Reminiscing about the state of SEC baseball for a sec.....

[thatsbaseball]

I don't know how the writers, broadcasters and sports historians will record the history of SEC baseball and how it evolved into the juggernaut it is today. My recollection will always be it all started with our own Left Field Lounge and really took off when we had two legendary coaches and master PROMOTERS (Bertman and Polk) showed up and seized the opportunities they saw if they WON and made their games real sporting events and FUN...I.E (like the LFL) for their two fan bases that just loved baseball. They did it so well that it left the rest of the league no choice but to follow suite and they found out their fan bases liked it too. I guess as they say "the rest is history" I saw my first State baseball game in the spring of 1969 from left field and saw everyone I attended (there were many) while I was in school from there. Great times and great memories.

 

[PBDog]

I don't know how the writers, broadcasters and sports historians will record the history of SEC baseball and how it evolved into the juggernaut it is today. My recollection will always be it all started with our own Left Field Lounge and really took off when we had two legendary coaches and master PROMOTERS (Bertman and Polk) showed up and seized the opportunities they saw if they WON and made their games real sporting events and FUN...I.E (like the LFL) for their two fan bases that just loved baseball. They did it so well that it left the rest of the league no choice but to follow suite and they found out their fan bases liked it too. I guess as they say "the rest is history" I saw my first State baseball game in the spring of 1969 from left field and saw everyone I attended (there were many) while I was in school from there. Great times and great memories.

Love msu but bertman put sec baseball on the map. We know it was lottery money helping but regardless he got it done.

 

[dog99walker]

First game was watching Buck Showalter from Left Field. The man could hit. Polk was on the rise, touring every hamlet in Mississippi telling many of the same jokes he tells today. It was love at first sight. Even when they are weak, it’s still love.

 

[patdog]

Bertman made 5 CWS & won his 1st title before the LA lottery even started. He was the best coach in college baseball history. Dedaux had an even better run at USC back in the 70s, but the completion then just wasn’t the same.

 

[8dog]

Bertman invented oversigning and cutting

 

[PBDog]

Bertman made 5 CWS & won his 1st title before the LA lottery even started. He was the best coach in college baseball history. Dedaux had an even better run at USC back in the 70s, but the completion then just wasn’t the same.

How many titles after lottery

 

[Smoked Toag]

Bertman made 5 CWS & won his 1st title before the LA lottery even started. He was the best coach in college baseball history. Dedaux had an even better run at USC back in the 70s, but the completion then just wasn’t the same.

This is an interesting fact. If I'm looking at the history right, it didn't start funding public education until 2003. So LSU's whole program was built before the lottery.

Coaching is huge in college baseball.

 

[Leeshouldveflanked]

It would have been interesting to see what Polk could have achieved if he had spent more time recruiting players and focusing on MSU baseball instead of Cape Cod and trying to hammer the NCAA.

 

[maroonmania]

Bertman invented oversigning and cutting

Juicing didn't hurt either. Polk was a baseball purist but with Skip he was much more willing to do whatever was required to get an advantage and win at a championship level. I can remember during the Polk-Bertman timeframe looking at the 2 teams and our guys during that era looking like HS kids compared to the LSU guys many of whom looked 30 years old.

 

[patdog]

We should have let him walk away the first time he retired back in 1993. He never gave his full effort to Mississippi State after then.

 

[Smoked Toag]

We should have let him walk away the first time he retired back in 1993. He never gave his full effort to Mississippi State after then.

He only signed the #1 class in the country in 1994, a class that took us to Omaha twice.

We all agree he shouldn't have been hired in 2002, but let's not go too far.

 

[patdog]

The revival of MSU baseball after the 90s slump came when we rehired Pat McMahon in 1994.

 

[Emma’s Dad]

I don't know how the writers, broadcasters and sports historians will record the history of SEC baseball and how it evolved into the juggernaut it is today. My recollection will always be it all started with our own Left Field Lounge and really took off when we had two legendary coaches and master PROMOTERS (Bertman and Polk) showed up and seized the opportunities they saw if they WON and made their games real sporting events and FUN...I.E (like the LFL) for their two fan bases that just loved baseball. They did it so well that it left the rest of the league no choice but to follow suite and they found out their fan bases liked it too. I guess as they say "the rest is history" I saw my first State baseball game in the spring of 1969 from left field and saw everyone I attended (there were many) while I was in school from there. Great times and great memories.

This is a solid post. I agree. While it is true that Skip Bertman had a great run at LSU, popularization of college baseball began at the grass roots level at remarkable venues like Dudy Noble— something for which we should be very proud.