skydawg1 said:
Honestly, if you didn't come to the camp, and if you didn't sign with
MSU quickly, and promise that you would come to MSU even if you were
drafted, and had good grades, we weren't signing you. That's how Polk
did it.
Polk I, I could honestly understand these tactics...but Polk II?? That is what ruined our program.
when you get down to it, baseball is about the players that you have on your team much moreso than how good your coach is or isn't. We had to compete with MLB for Palmeiro and I think Will Clark as well. So, he wasn't always the way he was at the end of his tenrure.
I'm not sure why Polk decided to do it that way. I think some of it has to do with him getting burned in the draft on guys like Pat Borders and Jay Bell, and some of it was his personality.
I think that he had felt like he had built us to a point where the top players would flock to us, and we didn't really have to go out to get them. But, the crazy thing is that when guys like Stephen Head would beg to get a look from us, we laughed in their face and treated them like crap.
I know guys that would go up to him and Raffo and say that they wanted to play at MSU- and would walk-on, and Polk would literally laugh in their faces and tell them to go to JUCO and then MAYBE we would let them walk-on. I had a big problem with how he treated some of our recruits- some who could have really helped us. Many of those people are/were life-long MSU people as well. I mean, would it really have hurt anything to let them walk-on? Especially pre-roster limit era college baseball. And then he comes out and says "I could never cut a kid". Very hypocritical in a sense. The truth is this- he didn't want to cut you if you sucked and he liked you.
And for the record-I like and respect Coach Polk.
Cohen is not perfect, but at least if you really want to go to MSU, he won't laugh in your face and will give you an opportunity to show what you can do. He will let you know that you have to earn your spot and that you may not make it, but at least he will give people a chance.
I mean, that's why you build tradition, so that you can use it to your advantage.