Goodbye Grandstand Thoughts

[Todd4State]

I just got back home from braving the weather delay, the game and even worse LSU fans for the Saturday game.

The weather sucked, and that?s really sad because I think we would have had a massive crowd to send out the grandstand the way it deserves to be sent out otherwise. The ceremony that MSU had before the game was really good. They had former players there and again believe there would have been even more had the weather been better. I couldn?t believe that there was a player that actually played for Dudy Noble that was still alive! More on him later. Dudy Noble?s brother was there and he had some very nice things to say about how much MSU naming the baseball field meant to their family. I?m glad he got to share that. During the game God Bless America was sung by one of our former players who is 100 years old and served in World War II. What an unbelievable person and I can only imagine what he has seen during his life. It was interesting to renditions of the current grandstand as it had ?Bulldog Stadium? on it. Also- major kudos to MSU for the Boo Ferris t-shirt. I LOVE it. I get to mix MSU and Delta State on one t-shirt.

Since many of our more prominent alumni and former coaches are still in baseball at the MLB level or at other colleges, they had a video with many of them on it expressing their thoughts. Clark, Palmeiro, Showalter, Graveman, Frazier, and Renfroe were among them. And as far as the former coaches go Brian Shoop, Pat McMahon, Butch Thompson, and??.Ron Polk all shared their thoughts. Polk?s segment started out with ?I apologize? and I thought?.oh my God here it comes?.but then he goes on with ?to my former players for not being able to be there.? Some of his other comments though made it seem like he maybe he has put the past behind him at least publically. He wished Coach Cannizaro well and seemed supportive of him and he also mentioned that MSU fan deserve a stadium like the one we are going to build. Polk got a nice ovation from the crowd and there were no boos, middle fingers, etc. I imagine that if he ever does apologize he would get a similar warm reception.

Standing around during the rain delay I happened to observe Coach Cannizaro standing outside the baseball office by chance. I must say I was really impressed with how interacts and deals with our fans and alumni. He seemed very friendly and really seemed to genuinely enjoy interacting with everyone. He took pictures with kids and things like that. I also noticed one of LSU?s players coming up to Cannizaro and I could tell that they were talking about hitting. Some people may think that?s a thing you shouldn?t do, but I?m fine with it because to me it shows how much their players really think of him and his knowledge. I saw this LSU player actually get Cannizaro?s autograph on a baseball and Manieri finds out he?s probably going to have to run foul poles until he dies.

As far as the actual game itself, it was pretty typical of what we?ve seen lately. Too many walks by the pitching staff, too many guys striking out and just being frustrated in general. The solution is to get better players and to get healthy. We beat basically this same LSU team last year in Baton Rouge but the difference is last year we had two legit SEC starters and we were a lot healthier and not coincidentally we won the games that Hudson and Sexton started. If we had started Houston we may have swept them last year- I?m still not sure why we didn?t make him the third guy until the very end of the year. Cannizaro did make a couple of coaching mistakes and I know some people don?t want to hear that. The silver lining there is based on his moves the rest of the series it showed me that he learned from those mistakes. Yes, Self and Price got hit but I can always tolerate that a lot better than I can just walking and hitting a bunch of people. If you walk someone they have a 100% chance of getting on base. If a batter hits a baseball he has a 30-35% chance of getting on base if he?s a good hitter. I?ll take those odds because I know that they say that more often than not making the hitter put the ball in play is going to be successful. Especially since we have a pretty solid defensive team behind us in the field.
LSU is a good team but we?ve got the guy that built that team. And some of the guys he didn?t bring in like Kramer Robertson he was able to get them back for their senior year. That?s what we have to start doing more of if we want to be at a championship level. That?s why I?ve always disagreed somewhat with our fans that said you don?t want a lot of seniors because that means that MLB didn?t want them. You always want some senior leaders like what we had with Cody Brown and Josh Lovelady because they lead the team. What would LSU be without Robertson, Freeman, Poche?, and Deichman? Probably a two or maybe even a three seed? What would we be right now with Kruger, Houston, and Sexton? Probably hosting at worst and maybe SEC champs again at best. I?m saying all of this because in about two years what LSU looks like right now is going to be pretty similar to what we look like in about two years. And I like our guys that are hurt better than most of the guys that LSU threw against us on Sunday. So, by then we may even be better than LSU is now.

Leaving the stadium was bittersweet even though I have been a major proponent of a new stadium and am extremely excited to see the new one. Watching the video brought back a lot of the memories I?ve had there because I was actually at some of those games. As far as MSU games that I have attended, my favorite would be Masters grand slam. I told my Dad that Masters was about to hit a grand slam and then he did it. I knew he was going to get a fastball at 3-1 with the bases loaded. The 2007 SR would be second- it was still the hottest game I?ve ever been to and we were down while Ole Miss had been up for a few years. That was a respite that showed me what we could be and still really were- we were just on a hiatus. I was there when we broke the attendance record against Ole Miss and then had the rally to win the game. The Washington regional where Eric DuBose gutted it out and Brooks Bryan stole a home run off of a grill was incredible. I was in college then and bummed tickets off of people. And my last favorite memory was the last time we played Delta State in 1997. Polk won his 1000 game and DuBose started and gave up a home run and then when the guy had his next AB DuBose plunked him and almost started a fight. We won- but I kind of became a Delta State baseball fan that day because I was impressed with how hard they played the game. Dakota Hudson shutting down Ole Miss last year and then Jeremy Jackson striking out something like 18 LSU Tigers in 1997 are up there too.

Next up we have the SEC Tournament. And I know a lot of people think it?s a meaningless tournament- but it also means a lot to some of our fans. Cann will have our guys playing as hard as they can as we should. I know we?re tired and our pitching staff is thin but if we win on Tuesday and then stay in the winner?s bracket it could get real fun real quick. And I?m like Cann right now- I want Georgia?s ass right now. And if we win that, then we get a chance to kick Wes Johnson?s ass. So, we have some checks to cash.

Speaking of being tired and everything with the pitching injuries and all of that. If I had to change one thing on our baseball staff it would be the S&C coach. I have to wonder if that?s part of the reason why we got burned out in 2012 and why we seem burned out right now. I have to wonder if our pitching injuries are part of something we didn?t do properly on that end. Now, I think Cann being there an entire year might help but it does make me wonder.

Brighter days ahead!
Hail State.

[Mjoelner34]

Great post! I thought the exact same thing you did when Polk started off! I agree about the Clemson SR too. I've been going to games here since '86 and that was the hottest I've ever been out there.

After the game was over and after everybody had filed out of the grandstand and bleachers, the players, Cann and his wife made their way from foul pole to foul pole all along the outfield fence giving high fives, signing autographs and taking selfies with people. Never saw Polk, Mac or Cohen do that even after big wins. Cann seemed to be enjoying it even more than the players.

[Political Hack]

Excellent. Thanks for sharing Todd.