Ozzie Smith is 70: Down in Alabama

Ozzie Smith turns 70 today.

The backflippin’, gold glove winnin’, Hall of Fame shortstop from Mobile is 7-0.

In a sport where the most athletically skilled defensive players are often shortstops (apologies to catchers), the Wizard of Oz won 13 consecutive National League gold gloves at the position. During the 1980s, Mel Allen’s “This Week in Baseball” should’ve changed the name of its weekly fielding highlights segment to “What Ozzie Smith Did This Week.”

Today’s report follows. Thanks for reading,

Ike

RIP Hudson Meek

A child actor died this past weekend after falling from a moving vehicle, reports AL.com’s Carol Robinson.

Hudson Meek of Vestavia Hills has numerous film credits, including a role as a young version of the lead character in 2017’s “Baby Driver,” which included Kevin Spacey, John Hamm and Jamie Foxx among its supporting actors. Along with fellow actor and brother Tucker Meek, Hudson appeared in the Lifetime movie “The Santa Con” in 2014.

Authorities say Meek died at UAB Hospital after sustaining blunt-force injuries in a fall from a moving vehicle on Canyon Road in Vestavia.

Hudson Meek was 16 years old.

Union activity in North Alabama

Workers at a Huntsville Amazon facility and a Scottsboro Starbucks joined national strikes against their respective employers in recent days, reports AL.com’s William Thornton.

The North Alabama Area Labor Council led its unions onto the picket line at Amazon in Huntsville last Thursday and Friday and Starbucks in Scottsboro beginning Tuesday.

There were around 18 Teamsters on the line at Amazon, but it was part of a holiday-season strike of around 10,000 workers nationally.

The Starbucks in Scottsboro has seen union activity for a couple years now.

Another fest at Sloss

Sloss Furnaces is expected to be home to a new music festival this October, reports AL.com’s Williesha Morris.

The Iron Hills Country Music Festival announced that it will be held Oct. 11-12 at the Furnaces, which have been the site for music events such as Slossfest and Furnace Fest.

Iron Hills announced it would be “bringing the heart and soul of country” to the Furnaces, leaving open the possibility that there could be country music at a country music festival. Alas, no artists have been announced, so we’ll have to see.

The social-media accounts of the Iron Hills Country Music Festival have more information.

Picture that

A composite image of NGC 2264, known as the Christmas Tree Cluster. Green clouds in a conical shape resemble an evergreen tree, with stars visible as specks of white, blue, purple and red light.X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Clow, M.; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand

NASA recently released images of space with color enhancements to acknowledge the Christmas season.

The images were captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which is managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville and operated by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.

This image shows a “Christmas Tree Cluster” with optical data captured last month by Arizona astrophotographer Michael Clow. The cluster is about 2,500 light years from Earth and has stars between 1 and 5 million years old.