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There’s a nice article in the C-L about McNamee getting recruited to MSU over despite growing up near Aggieland: “https://www.clarionledger.com/story/...ng/3641883002/Maroon makeover: How Texas A&M-bred Elijah MacNamee became a Mississippi State Bulldog.” It?s a god read.
STARKVILLE — Elijah MacNamee didn't always see himself wearing Mississippi State's shade of maroon. Neither did his father, Phillip Horton.
For essentially his entire life before starting college, MacNamee wanted to wear Texas A&M's variety of maroon.
It's almost miraculous MacNamee, State's senior right fielder, will trot to his perch in right field in the bottom half of the first inning instead of the top when the No. 7 Bulldogs travel to College Station this week for a three-game series against the No. 19 Aggies.
"It was the dream growing up to play at A&M, to be an Aggie" MacNamee said. "But my dad always told me to keep my options open, and my junior college coach said the same thing."
So he did.
The roads that led to College Station
Before Elijah MacNamee started hitting home runs in a Mississippi State uniform, he played one season at Blinn Community College in Brenham, Texas.
Before Elijah MacNamee started hitting home runs in a Mississippi State uniform, he played one season at Blinn Community College in Brenham, Texas. (Photo: Blinn College Buccaneers, BuccaneerSports.com)
When MacNamee wasn't busy practicing to become a first-team all-state player his senior season at Cypress Ranch High School, he was making the one-hour trip northwest on U.S. Route 290 and Texas State Highway 6 to watch A&M games at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.
MacNamee said he's probably been to upwards of 100 A&M baseball games.
MacNamee spent his freshman year of college playing at Blinn Community College in Brenham, Texas, only 45 minutes from where he grew up and where his father still lives with his wife, Jennifer, and MacNamee's two sisters, Emma and Ellie.
Blinn is also a short 45-minute drive from A&M's campus.
"Going to Blinn out of high school, that's typically a junior college that's a feeder school for A&M," Horton said. "Elijah had a very successful career at Blinn that first season he was there as a freshman, and A&M was actually showing quite a bit of interest in him. They were chit-chatting with him quite a bit and took him on a couple visits."
The coaching staff at A&M was worried the starting outfielders were going to leave school early to pursue their professional careers. MacNamee appeared to be a perfect fit to fill one of those spots. He hit .403 with eight home runs and 39 RBIs at Blinn.
Those numbers were so good, in fact, that MacNamee garnered the attention of schools he never thought would be on his radar. One of those schools was Mississippi State.
A Bible, baseball and the Bulldog 'family'
Mississippi State senior right fielder Elijah MacNamee didn't always dream of being an MSU Bulldog. For much of his life, he wanted to be a Texas A&M Aggie.
Mississippi State senior right fielder Elijah MacNamee didn't always dream of being an MSU Bulldog. For much of his life, he wanted to be a Texas A&M Aggie. (Photo: Joe Rondone, AP)
Then-head baseball coach John Cohen came calling in that spring of 2016, and MacNamee and Horton weren't going to let the phone ring on a guy who led the Bulldogs to a national runner-up finish at the College World Series three years prior.
So MacNamee and his father made the nine-hour trip to Starkville that May, a drive Horton would soon get to know very well. He didn't know it well at the time, though, and he didn't really know what to expect when he got there.
The duo was beyond pleasantly surprised.
Before MacNamee and Horton even saw one pitch of the Arkansas series that they were being treated to that weekend, Cohen took them inside his office.
That's where Horton got hooked.
After a generic slideshow presentation and some questions about MacNamee's health, Cohen held up a Bible and grabbed a relatively small portion of the pages in his hand. He told MacNamee that those pages represented everything in his life up to the current moment.
Then Cohen took hold of a much smaller portion of pages. He told MacNamee that those represented the length of an average Major League Baseball career.
Cohen explained to MacNamee and his father that yes, it was his job to make everyone in his dugout better baseball players. But it was also his job to make them better people. The "family" environment prevalent in the Mississippi State community may be a bit overplayed sometimes, but Horton genuinely felt it that day.
"(Cohen) wanted to make sure Elijah had a good head on his shoulders and that he'd be a good representative and ambassador for Mississippi State," Horton said. "The fact that he was a player for Mississippi State and then came back to coach there, that really says a lot.
"You have to stop and ask yourself, 'If this guy played here, then why does he want to come back and coach here if it wasn't for the atmosphere and culture?' There's a mindset there that really stuck out to me."
Winning feels like home at Dudy Noble
If MacNamee wasn't sold yet like his father, it didn't take long thereafter. The two walked around the Left Field Lounge for much of the Arkansas series. Mississippi State won the first game. Then the second. On Sunday, they swept the Razorbacks to clinch the 2016 regular season SEC Championship.
The players paraded around Dudy Noble Field wearing conference champion t-shirts. MacNamee watched them celebrate from the lounge.
"I looked at my dad and said, 'This feels a little more like home'," MacNamee said.
"I don't think it really matters what any other school would have said at that point," Horton said while recalling that moment.
MacNamee has been suiting up in maroon and white — Mississippi State's version, not A&M's — for the last three seasons now.
He got to celebrate a College World Series berth wearing his own championship t-shirt as a junior.
And he's had a stellar career, hitting .295 with 16 home runs and counting.
A few of those home runs will go down in MSU lore as some of the biggest swings in program history. His two-strike, three-run, walk-off homer against Florida State in the 2018 Tallahassee Regional was one of them. His two-strike, two-run walk-off homer against Vanderbilt in Game 1 the Nashville Super Regional a few weeks later was another.
What made MSU's the correct shade of maroon
Mississippi State's Elijah MacNamee celebrates after
Mississippi State's Elijah MacNamee celebrates after hitting a two-run home run in the ninth inning for a 10-8 win over Vanderbilt in an NCAA college baseball tournament super regional game Friday, June 8, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mike Strasinger) (Photo: Mike Strasinger, AP)
Those hits, along with the friends and memories he's made at Mississippi State, helped convince MacNamee that he chose to wear the correct hue of maroon.
"And it's not even close," MacNamee said.
MacNamee is hitting .311 as a senior. His next RBI ties a single season career-high at 42. He needs nine more hits to set a new career-high at 59 in that category. His production alone validates his decision to play at State, but Horton believes there's more to it than the numbers.
He has made that nine-hour drive to Starkville for every home series at Dudy Noble Field during his son's senior season. Each time he does so, he is reminded more and more why MacNamee made the right choice to play at Mississippi State. Horton said no program in the country comes close to MSU regarding support for the players and the program as a whole.
"You can take away last year, you can take away this year, and you can take away all of these great highlight times," Horton said. "It's really about the people there in Starkville at the end of the day. I think this was probably one of the best decisions he's ever made in his life."
At the end of his interview, the father of three who lives much more than a stone's throw from Starkville had two more words to say. It was a phrase he never thought would mean so much to him while his son was aspiring to become an Aggie, but it's one that will be forever dear to his heart.
"Hail State!" he said.
Not being alive for A Grand Slam for Masters, Mac's homer at Florida St is that moment for me. I can still remember everything about that moment. I thought I'd probably never see a moment like that again in my life........it took 6 days before I saw another one in Nashville.
I was alive in 1990. I was sitting behind home plate. I was less than 10 years old, it was beyond belief. It felt like an earthquake at Dudy Nobel. Greatest bulldog moment ever and it was at home on an awesomely sunny clear day. It was also in the critical game 3 that we had lost the prior year to UNC.Quote:
Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve
Love Macs homer too, but as an old fart now, it just can't compare
Renfroe vs Oregon State in Omaha 2013 was magical
Don't forget Vickerson at Florida. That 2011 team basically validated Cohens tenure. We came into 2011 with 3 straight losing seasons and fading as a program. Without Vick maybe no 2013. No 2013, means no Mac in Starkville. Means no Tallahassee miracle.