tallahassee, Florida.

Matt was awarded a Sportsmanship Award at the end of the series. He batted .333 along with his outstanding pitching.

He is second in World Series top tens for Mifflin County in innings pitched (18) and strikeouts (15) and he has the lowest WHIP at 0.61.

Matt is in the Mifflin County Babe Ruth lifetime top ten for pitching appearances, innings pitched, strikeouts and is second in WHIP, 1.03.