Reminiscing after the NC can't help but thinking about 1985

[Ranchdawg]

I thought we were the team to beat and I would have bet $100 before the series started. I found this on YouTube and I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did. https://youtu.be/d8ch5fWIM_M

 

[Nunya.sixpack]

Clark could flat motor around the bases

 

[#ShowOff]

I still think of that 2016 team. The Supers loss to Arizona was tough...and then they went all the way to the CWS Finals. 2016 is arguably the most complete State baseball team. I'm glad those players this year battled and battled and got it done. Kudos. Not one single error in the entire College World Series. Amazing.

Champions.

Hail State.

 

[DAWGS1.sixpack]

Still
Don’t know how we didn’t win it all
That year or even make the CWS in ‘89 - maybe our best team ever.

 

[Arthur2478]

2016 is arguably the most complete State baseball team.

1989 is the answer here. That team won 54 games and didn't even make it out of the Regionals.

54–14

20–5

1st

SEC Tournament (1–2, T-4th) NCAA Regional (4–2, 2nd)

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An absolutely dominant regular season, ranked No. 1 most of the the year.
But if you got in the losers bracket of those old 6-team regionals, it became nearly impossible to win.

 

[maroonmania]

1989 is the answer here. That team won 54 games and didn't even make it out of the Regionals.

54–14

20–5

1st

SEC Tournament (1–2, T-4th) NCAA Regional (4–2, 2nd)

<tbody>
</tbody>

An absolutely dominant regular season, ranked No. 1 most of the the year.
But if you got in the losers bracket of those old 6-team regionals, it became nearly impossible to win.

Yea, I was in school with the '85 team but I always thought that the '89 team and the '16 team were probably more complete. In '85 we had the stars but we had almost nothing on the pitching staff behind Brantley and Morgan and bringing in Thigpen from RF to throw heat. Besides that our bottom third of the batting order (Roarke McDonald, John Scott and Frank Davis) was very weak especially for that offensive era of college baseball. '89 was IMO the best offensive team we have ever had. The team batting average was over .330 and there wasn't an easy out 1 thru 9.

 

[Ranchdawg]

Morgan doesn't take a line drive off the ankle and we win it in 1985. Morgan doesn't get mauled against Notre Dame and we win it all.

 

[cowbell88]

And to win it wearing both the white and maroon 85 uni’s is really special l.

 

[maroonmania]

Morgan doesn't take a line drive off the ankle and we win it in 1985. Morgan doesn't get mauled against Notre Dame and we win it all.

Good point although the Morgan mauling from ND would have worked out well for us if WBB had competent officiating. Would have loved to have had Morgan William shooting FTs to take the lead with just a few seconds to go.

 

[Xenomorph]

Somewhere there's a pic of Kellum Clark rounding the bases after his 3 run bomb wearing the maroon top. It's cover photo material. Anybody find it?

 

[Russ Wheeler]

Morgan doesn't take a line drive off the ankle and we win it in 1985. Morgan doesn't get mauled against Notre Dame and we win it all.

Devil's Advocate to both of these.

1985 CWS: What so many don't realize was that we were up 3-0 in the 5th when Morgan got hurt. We actually scored again in the 6th and were up 4-0 before Texas made their comeback. How did Polk not take him out of the game, when he had a whole inning to see that he wasn't the same? The man isn't stupid, so that tells me we had no other pitching, or that Morgan was still effective for another inning then ran out of gas. Either way we should have been able to mitigate this, knowing that piece of information.

2018 NCAAW Finals: We were up like 15 late in the first half. It's hard for me to blame that game on officiating.

 

[Leeshouldveflanked]

If Lemonis was coaching 1985 Team, we would have won…Lemonis learns from his mistakes and is willing to make changes….Polk was not.

 

[Go Budaw]

1989 is the answer here. That team won 54 games and didn't even make it out of the Regionals.

54–14

20–5

1st

SEC Tournament (1–2, T-4th) NCAA Regional (4–2, 2nd)

<tbody>
</tbody>

An absolutely dominant regular season, ranked No. 1 most of the the year.
But if you got in the losers bracket of those old 6-team regionals, it became nearly impossible to win.

The 1989 team is a little bit of a perplexing one to assess historically. I would compare them to our 2004 basketball team…a dominant regular season, but they really didn’t have a ton of top end talent….and that might have been what cost them in the postseason. No 1st or 2nd round draft picks to be found. Bobby Reed who was a 3rd rounder in the 1990 draft was the highest draft pick. John Shave went in the 5th, Pete Young went in the 6th, Raffo went in the 8th, Jody Hurst went in the 10th, and that was it for picks in the Top 10 rounds over two different draft years (1989-1990). None of the above ever did anything of note in MLB, either.

A great team and a great season….no question. But not anywhere close to the talent level of 1985, 2013, 2021, or even some of the 2016-2019 teams.

 

[maroonmania]

The 1989 team is a little bit of a perplexing one to assess historically. I would compare them to our 2004 basketball team…a dominant regular season, but they really didn’t have a ton of top end talent….and that might have been what cost them in the postseason. No 1st or 2nd round draft picks to be found. Bobby Reed who was a 3rd rounder in the 1990 draft was the highest draft pick. John Shave went in the 5th, Pete Young went in the 6th, Raffo went in the 8th, Jody Hurst went in the 10th, and that was it for picks in the Top 10 rounds over two different draft years (1989-1990). None of the above ever did anything of note in MLB, either.

A great team and a great season….no question. But not anywhere close to the talent level of 1985, 2013, 2021, or even some of the 2016-2019 teams.

Looks like after all was said and done our final team batting avg. was .321 but could you imagine a batting lineup like this today (whether or not they ended up as MLB stars)?:

Unif	Player Name	Exp	Pos	Age	Class	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	HP	SH	SF	IW	DP	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	PA	TB	XBH	secA	ISO	babip	BB%	SO%	SOBB	ABHR	HR%	XBH%	HiLvl
---	<nobr>Tommy Raffo</nobr>	---	DH-1B	21	---	68	266	69	102	15	1	22	80	5	1	34	44	0	0	0	0	0	.383	.000	.695	.695	0	185	38	.455	.312	.000	0.00	0.00	1.29	12.1	0.00	37.2	A+
---	<nobr>Pete Young</nobr>	---	P/3B	21	---	67	257	74	82	27	0	11	65	1	2	47	42	0	0	0	0	0	.319	.000	.553	.553	0	142	38	.412	.234	.000	0.00	0.00	0.89	23.4	0.00	46.3	MLB
---	<nobr>Brad Hildreth</nobr>	---	SS	22	---	67	256	56	87	19	2	6	55	0	3	26	33	0	0	0	0	0	.340	.000	.500	.500	0	128	27	.250	.160	.000	0.00	0.00	1.27	42.7	0.00	31.0	A+
---	<nobr>Jody Hurst</nobr>	---	OF	22	---	66	256	79	80	14	0	13	56	4	7	69	50	0	0	0	0	0	.313	.000	.520	.520	0	133	27	.465	.207	.000	0.00	0.00	0.72	19.7	0.00	33.8	AAA
---	<nobr>John Cohen</nobr>	---	OF	22	---	66	247	55	69	15	3	8	45	5	3	31	37	0	0	0	0	0	.279	.000	.462	.462	0	114	26	.316	.183	.000	0.00	0.00	1.19	30.9	0.00	37.7	A+
---	Burke Masters	---	2B	-	---	61	234	54	78	13	1	4	38	9	1	29	26	0	0	0	0	0	.333	.000	.449	.449	0	105	18	.274	.116	.000	0.00	0.00	0.90	58.5	0.00	23.1	---
---	<nobr>Richie Grayum</nobr>	---	OF/DH	20	---	59	225	46	62	9	1	12	58	0	0	38	57	0	0	0	0	0	.276	.000	.484	.484	0	109	22	.378	.208	.000	0.00	0.00	1.50	18.8	0.00	35.5	AAA
---	<nobr>Barry Winford</nobr>	---	C	23	---	53	178	39	60	18	1	4	50	7	2	32	31	0	0	0	0	0	.337	.000	.517	.517	0	92	23	.388	.180	.000	0.00	0.00	0.97	44.5	0.00	38.3	A+
---	<nobr>Tracy Echols</nobr>	---	OF	22	---	55	162	45	48	8	1	9	35	8	3	42	42	0	0	0	0	0	.296	.000	.525	.525	0	85	18	.519	.229	.000	0.00	0.00	1.00	18.0	0.00	37.5	A-
Team Totals	562	2081	517	668	138	10	89	482	39	22	348	362	0	0	0	---	0	.321	.418	.525	.943	2429	1093	237	.380	.204	.355	14.33	14.90	1.04	23.4	3.66	35.5	---

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and that doesn't even count guys that didn't always start a lot that year like Jon Shave and Ron Winford.

 

[thatsbaseball]

This is an excellent point in fact he probably would have taken at least two or three Polk teams all the way.

 

[Russ Wheeler]

If Lemonis was coaching 1985 Team, we would have won…Lemonis learns from his mistakes and is willing to make changes….Polk was not.

I do sometimes wonder about Polk. He's heralded as being so great, and he definitely was good, and certainly helped mobilize our fanbase to build a big stadium, but was that demand already there? And yes, he was a good recruiter, but he just didn't have the top end success. I classify Polk as a very good coach, not a great one.

 

[Russ Wheeler]

I still think of that 2016 team. The Supers loss to Arizona was tough...and then they went all the way to the CWS Finals. 2016 is arguably the most complete State baseball team. I'm glad those players this year battled and battled and got it done. Kudos. Not one single error in the entire College World Series. Amazing.

Champions.

Hail State.

2016 had problems in the bullpen, but yeah, they still had every opportunity to win it all. Stage was just too big.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

I can still hear Jim Ellis giving out that starting lineup over the radio. What a greet team.

I can also hear the call for Master's Grand Slam. I was working night and trying to sleep and listen to the game at the same time. When he gave that call there was no sleep that day. Made the trip down for next game and the crowd was still electric.

 

[patdog]

Good, but not great, coach. Great promoter. His teams underperformed in the postseason too often.

 

[thatsbaseball]

I always thought he was too obsessed with the NCAA and lost his focus on the task at hand from time to time.

 

[Ranchdawg]

This ^^

 

[champdawg.sixpack]

Not a great one? Really!? He and skip double handedly built college baseball Polk is definitely in the “great” category. If you think diff. You are under the age of50.

 

[Bulldog Bruce]

Looking back there were a few things. Coach Polk ALWAYS believed in "never too high, never too low". He believed in eliminating emotion as much as possible. Baseball is a marathon in general and you do need to keep a level head no matter what happens. BUT sometimes emotion can elevate you in short bursts and should be utilized.

Second we were very well prepared teams. We went over scenarios all the time and understood what should be done. BUT then you ask a guy to suicide squeeze in the CWS that has not laid down a bunt all season and a play we as a team had not done before this time. On top of it all of ESPN announces the squeeze is on since we could not hide it very well.

 

[AlCoDog]

He was 17ing 12 years old. He would have been terrible. They never would have respected him.

 

[She Mate Me]

Good, but not great, coach. Great promoter. His teams underperformed in the postseason too often.

Polk is the SEC's winningest coach, 2x National COY, one of 3 to take 3 programs to the CWS, Top 10 all time in wins, College Baseball HOFer.

Good, but not great. Well, it's a bold conclusion, I'll give you that.

 

[Russ Wheeler]

Not a great one? Really!? He and skip double handedly built college baseball Polk is definitely in the “great” category. If you think diff. You are under the age of50.

If you say stuff like this you are definitely a baby boomer.

 

[thatsbaseball]

First I'm a Polk fan but ever wonder why Skip won all those natty's and Polk won none. Their head to head record was almost dead even if I remember correctly. Not being able to "finishing the deal" doesn't diminish Polk or his accomplishments IMO but when tournament time came around and a mic was put in front of him he showed his (well founded but terribly distracting) obsession with the NCAA. There is just not a good excuse for him not winning it all a couple of times especially when our program was decades ahead of most of the rest of the college programs at the time.

 

[tatedog]

First I'm a Polk fan but ever wonder why Skip won all those natty's and Polk won none. Their head to head record was almost dead even if I remember correctly. Not being able to "finishing the deal" doesn't diminish Polk or his accomplishments IMO but when tournament time came around and a mic was put in front of him he showed his (well founded but terribly distracting) obsession with the NCAA. There is just not a good excuse for him not winning it all a couple of times especially when our program was decades ahead of most of the rest of the college programs at the time.

Skip started recruiting teams built specifically for Rosenblatt Stadium and the balls/bats of the era. Until LSU started winning championships he was mostly known for developing pitchers, but he was able to put his ego aside and accept that Gorilla Ball was the great equalizer. He didn't stop developing pitchers though, and it was a lethal combination.

 

[She Mate Me]

First I'm a Polk fan but ever wonder why Skip won all those natty's and Polk won none. Their head to head record was almost dead even if I remember correctly. Not being able to "finishing the deal" doesn't diminish Polk or his accomplishments IMO but when tournament time came around and a mic was put in front of him he showed his (well founded but terribly distracting) obsession with the NCAA. There is just not a good excuse for him not winning it all a couple of times especially when our program was decades ahead of most of the rest of the college programs at the time.

Skip is almost certainly one of the 5 greatest college coaches of all time. That doesn't mean Polk was good, but not great, which is my only real disagreement with other statements in this thread.

Polk being 2nd best to Skip and not winning it all at a school who, until very recently, never wins it all, does not reduce him to simply a good baseball coach. He was a great baseball coach. The massive excitement around the baseball program was a direct result of the teams he built here.

 

[tatedog]

That 89 team is pretty much summed up by Tracy Echols batting 9th. What a lineup that was.

 

[patdog]

Polk had a few seasons with 6 games against LSU back when Bertman was building the program, so he got a big head start on him. But yeah, the biggest difference between them was Polk was a regular season coach and Skip was a postseason coach.

 

[patdog]

By far, Polk's biggest successes came when the rest of the SEC didn't care about baseball. I can remember those days, and in college baseball the SEC was a backwater conference that wasn't relevant nationally at all.

 

[She Mate Me]

By far, Polk's biggest successes came when the rest of the SEC didn't care about baseball. I can remember those days, and in college baseball the SEC was a backwater conference that wasn't relevant nationally at all.

So I guess this diminishes his success and what he built at MSU (I don't agree).

What explains him taking Georgia Southern to the CWS once in his 4 years there (2 trips in their history) and taking Georgia once in his 2 years there?

He was a great coach. I honestly don't understand an MSU fan not seeing this, but opinions will differ, always do. I feel pretty confident that plenty of high level college baseball folks agree with mine.