Code of the South Alive and Well in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Southern hospitality lives.

The citizens of Hattiesburg, Miss., are helping out the Malawi Olympic track and field team--which consists of two marathon runners--at a pre-Olympic training camp.

When John Mwathiwa and Henry Moyo arrived, the locals were appalled at their tattered gear.

In short order, the athletes from the East African nation had new running shoes, new gym bags and new sweats.

And local housewives, who considered the runners too skinny, volunteered to fry up a mess of catfish.

The athletes politely declined, explaining that they preferred the grits served in the University of Southern Mississippi cafeteria, which are similar to their staple back home, cornmeal.

*

Trivia time: What do football’s Otto Graham, baseball’s Del Rice and actor Chuck Connors have in common?

*

Watch Cal now: The Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell attributes the home run totals this season to stronger batters.

“If fans want to examine a case study in weightlifting, they should watch Cal Ripken’s career from this point forward,� Boswell wrote, explaining that Ripken, for the first time, is seriously training with weights. . . .

“ ‘For years, I told Cal, when the streak is over, come lift with me and I’ll show you how much better you can be,’ � said Brady Anderson, whose weight work has turned him from a singles hitter into a home-run leader.

*

Family ties: Barry Larkin, the Cincinnati Reds’ All-Star shortstop, and Dave Concepcion, shortstop for the Big Red Machine of the 1970s, have more than their position in common.

Larkin’s brother, Stephen Larkin, teams with Concepcion’s son, David, on the Charleston (W.Va.) Alley Cats, the Reds’ Class A team in the South Atlantic League.

*

Slow burn: John Steigerwald of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette gets steamed every time he hears someone call Ozzie Smith an “automatic� Hall of Fame inductee.

His reason: Since the Pirates’ Bill Mazeroski has not made it, how can Smith be an “automatic�?

He points out that second baseman Mazeroski’s batting average was .260, Smith’s .261; that Smith has hit 26 home runs, Mazeroski 138; that Maz leads in RBIs, 853-783.

And he claims Mazeroski was as good a second baseman as Smith is a shortstop.

“If Mazeroski’s offensive stats have kept him out, how are Ozzie’s going to get him in?� Steigerwald wrote.

*

Payday blues: Frank Zummach, who coached the National Basketball League’s Sheboygan (Wis.) Redskins from 1939 to 1942, on his payroll:

“I was also the paymaster, and my total salary budget, for 10 players, was $4,500. The highest paid player was Rube Lautenschlager, who got $175 a month.�

*

Trivia answer: They were teammates on the Rochester Royals’ 1946 National Basketball League championship team.

*

And finally: Blackie Sherrod in the Dallas Morning News: “There is a certain amount of suspense, wondering exactly where Dennis Rodman will wear his championship ring.�