what was it like when ozzie smith got to clarinda? he was coming from l.a.? grows up in south central l.a. and goes to the corn fields of iowa. his coach puts him on the plane. he has never been to the midwest. the only word he can summon is corn. that is the only image he has of coming to the midwest. he lands there. he goes down to the practice field and merle thinks here this is skinny, 140-pound kid. he's never going to make it. he grabs a bucket of walls. he hits them to ozzy. hits them harder and harder one after another. left to right. ozzie doesn't miss a single one. he finally looks up and says coach don't you realize you can't get one past me? that's when merle knew he had somebody really special. >> he really helped develop ozzie smith. did ozzie do his flip when he was in clarinda? >> he actually did it. it became a signature move. one other thing about that about how he ingratiated himself in the community. all the players had to have jobs. so ozzie worked on a construction crew and his job was to run a jack hammer. this is a small man at that po

of problems and was living in omaha, nebraska, with his moth who are said you need to go back to clarindao get your self straightened out. the community took him back in. he eventually met a coach and the coach redeemed him by challenging him. he wanted to be challenged and for someone to see the potential in him he knew he had. he found that in the coach. he became a standout athlete. he found the coach did something special for him and he gave back. >> the town, 5,000 small, but they took in these players. it really is -- i'm a little bit envious of you mike tackett because i'm not from the midwest, but there is something special about little midwestern towns, isn't there? >> i would like to think. so part of it is there is a calm. people have a slower pace, it's not a cliche. this particular place is the kind of place you think lives in myths. the square has local businesses, the county courthouse has been restored beautifully and everyone knows everyone. >> they turned down a wal-mart because they wanted everything to be local. >> absolutely and doesn't happen often. >> it is a book a