So.. Here goes a real, non-SPSlike post..

[Xenomorph]

I'd like to give a shout out to our baseball team for being good guys while wearing the uniform. My son and I watched every pitch at Oxford-University Stadium this weekend and we arrived especially early Sunday and sat at field level beside our dugout. I sat back in shorts, 68 degrees and beautiful sunshine while explaining to little Xeno what was happening on the field during BP and infield. We watched players coming and going for 2 hours and I was really impressed by how our guys handled themselves. .....And I'm not usually one to say crap like that.

I saw players going out of their way to talk to the few fans who were there so early, most of whom were Bear fans. I watched a number of players go through a huge line of little kids waiting to run onto the field prior to first pitch. They asked them their name and what position they liked to play, made comments about what little league team they played for and talked about baseball in general. Players stopped what they were doing and signed balls, again even for little bears.

One player even stopped and had a conversation with a couple of little boys and their parents about why he chose his jersey number. As the player was leaving he even wished the bear mom a happy mother's day. I won't say which player it was, but he pitched 5 scoreless innings a couple of hours later.

Now my 8 year old son wants to bring the ball Jonathan Holder tossed to him and have him sign it, and I'm having trouble explaining to him that's not what one usually does with a ragged-assed ball that wasn't good enough to get thrown back into the BP bucket. It's amazing... but a small thing like that is probably going to make me drive to Starkville this weekend.

Anyway... our guys' attitudes toward fans probably isn't unique in college baseball, but it was still nice to see.

 

[CadaverDawg]

Good stuff, Xeno.

i haven't met any of them, but I've listened to several player interviews, and we seem to have a good group of character guys. I like to hear stories like that.

 

[Jimbob Cooter]

It's by design. That's how John Cohen runs his program.

 

[engie]

It's by design. That's how John Cohen runs his program.

But Ron Polk told us only he could accomplish such tasks....

Great job of our team! This is how you recruit and sell your program to the next generation... The smallest gestures like this make the biggest difference to young kids and their families. Probably more than a few now with the idea planted that "it's ok to pull for MSU too."

 

[Topgundawg]

Nice Read

Thanks for the read!

 

[thekimmer]

Nice try but in all fairness....

But Ron Polk told us only he could accomplish such tasks...."

While Ron Polk did take pride in the squeaky clean and professional reputation of his baseball players I don't believe he ever claimed that he was the only guy who could run a program like that. Ron did become largely ineffective because he absolutely refused to change with the times mainly in off the field stuff like actually leaving campus to recruit and staying totally loyal to 'his boys' no matter how they turned out on the diamond.

 

[Requiem For A Dawg]

My brother is still in school at State and is friends with a few guys on the team. He says most all of them are really nice and laid back.

I've been around college athletics for a the past several years, and baseball players have the douchebag complex more than any other sport. It's good to see we got a few of the good guys.

/genespage style post.

 

[johnson86-1]

While Ron Polk did take pride in the squeaky clean and professional reputation of his baseball players....

??? The baseball team was not exactly squeaky clean when I was in school. Some nice guys but lots of roided up douche bags. No murderers that I'm aware of, but basically the same discipline problems as the football team. Much worse than the football team when you consider that a larger percentage of the football players seemed to come from home environments where you could understand them picking up some baggage.

 

[engie]

While Ron Polk did take pride in the squeaky clean and professional reputation of his baseball players I don't believe he ever claimed that he was the only guy who could run a program like that.

But he claimed that John Cohen couldn't. Maybe he never said it to Brad Locke or Kyle Veazey -- but he said it to damn near everyone who actually mattered to the past success of MSU's baseball program that had a "direct line" to his thoughts.

Ron did become largely ineffective because he absolutely refused to change with the times mainly in off the field stuff like actually leaving campus to recruit

True.

staying totally loyal to 'his boys' no matter how they turned out on the diamond.

THIS is the great oxymoron of Ron Polk. What about all of "his boys" that he didn't bother recruiting that built a dynasty 100 miles to the northwest? Thanks Dan McDonnell. What was done in the recruiting classes from 2002-2008 can not be undone. Swayze is built -- and it was done on the backs of lifelong MSU fans that Polk either deemed unworthy -- or didn't bother recruiting till October prior to a November signing period(when practically everyone else wanted answers in July and August).

Do they somehow deserve less loyalty than the guys that actually spurned all their other options(if they actually had any) in order to show up in Starkville in October with a HOPE of getting offered a scholarship? After all, that's all Polk offered in his second tenure. The guys that showed up in October for football games(when Polk actually made his offers), had either already turned down options from all other SEC teams -- or they didn't have those offers. "Polk's guys" indeed.

What about all of the "invited" walk-ons over the years that turned down multiple other scholarship opportunities to be at MSU -- which Polk cut in the fall and essentially left screwed with NO other options? What about their loyalty? Was it rewarded?

The facade of PolkII's tenure is exactly that -- a facade.

 

[Will James]

Exactly Engie. I watch baseball with the mindset of maximizing what you have. Polks unwillingness to maximize our recruiting and thus our team his second tenure is unforgivable on my book.

 

[patdog]

The bottom line on Polk is he never really cared enough about winning and losing. Even going back to the glory days, we usually underperformed in the postseason and a lot of the reason why was that Polk always treated winning and losing too casually. I still think he unconsciously sabotaged his third stint as our coach (02-08) because he was more concerned about proving to the NCAA that you can't win with 11.7 scholarships while competing against schools that have lottery scholarships.

 

[J-Dawg]

It's been like that since Cohen has been here. Cohen's 1st couple of years were my last at MSU, and I had a few buddies on those teams and all were good guys. Definitely not the douchebag complex like baseball players can routinely have.

 

[MadDawg.sixpack]

that took longer than expected

 

[TXDawg.sixpack]

Couldn't agree more with the OP.

I took my son (8-yrs old) to the Friday night game in College Station. We got there 2 hrs early to watch BP and warm-ups. While we were standing along the RF fence, Pollo saw us, walked over and started talking to my son. Spent about 5 minutes with us. He then took the ball that my son had brought to the game and got about 10-12 players sign it. Turns out, Pollo was the starting pitcher that night.

Then, about 15 minutes before game time, I noticed Rea was standing just outside the dugout talking to a couple of guys. My son plays 1st, so I sent him down to ask for Rea's signature. Rea spent a couple of minutes talking to him, but wasn't able to sign the ball b/c the pen we brought ran out of ink. Rea told my son not to worry and that he'd get the entire team to sign a ball for him. Being the cynic I am, I assumed he'd forget all about it once the game started. After the game, my son went down to the dugout to get the ball and I'm watching just preparing for him to be disappointed. Then I see Rea come out of the dugout and I hear him say to a teammate: "Hang on, I need to find my buddy." He sees my son, calls out to him, and throws him an autographed ball. Absolutely made my son's night.

Finally, as we were walking out, we passed the player's exit where the guys were leaving to board the bus. Several of them stopped and spoke to my son and let us take pictures.

Great group of guys. They certainly know the importance of fan interaction.

 

[godlluB]

That is absolutely 17'in awesome.