The month of July in the year 2000 will be mentioned several times on ESPN Classic in the future.

Hey, they can make a mini-series out of July 23, 2000.

Forty years from now when Tiger Woods announces his retirement, the 2000 British Open will most certainly be featured on flashbacks.

&uot;And here’s Tiger become the youngest golfer ever to win the Grand Slam at the age of 24,&uot; the mechanical sportscaster will say. &uot;Excuse these ancient looking clips from so far away.&uot;

He’ll continue to talk about how 19-under was a big deal back then. That was before the retro golf balls came into effect. After all, Tiger parred Mars last week.

Later, the sportscaster will alude to the Z Games in which competitors start out on Jet Skis, which then take to the air and finish on a mountain in France.

&uot;Back in the old days, they raced on bicycles in what was called a Tour de France and Lance Armstrong of the United States completed a 2,250-mile ride in 23 days to win the event, something Americans rarely did back in those days. Just thinking about it makes my hinges hurt.&uot;

Okay, that’s kind of way out there. But so were the accomplishments of Woods and Armstrong. I don’t know if we really appreciate what we are now seeing.

I hear older folks talk about watching Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, Y.A. Tittle and Sandy Koufax (all right, I do remember Koufax a little bit) and I am now beginning to understand why that was so special. I will be telling my grandchildren the same thing about Woods and Armstrong. They are truly one of a kind.

The summer of 2000 has also been special for the city of Natchez, although it may be on a slightly smaller scale (certainly not to a lot of folks around here).

Five Dixie Youth baseball teams and three T.M. Jennings baseball teams have/are/will be competing in state tournaments.

When I ran into Houston Stuckey, the state director for the Dixie Youth Baseball League, that was the first thing he brought up.

&uot;We were talking about how remarkable it is that Natchez has teams going to state in 9-10, 11-12, Dixie Boys 13-year-olds and Dixie Boys 14-year-olds and in T.M. Jennings,&uot; Stuckey said.

I had to remind him that Natchez finished second in the first coach-pitch state tournament , as well.

&uot;That really is something to be proud of,&uot; Stuckey said.

It is, and it’s probably something else we take for granted because having a summer league baseball team competing in a state tournament is expected here.

But as far as I can tell in talking with different people, this is the first time we have had this many, even not counting the first coach-pitch state tournament.

Longtime Natchez Dixie Youth commissioner Clarence Bowlin, who is also on the national board, said he knows of no other time when at least four Natchez teams were playing in the state tournament. He also doesn’t know of any other city that had at least four in state tournament play.

&uot;It certainly speaks well for our program,&uot; he said.

And looking ahead when Jake Martin (Joey Jr.) is sitting at this desk he can report about the time Natchez had five teams in state and how no one has done that since.

And he can even add how it was amazingly done on Duncan Park fields besides the state of the art facility that has been by Natchez High for 20 years. Hopefully that part is not a stretch.

Joey Martin is sports editor of The Democrat. He can be reached by calling 446-5172 ext. 232 or at joey.martin@natchezdemocrat.com.