Locke's baseball column

spacecataz

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Apr 14, 2009
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"Maybe that rubs some folks the wrong way, but you don't clean up this sort of mess without a Brillo pad."

Hopefully this article will pacify some of the Cohen naysayers.
 

Hanmudog

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Apr 30, 2006
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How in the hell can a team go from Omaha to worst in the SEC in 2 years? Baffles me. I feel lost this spring because I could care less right now about MSU baseball. They are absolutely painful to watch.
 

RonnyAtmosphere

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Jun 4, 2007
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...buying what Cohen is selling in that article.

This season ended with the Auburn series, & I'll accept that this year.

But if next year ends with the Auburn series, this specific sheep shall shear his wool in a fast & furious manner.
 

Shmuley

Heisman
Mar 6, 2008
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"If what I'm preaching rubs the cat's fur the wrong way, then maybe it's time for the cat to turn around."

Dear Polk Pussies and Busy-Body Parents,

GTFO or STFU.

Sincerely,

John MFn Cohen
 

patdog

Heisman
May 28, 2007
55,897
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RonnyAtmosphere said:
This season ended with the Auburn series, & I'll accept that this year.
This season was over before Cohen was even hired. Just like this fall's football season was over before Mullen was even hired. But better days are ahead in both sports.
 

RonnyAtmosphere

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Jun 4, 2007
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patdog said:
RonnyAtmosphere said:
This season ended with the Auburn series, & I'll accept that this year.
This season was over before Cohen was even hired. Just like this fall's football season was over before Mullen was even hired. But better days are ahead in both sports.
...I'll never call a season before it starts; I must see the evidence of i<span class="Apple-style-span" style="WORD-SPACING: 0px; FONT: bold 13px arial; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); TEXT-INDENT: 0px; WHITE-SPACE: normal; LETTER-SPACING: normal; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; orphans: 2; widows: 2; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0">rreversible decay before I call it.</span>

There was hope before the Auburn series, yet all hope vanished after that series.

Just like, in football, everybody here will think there is hope after we stomp JSU. But after SEC play begins, it will be "abandon all hope ye who...." time.
 

ArrowDawg

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Oct 10, 2006
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patdog said:
RonnyAtmosphere said:
This season ended with the Auburn series, & I'll accept that this year.
This season was over before Cohen was even hired. Just like this fall's football season was over before Mullen was even hired. But better days are ahead in both sports.
I wouldn't be so sure of that. We are MSTATE after all. Oh, and we don't have a metrosexual national news anchor promoting us every day either.
 
Mar 9, 2008
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Hanmudog said:
How in the hell can a team go from Omaha to worst in the SEC in 2 years? Baffles me. I feel lost this spring because I could care less right now about MSU baseball. They are absolutely painful to watch.
Hell, Georgia's done it twice this decade.
 

basedog

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May 29, 2008
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we were picked last by everyone. All you need to do is read or hear what the coaches say about Msu in there scouting report, "same team as last year" (but with less pitching this year!
Cohen is gonna win at Msu, mark it down!
 

bulldogcountry1

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Jun 4, 2007
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as I did when he was hired. Sure, I hoped we would do a little better this year, but when you strip away the wishful thinking, this is what was destined to happen. Polk had completely checked out, and he screwed us over. Any heat generated by fans should be directed at him. He should be held accountable.

I guess one thing I want to know more about is exactly what is being done right now with existing players to get them to buy into the system? Maybe I just don't realize how bad the day to day things had gotten with the team. When you hear Cohen addressing things like showing up for practice...was that a problem? In other sports like football, I understand the "buying into the system" talk, but baseball is different. What's he trying to do that's so drastictically different than what they were used to?
 

OMlawdog

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Feb 27, 2008
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I'm pretty sure you said that about a month ago?

So Im assuming you have changed your position since then? Good to see you are able to say when you are wrong, a lot of posters can't do that, you realize that this is just a message board, and there will be times when you are wrong.

</p>
 

RebelBruiser

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Aug 21, 2007
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Seven Year Plan said:
Hanmudog said:
How in the hell can a team go from Omaha to worst in the SEC in 2 years? Baffles me. I feel lost this spring because I could care less right now about MSU
baseball. They are absolutely painful to watch.
Hell, Georgia's done it twice this decade.

Here is how UGA does it:

2001: Omaha
2002: Second in a regional
2003: 10-20 (5th in East by half a game, 11th overall)
2004: Omaha
2005: 12-17 (5th in the East, 11th overall)
2006: Omaha
2007: 11-19 (6th in the East, 11th overall)
2008: Omaha

They've been on a roller coaster ride. This year they appear to be breaking the recent trend.
 

Todd4State

Redshirt
Mar 3, 2008
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Polk's attitude was always "We're going to go out, and play with class win or lose. We are going to play the game conservatively and hope that we get the breaks, because we really have no control over what happens out there on the field." Polk to me seemed like he just figured the best way to win was to teach the kids the book as a group and throw them out there and hope that the breaks fall our way.

If you read Polk's book, the very first section is all about team rules and policies. Most of which are things like no cussing and things like that. Polk also eschewed emotion, which is old school, because he did not want his players to "show up" the opponent.

Cohen is all about winning and doing EVERYTHING possible to try to win. I think Cohen does things on a more individual/group basis. He realizes that you have to recruit players to your program and just being Mississippi State isn't enough. Cohen also has high expectations of his players and his team. Being nice just isn't good enough. You've got to be able to execute.

Basically instead of playing the game straight up, we're trying to put pressure on the other team by stealing, and doing things on the basepaths trying to force the defense to make mistakes.

But when I say it is about attitude, it's a personality thing. A good example is Ben Grieve. He had five tool talent, but he just didn't want to win bad enough. I remember when he was with the Devil Rays, Lou Piniella cussed him out in the dugout for taking a third strike. (Sound familiar?) Another example is Dustin Pedroia. He's not all that tall, and he's not a five tool player maybe in terms of athleticism, but he plays his butt off and does everything he can do to help the Red Sox win. He makes up for his shortcomings with effort and hard work. If you get a guy that has the athleticism and the effort, you're talking about a potential Hall of Fame player. Some people are willing to work and want to win more than others. Unfortunately, we have more Ben Grieve's and very few Dustin Pedroia's.