Who is in charge of the baseball team?

[Todd4State]

By that I mean, who are these Polk loyalists that keep him around? Is it the cigar boys? Is it LT? His former players? Everett?

Seriously, because I keep hearing about how there's no way to fire Polk and all this and that if Byrne did, he would be gone.

I have looked at Genespage ( I feel like I just admitted to looking at porn in Sunday School class), and I only see maybe two people defending Polk, and most of those people seem to want him gone, and they're the "wooly" people. But that is a good gauge how those people feel, and you combine it with our people, and I would say that most people want Polk gone.

I'm guessing it's the cigar boys that are keeping him around?

 

[Todd4State]

By that I mean, who are these Polk loyalists that keep him around? Is it the cigar boys? Is it LT? His former players? Everett?

Seriously, because I keep hearing about how there's no way to fire Polk and all this and that if Byrne did, he would be gone.

I have looked at Genespage ( I feel like I just admitted to looking at porn in Sunday School class), and I only see maybe two people defending Polk, and most of those people seem to want him gone, and they're the "wooly" people. But that is a good gauge how those people feel, and you combine it with our people, and I would say that most people want Polk gone.

I'm guessing it's the cigar boys that are keeping him around?

 

[Phil Wenneck.sixpack]

about the baseball team at all hardly. Not 1 thing was posted about our game but one sheep thought he'd be clever and announce to the flock that UM lost. That, in a nutshell is the problem. I swear, if we won a national title and I visited Gene's members only board, they'd be more excited to report that it rained in Oxford that day.

 

[Paper Dog]

(1) Hundreds of former players - several who give big money to the school and help build things
(2) The Cigar Boys
(3) LT
and more importantly (4) Greg Byrne is a big fan of his as well

No matter, how bad the current season is...Polk is still 10 months removed from Omaha

If Polk left and it was not on his own terms, it would be the ultimate public relations nightmare times 10 - and if Polk was let go, you would have to pretty much beg someone to take the job --- if Polk is let go, anyone connected to him (Steve Smith and John Cohen for example) would not take the job

The bottom line remains this....Polk is here as long as he wants to be here....and after he leaves, he will have an 80 percent say in his replacement

 

[Todd4State]

The first three are not a surprise, but I must say that Byrne is.

And to reply to the other post- no I haven't been to the secret board because I don't have access, and would like to spend 100 bucks somewhere else.</p>

 

[vhdawg]

....did Gene delete your response to the guy on the premium board that was boasting about USM beating Ole Miss?

I saw it last night, but it's not there this morning.

 

[cowbell9]

about baseball. And yes, Polk will go when he is good and ready. But you are wrong about him having a huge say so in his replacement. Not now.

 

[Faustdog]

and it's not because of money, cigar boys, or anything like that. If we fired Polk it would be David Cuttcliff times ten. We would probably be blackballed by potential replacement candidates. Our only hope is for Polk to step down.

 

[ExtremeDog]

It would be a PR nightmare.

Polk is here as long as he wants to be here, and there is not a thing any of us can do about it.

LT, being the POS that he is, took the lazy man's approach in 2002 and hired Polk back from Georgia. Why he did not go out and search for a young coach to breathe new life into the program will be one of the mysteries that will always make LT, LT!

 

[OEMDawg]

Public relations nightmare? Seriously? We are talking about college baseball here. Outside of a loyal (but much smaller than football or hoops) SEC fanbase and ESPN & Nebraska in June, is anybody even paying attention?

 

[8dog]

that reaches far enough that it hurts us-- with prospective hires and with former players who give back. That's all it takes to hurt us.

The problem is that we have all these former players that really don't care if we win or not as long as #1 is sitting in the third base box. They don't care about our success nearly as much as many of us.

 

[cowbell9]

...Bulldog Bruce?

 

[Stormrider81]

blasting us for firing him and will be sitting in the wings with his "I told you so" articles if the replacement has a bad year or fails overall. Now I think Cleveland is a hack, but a lot of people read his articles. Then you have the list of Polk's former players that still give money to MSU that we would possibly alienate. Then you have the list of former Polk players and assistants that would be viewed as possibly replacements, such as John Cohen, that we risk alienating. Then there's the whole well respected in college baseball circles thing, not to mention the guy's name is on our stadium and he has taken us to numerous CWS appearances. People like to say that Polk built MSU baseball, and whether true or not that would still make us look terrible if we fired him or sent him packing on bad terms. LT saddled us with Ron Polk back in Summer of 2001 thanks to his laziness and we will have Ron until he decides to ride off into the sunset. Not to be mean here but Ron doesn't really have a life outside college baseball so who knows when that will be.

 

[Goat Holder]

It's simple. You just can't fire a coach who's had that much success here, unless he pulls a Jackie. That crap about former players is more black helicopter than anything I've seen lately on Swan Lake. Even regarding the whole President stuff.

 

[vhdawg]

....I think it'd be a localized phenomena to the upper 2/3rds of the state of Mississippi, and none of the national media would cover it for more than a day, until the next time somebody on the Yankees or Red Sox hit the DL, meaning bigger news.

Rick Cleveland would whine, the sheep would bleat, but that'd be pretty much it. I don't see nuclear holocaust written on this at all. It's college baseball. As much as we don't like to believe it, nobody really cares except for the week the College World Series is on.

 

[Coach34]

they fired a legend. It was very controversial as was he. Bobby Knight was Indiana basketball. It took them a very short time to hire a replacement, and they didnt miss a beat.
There would be some short-term animosity, but there would be coaches all over the <17'ing> country lining up to take this job. We are at a point where we truly could still have the "pick of the litter". With the resources and history we have, coaches will want their shot no matter what we did to Polk

 

[wpnetdawg]

in the baseball publications (Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, etc.), but at the end of the day, many, many coaches would still be available. A coach has two primary worries - paycheck and wins.

Having said that, I still wouldn't fire him. I would definitely try to nudge him forcefully out the door though.

 

[wpnetdawg]

selfish to get his own way on the hiring of the new coach. I foresee an August retirement or something crazy so that we can't conduct a search.

 

[Paper Dog]

And he will make the call on that replacement - I promise you that

 

[8dog]

"You just can't fire a coach who's had that much success here, unless he pulls a Jackie"

If you disagree with me, then why do you say you "just can't fire a coach who's had that much success here"--just because your nice? No, you can't fire him for the reprecussions that will occur from those that give money and those that line up for the job.

 

[8dog]

was every Indiana fan's dream. That would be identical to our hiring Raffo.

 

[wpnetdawg]

round once in his last six years as coach there.

In all seriousness, I really don't remember much about the details, but wasn't Davis only hired because Knight was fired in September (or something like that)?

 

[Coach34]

was every Indiana fan's dream. That would be identical to our hiring Raffo.

</p>in the NCAA Tourney under Davis? Just sayin...

 

[Stormrider81]

</p>

 

[Coach34]

in the Fall wasnt he? Their hands were a little tied when they made a change.

 

[Stormrider81]

by mediocre seasons.

 

[8dog]

regardless, Im sure we could hire anyone and they might or might not make a run. The point is that we may put ourselves at a disadvantage in hiring who we want looking foreward.

 

[8dog]

in a matter of a few posts from a school that "didn't miss a beat" and was you example of how we can still get anyone to a school that hired Mike Davis because their hands were a little tied.

I seriously doubt any Indiana fan thinks their program is the kind that has to hire Mike Davis.

 

[Phil Wenneck.sixpack]

Na, I actually did that. I've had about a year long streak of not posting there and in a moment of weakness, I jumped on the chance to blast a sheep for his excitement of UM losing. After about 30 mins, I realized I had just broken my streak and figured it wasn't worth it. I really don't want my moniker associated with the place, much less the secret lake.

 

[rjsiwelhj]

the only person I would choose Raffo over.

 

[Bulldog Bruce]

I do not have a problem with Coach Polk's career ending if he is no longer effective. Of course I am not a major contributor in any way. There are probably some guys that are very loyal to him and contributions could be hurt if it is not handled properly. I know there are alot of folks who contribute to the players box that probably never get to use it and also many are in the dugout club. Would some of those commitments go away? Maybe.

The reason I do not think he is staying too much longer is because I mentioned to him I have a nephew, who is now a sophmore, a year or so ago who might prove to be a very good ballplayer. He said he doubted he would be around by the time he graduates.