Heading into Sunday of the Starkville Regional, John Cohen’s 45 win squad is in a great position to advance. It’s amazing seeing the job rebuilding that Cohen has done. Despite the on field proof, there are still Ron Polk loyalist who aren’t yet sold on Cohen but they get quieter by the day.
For reference, at 29 years of age I only remember the tail end of Polk I. I remember more of Polk II and his war with the NCAA. I’m very appreciative of him but I don’t have that undying, unmatchable love for Polk that some of the older MSU fans do. I reference that to show why when I hear older fans takes jabs at Cohen, especially while succeeding, and bring up Polk it irritates me a bit.
Yesterday I ran across this post on EliteDawgs.com by Coach34 (@wool34) that really put what I’ve been laying out into perspective, particularly the fan quote at the end.
“I’m always amazed at how much bigger the legend of Polk is than the results
So many people act like the only success State ever had in baseball was under Polk- and that he had some incredible career at State. While he had a very good career, I’ve always thought he underachieved immensely. He got to State a time when no other SEC programs really cared about baseball- yet couldnt dominate or even come anything close to something like Bertman did at LSU. .
State won 4 SEC titles in the 11 years before Polk was hired- Polk only won 4 SEC titles in 28 years. We have 16 overall titles
Polk did win 5 of our 7 SEC Tourney titles- but the Tourney didnt begin until 1977 when Polk was coach
Polk only won 6 out of 20 Regionals in 28 years….Tomorrow will be our 12th Regional win overall-33 total NCAA appearances
6 CWS appearances in 28 years at State with a 6-12 record (2 other CWS with Georgia and Georgia Southern- going 1-4….7-16 in CWS overall)
Just something I checked out after one of our fans said- “Ron Polk built MSU baseball, he had the right to tear it down”…maybe the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen or heard one of our fans say- and that is saying a lot.”
3rdand57 