Should Ron Polk's name be on the new stadium?

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Originally Posted by Drugdog

Polk committed modern day treason against MSU. He turned on MSU. The program is bigger than 1 short man. You cannot honor a traitor. End of discussion. Maybe someone could post pictures of him in other uniforms coaching AGAINST US!!!!

Todd, your wrong on this one.

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Dudy-Noble coached at Ole Miss one year. Should we take his name off too?

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Originally Posted by Bully13

Yep. But what irked me more is what he said and the trashing of the player and recruitment records . He did his best to 17 Cohen before the door hit his ass on the way out. He didn't even stop after that. Some our early Cohen woes are directly attributable to that drama queen.

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I thought the recruiting records thing was pretty funny because Cohen was light years ahead of Polk in recruiting at that point. I doubt Cohen would have used them much if at all anyway. In fact he probably saved Cohen some trouble by throwing those out and saving him the trouble.

You're right about the second part.

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

Dudy-Noble coached at Ole Miss one year. Should we take his name off too?

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Are you serious? Dudy didn't coach at State, then coach against us, come back, leave, coach against us again and then try to destroy the program.

Nice try. Where a coach is before he comes to your school is irrelevant.

Fact is- Polk wants our program to burn to the ground. Does not support it anymore. Wants nothing. It the worst for us. His actions have proved it.

Regardless of what he did in the past to help, HE THREW the handgrenades at MSU. This is his fault. All the goodwill is gone.

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Originally Posted by Bully13

Yep. But what irked me more is what he said and the trashing of the player and recruitment records . He did his best to 17 Cohen before the door hit his ass on the way out. He didn't even stop after that. Some our early Cohen woes are directly attributable to that drama queen.

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This. After we went to the CWS championship series he had the perfect opportunity to admit he was wrong and apologize for taking it too far. Cohen has always left the door open for reconciliation and has gone out of his way to give Polk credit and public adoration, yet the old stubborn bastard remains butt hurt over the fact that he didn't get to choose "his guy" to replace him. I would forgive him if he admitted he was wrong to not support Cohen and saying a bunch of stupid stuff on the way out, but until then, screw him.

It's strange when people paint a guy up as a legend, he starts to believe it, then finds out he's just a dude who devoted his life to a job.
Polk was legendary. People called him "The Bear Bryant of SEC Baseball". Then LSU stepped up and started recruiting 6'4 ball players on a regimented weight program, and Polk never budged on his philosophy. It wasn't in his book.
He virtually refused to recruit outside of his office. Joe Lee Dunn was the same way.
Polk was married to college baseball, not MSU baseball. College Baseball, to this day, has too few scholarships. None of the public ranting Polk did made a dent in the NCAA decision.
His hissy fit over the hire of Cohen was embarrassing. Then he says "Go ahead and take my name off of the stadium". It would serve him right.
But let's just don't go there. It would simply bring ugly publicity to an issue with Polk that I'd rather see go away. If what some say is factual, and he's still actively trying to damage the success of MSU, I could change my mind. But besides coaching teams or playing a role that could directly impact our success, I'm willing to let him fade away.

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

This is all true. Dutch McCool donated the lights you are talking about.

I'm not sure when exactly the LFL started but my guess is whenever we started playing at the current location. Unless it started at the Dorman Hall location. It was definitely there when my parents were there- which was when Gregory was the coach. According to my parents it was basically just a bunch of people in pick-up trucks or students hanging out behind the OF fence. I'm not sure when it morphed into rigs. Also per my parents we drew pretty well for baseball then- even though at that particular time we weren't at the top of the SEC. Which shows that our fanbase was already pretty good.

It was much more difficult to get to Omaha in Gregory's days as well. A lot fewer teams went to the regionals or I think they used to call them playoffs. You pretty much had to win the SEC to go to the regionals.

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LFL was formed in either 69 or 70, yes where the stadium is now. Basically a 55 gallon drum maybe 2 was placed outside the left field fence. Hey believe me it would be overflowed with beer and wine bottles/cans. It was a much rowdier nastier crowd if you can imagine that. Anything went back in the day such as throwing firecrackers at cf OM player Norris Weese who was also a good QB.
Yes on getting to CWS, the 1970 and 71 teams were as good as any team we have ever had. Crazy judo transfer rules may have cost us a chance to have a National Championship one spring, several were ruled ineligible to play.

Also Paul Gregory had to teach while coaching as did his assistant Tom D'Armi. They also had a patent on a pre game batting cage which was rolled out to home plate on wheels, they sold a bunch!

You guys should have seen Phil Still, 3rd base play, best 3rd baseman overall in our history. Hey Pete Young was great
also, but he was no Phil Still. Lol!

Heck NO! When he had his bitch fit after Cohen was hired, my dear, sainted, now-in-heaven, gray-haired mother said that Ron Polk was throwing a temper tantrum like a 5 year old....this from some one who never said anything bad about anybody or any college (except LSU, she couldn't stand LSU).

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Originally Posted by Mutt the Hoople

Heck NO! When he had his bitch fit after Cohen was hired, my dear, sainted, now-in-heaven, gray-haired mother said that Ron Polk was throwing a temper tantrum like a 5 year old....this from some one who never said anything bad about anybody or any college (except LSU, she couldn't stand LSU).

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Your late dear Mother, must have seen more than that also..... as did I.... Polk had a bad habit of throwing those "FITS" awful for young children to watch. Glad he is gone and wish some more would go...... Have seen the SAME "fits" with someone else....

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Originally Posted by Dawgcentral

It's strange when people paint a guy up as a legend, he starts to believe it, then finds out he's just a dude who devoted his life to a job.
Polk was legendary. People called him "The Bear Bryant of SEC Baseball". Then LSU stepped up and started recruiting 6'4 ball players on a regimented weight program, and Polk never budged on his philosophy. It wasn't in his book.
He virtually refused to recruit outside of his office. Joe Lee Dunn was the same way.
Polk was married to college baseball, not MSU baseball. College Baseball, to this day, has too few scholarships. None of the public ranting Polk did made a dent in the NCAA decision.
His hissy fit over the hire of Cohen was embarrassing. Then he says "Go ahead and take my name off of the stadium". It would serve him right.
But let's just don't go there. It would simply bring ugly publicity to an issue with Polk that I'd rather see go away. If what some say is factual, and he's still actively trying to damage the success of MSU, I could change my mind. But besides coaching teams or playing a role that could directly impact our success, I'm willing to let him fade away.

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+1. I agree in what you posted! Btw, headed to Durango Monday.

Of course it should. No matter what came later and what you youngsters think now, Polk almost singlehandedly elevated college baseball to the minor sport status it has now. Before that, nobody cared AT ALL about college baseball except the boys who played it, their families, and a few drunks.

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Originally Posted by Maroon Wizardry

i'm no old timer but LFL from my understanding was around before he was there and we had moderate success as well. That being said i'm indifferent about it.

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State has 17 SEC baseball titles. Ron Polk coached only 4 of them

I'm torn on this. As a kid and teen, I though he was a legend and I loved him. I really was disappointed when we brought him back, because I thought it could only end badly. That being said, my 81 year old father has reminded me consistently for 35 years that MSU was good at baseball before Polk ever got there.

This is something that seriously needs to be discussed by our athletic department because if we are going to disassociate ourselves with Polk now is the time to do it. We won't be removing his name from the stadium because it will be a new stadium. I think he's burnt the bridge bad enough to warrant not being on the new stadium. I think Cohen still thinks there is a chance for reconciliation but I think Polk is too stubborn.
I wonder also if there are financial considerations and that some older big donors have stated they want Polk's name on the new stadium.

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Originally Posted by LC Dawg

This is something that seriously needs to be discussed by our athletic department because if we are going to disassociate ourselves with Polk now is the time to do it. We won't be removing his name from the stadium because it will be a new stadium. I think he's burnt the bridge bad enough to warrant not being on the new stadium. I think Cohen still thinks there is a chance for reconciliation but I think Polk is too stubborn.
I wonder also if there are financial considerations and that some older big donors have stated they want Polk's name on the new stadium.

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All I'll say about it is this- it will be interesting next Saturday to see if he shows up. I have no idea if he will or not. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised either way.

I know Cohen thinks highly of Polk- or at least he did. If he doesn't think highly anymore no one could blame him. Even if he doesn't, I'm sure a lot of his ex-teammates and a lot of influential MSU baseball alumni- like Rafael Palmeiro do think highly of him.

I think we need to be careful with this because I think it's something that could divide our fanbase in baseball- which is the last thing we need right now. The safest thing to do probably is to keep his name on the stadium. I know a lot of the old farts aren't happy that we're tearing the stadium down in the first place and keeping Polk's name on there would be a good peace offering. And I don't mind it since I don't really notice his name on the fence anyway when I'm watching a game to be honest.

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Originally Posted by basedog

LFL was formed in either 69 or 70, yes where the stadium is now. Basically a 55 gallon drum maybe 2 was placed outside the left field fence. Hey believe me it would be overflowed with beer and wine bottles/cans. It was a much rowdier nastier crowd if you can imagine that. Anything went back in the day such as throwing firecrackers at cf OM player Norris Weese who was also a good QB.
Yes on getting to CWS, the 1970 and 71 teams were as good as any team we have ever had. Crazy judo transfer rules may have cost us a chance to have a National Championship one spring, several were ruled ineligible to play.

Also Paul Gregory had to teach while coaching as did his assistant Tom D'Armi. They also had a patent on a pre game batting cage which was rolled out to home plate on wheels, they sold a bunch!

You guys should have seen Phil Still, 3rd base play, best 3rd baseman overall in our history. Hey Pete Young was great
also, but he was no Phil Still. Lol!

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I know Gregory taught Biology. I actually can imagine it being rowdier back then. The LFL people seem fairly tame nowadays. They'll heckle but I don't recall seeing very many fights or things like that recently.

Polk's name should be on it. He elevated the program.

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Originally Posted by Bothrops

Polk's name should be on it. He elevated the program.

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So we gonna put Sherrill's name on the football stadium? He changed our football program

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Originally Posted by Random Poster

So we gonna put Sherrill's name on the football stadium? He changed our football program

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Honestly- I'd be fine with that. He will end up in the ring of honor or whatever we call it one day for sure.

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Originally Posted by Drugdog

So is Bigfoot and Nessie. And they didn't coach against us or try to bring the program down!

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That's funny as shit!

We are tearing down Polk-Dement stadium at Dudy Noble Field.

A new stadium needs a new name- one without Polk's name on it. Paul Gregory has as many SEC Titles as Polk has and a higher conference winning percentage.