Congratulations to Landon Harmon, a recent graduate of of East Union Attendance Center, for being selected by the Washington Nationals as the overall #80 pick in the Major League Baseball draft.
As the Washington Nationals posted on their Facebook Homepage, “landon LANDED. Welcome to DC, landon harmon.”
Talk about an exciting night for the Harmon family! And an exciting night for the entire East Union Urchin family – who celebrated with Landon in a Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft Watch Party, Sunday, July 13, at the Reflections venue in Myrtle, Mississippi.
Now, I had personally never attended an MLB Draft Watch Party until Sunday night, when we gathered with Landon Harmon and his family to wait and see “where” he was headed next in his baseball career. And let me say, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, for sure.
To begin with. There is no place on earth like East Union Attendance Center in Blue Springs, Mississippi. The students and families there are the epitome of community. It’s all for one and one for all.
The MLB Draft Party for East Union’s Landon Harmon was just one more proof of that fact. Not only did an entire community turn out to wait for the name of one of their recently graduated high school baseball pitchers to be called in the draft. They turned out bearing enough food to feed an army, and they celebrated someone else’s child.
That concept itself is rare in this day and time when everyone tends to be more consumed with self than others. But I watched as the mommas of the other 8 recently graduated players on that East Union team (with super talented sons who have also had lifelong dreams of playing Big League ball) hosted a party with absolute unselfish kindness and love for Landon’s momma – the friend with whom they have shared countless hours on ball fields all across the state.
Baseball mommas like them often get a bad rap, but I saw their hearts as they worked tirelessly to set up, feed, clean up, and take down every element of that party because they loved Landon like their own. And because that’s what Mississippi women have been taught to do from other Mississippi women who went before them. It’s who they are!
Most of impressive of all, they have also raised an amazing group of sons – young men who just happen to have played baseball at the top level of 2A high school competition, having won multiple State Championship titles in their years of playing together.
Yes, Landon Harmon is one of those young men, and the entire East Union community is proud of him and his teammates. They shouted and whistled and yelled in unison as his name was called out on the jumbotron screen.
And then, they hugged Landon’s neck, took their final pictures with him as East Union Urchins’, shared those pics on social media – and then started shopping online for some red, white, and blue Washington National’s fan wear.
Because “landon LANDED” in DC, which means the entire eastern half of Union County, Mississippi, has landed there as well.
So, along with all your East Union family of fans, we congratulate you, Landon. We cannot wait to see you in the Big Leagues!
