The Greatness of Ron Polk

[The Federalist Engineer]

Given the situation with ACT fraud and coaches labeling people as athletes when they were not....

Ron Polk once refused to call John Grisham's son a baseball player. With all that Grisham money at stake and given what Grisham did for a moribund UVA program, you could say quite a bit of competitive advantage was sacrificed.

But our Ron Polk did not yield and did not give little Fredo Corleone Grisham a pass. The kid sucked and it would not have been fair to a real player for Fredo to be on the roster with them. Even with unlimited roster spots available at that time, we would not give the rich punk a jersey. This was an awesome moment in true meritocracy...that may have given UVA a baseball national championship

[Johnson85]

Given the situation with ACT fraud and coaches labeling people as athletes when they were not....

Ron Polk once refused to call John Grisham's son a baseball player. With all that Grisham money at stake and given what Grisham did for a moribund UVA program, you could say quite a bit of competitive advantage was sacrificed.

But our Ron Polk did not yield and did not give little Fredo Corleone Grisham a pass. The kid sucked and it would not have been fair to a real player for Fredo to be on the roster with them. Even with unlimited roster spots available at that time, we would not give the rich punk a jersey. This was an awesome moment in true meritocracy...that may have given UVA a baseball national championship

Or another alternative would be, John Grisham gave a shit ton of money to the university. All he asked for was that his son be given essentially a preferred walk-on spot, a relatively small value in exchange for what he contributed to the university and not something somebody else was really entitled to. Polk was a trollish ahole and thought his program shouldn't be sullied by somebody giving a bunch of money to benefit other people's kids.

ETA: When I was in school, Stansbury and Sherrill allowed walk-ons on the team who wouldn't have been able to see the court/field in division II but maybe could have been role players at a bad Div III school.

[Saltydog]

I know he went after the youngest son but to no avail.....

[AlSwearengen]

I thought of this situation when this stuff first came out the other day, but I think it is definitely different. Grisham just wanted his kid to be a part of the program and get himself and his family closer to the program at the same time.

Walk-on’s come and go, usually for a chance to get on the field. For most good players, it sucks to practice and rarely get to play.

But, if the kid or Grisham himself was going to be huge pains in the ass, I would agree with Polk not taking him. If not, big mistake not taking him in my opinion. Polk is a lot of things, most good, but he is a “my way or the highway” hard headed 17’er for sure.

[Coursesuper]

Given the situation with ACT fraud and coaches labeling people as athletes when they were not....

Ron Polk once refused to call John Grisham's son a baseball player. With all that Grisham money at stake and given what Grisham did for a moribund UVA program, you could say quite a bit of competitive advantage was sacrificed.

But our Ron Polk did not yield and did not give little Fredo Corleone Grisham a pass. The kid sucked and it would not have been fair to a real player for Fredo to be on the roster with them. Even with unlimited roster spots available at that time, we would not give the rich punk a jersey. This was an awesome moment in true meritocracy...that may have given UVA a baseball national championship

That's was not Polky that was Mac.

[AlSwearengen]

I know he went after the youngest son but to no avail.....

That is a good question. Cohen seems to have a good relationship with Palmiero, so I have decided that Cohen was honest with Palmiero and family about his chances of playing. Cohen probably would have taken him, but he would have been a back up at MSU and I imagine Raffy knew and understood it.

The younger son was a good player but I figured he didn’t want to deal with following his dad at State and all of the extra distraction that he would have had to deal with. Or, he/they may have liked the coach at NC State better. Who knows.

Raffy though, seems to be a very gracious person and it appears that he tries hard to avoid having a beef with anyone. He is a big man to have given Will Clark so much praise over the last few years. Will definitely could have handled a few things in a much better fashion when dealing with Palmiero during their pro careers. I’m glad for all of us and especially Will because I think it has made him better.

[CadaverDawg]

Yep, the money, not Grisham's kid, helped win UVA a natty due to what it did for their program and facilities.
We should have given the little bastard a jersey.

[Tbonewannabe]

Didn't Gisham son have at least one pretty good year for VA? I don't think he was completely dead weight.

[Homedawg]

Given the situation with ACT fraud and coaches labeling people as athletes when they were not....

Ron Polk once refused to call John Grisham's son a baseball player. With all that Grisham money at stake and given what Grisham did for a moribund UVA program, you could say quite a bit of competitive advantage was sacrificed.

But our Ron Polk did not yield and did not give little Fredo Corleone Grisham a pass. The kid sucked and it would not have been fair to a real player for Fredo to be on the roster with them. Even with unlimited roster spots available at that time, we would not give the rich punk a jersey. This was an awesome moment in true meritocracy...that may have given UVA a baseball national championship
That was actually coach Mac. But if it makes the story better

[The Federalist Engineer]

Didn't Gisham son have at least one pretty good year for VA? I don't think he was completely dead weight.

Dead weight

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?ID=40985

[The Federalist Engineer]

That was actually coach Mac. But if it makes the story better

Pat was our coach from 1998-2001

Ty Grisham "played" at UVA from 2003-2004

Polk 2.0 was from 2002-2008

That's how I gathered it was Polk, but I'm sure we have some insiders that will correct me.

[Coursesuper]

Pat was our coach from 1998-2001

Ty Grisham "played" at UVA from 2003-2004

Polk 2.0 was from 2002-2008

That's how I gathered it was Polk, but I'm sure we have some insiders that will correct me.

It was Mac, just trust us on this.

[smootness]

Pat was our coach from 1998-2001

Ty Grisham "played" at UVA from 2003-2004

Polk 2.0 was from 2002-2008

That's how I gathered it was Polk, but I'm sure we have some insiders that will correct me.

If you notice, it says he was a sophomore in 03 and a junior in 04, which would mean he was a freshman in 02 (probably just didn't actually make an appearance in a game), which would mean Mac recruited him before 02.

[maroonmania]

That's was not Polky that was Mac.

Yep, it was Mac and it was idiocy at its finest.

[maroonmania]

Dead weight

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?ID=40985

Yep, with all the millions Grisham pumped into that baseball program I'm sure VA really considered him dead weight.***

Virginia has a national program in baseball today because of that dead weight.

[Tbonewannabe]

Dead weight

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?ID=40985

I had just saw a blurb about him hitting above.300, didn't realize it was only in a few games.

[Commercecomet24]

It was Mac and a horrible horrible decision on his part.

[dawgoneyall]

That was one more of Polk's royal screw ups.

[The Federalist Engineer]

Looks like I am the minority here but I think it's worse on Grisham. To betray us because his son was not D1 quality in baseball. He wanted to use his celebrity privilege to create a privilege for his kids..

It makes grisham look like an obsessed and presumptuous groupie.

[bulldogcountry1]

I imagine it's a tough spot for a coach. Just the optics of something like that can bring a coach's integrity into question. How would it look if the guy had no other D1 offers?

[MedDawg]

Yep, with all the millions Grisham pumped into that baseball program I'm sure VA really considered him dead weight.***

Virginia has a national program in baseball today because of that dead weight.

The donation helped them build a nice stadium, but it was still no Dudy Noble (see below). Their national championship was more likely due to their coach and (probably) a Vandy-like full scholarship program. Even their coach was an assistant at Notre Dame before taking the job at UVa, so it's not like they brought in a proven winner.

Back during Polk 2 I remember posting something like, "Grisham gave UVa 2 or 3 million dollars to UVa. That 2 or 3 million dollars wouldn't fix our program". We needed a wholesale program change, and we didn't get it until we hired Cohen. And even then, it wasn't a huge change, other than getting Polk out. What we've done in the last few years is the huge change--announced the New Dude, hired Cann and started recruiting better, and then built the New Dude and hired Lemonis and his excellent assistant coaches.


Davenport Field at UVa
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Davenport_Field.jpg/1920px-Davenport_Field.jpg

[Homedawg]

Pat was our coach from 1998-2001

Ty Grisham "played" at UVA from 2003-2004

Polk 2.0 was from 2002-2008

That's how I gathered it was Polk, but I'm sure we have some insiders that will correct me.

The being told he wasn't wanted came from Mac. Do the math.

[Homedawg]

I know he went after the youngest son but to no avail.....

That was a tough deal. Ralph's oldest son wasn't an sec player. It is what it is. With 11.7 and have to offer a kid 25% that's a bad tough deal. But the right one.

[Coursesuper]

That was a tough deal. Ralph's oldest son wasn't an sec player. It is what it is. With 11.7 and have to offer a kid 25% that's a bad tough deal. But the right one.

Preston was never coming to State.

[Homedawg]

Preston was never coming to State.

I know.

[Todd4State]

Girsham as has been said was a McMahon recruit. Not sure why Grisham had a beef with Polk unless it was the same beef many of us also had with Polk II at the time.

Cohen at least recruited Palmeiro. Patrick was recruited and decommitted when Cohen was hired because Palmeiro supported Polk and what Polk wanted with Raffo being the coach at the time. We also recruited Preston and he went to NC State but it wasn't because we didn't try.

[The Federalist Engineer]

The donation helped them build a nice stadium, but it was still no Dudy Noble (see below). Their national championship was more likely due to their coach and (probably) a Vandy-like full scholarship program. Even their coach was an assistant at Notre Dame before taking the job at UVa, so it's not like they brought in a proven winner.

Back during Polk 2 I remember posting something like, "Grisham gave UVa 2 or 3 million dollars to UVa. That 2 or 3 million dollars wouldn't fix our program". We needed a wholesale program change, and we didn't get it until we hired Cohen. And even then, it wasn't a huge change, other than getting Polk out. What we've done in the last few years is the huge change--announced the New Dude, hired Cann and started recruiting better, and then built the New Dude and hired Lemonis and his excellent assistant coaches.



What is the UVA angle to skate past the Scholarship rule?

Seems totally unfair that 95% of college baseball teams play with death penalty scholarship levels and others have full squads.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Yep, the money, not Grisham's kid, helped win UVA a natty due to what it did for their program and facilities.
We should have given the little bastard a jersey.

Yep. The dude may be a solid teammate. Who knows? We could have used the extra 20 million. Then maybe we wouldn't have had to wait so long for the Dude renovation, or maybe we could have built the Grisham Football Inddor Practice Facility and gentleman's club.

[maroonmania]

I know.

Could I ask why? Was it because of the Polk situation or something else? Its a shame that a guy that had a Father that was a legend at MSU where we are baseball crazy didn't come to continue the legacy.