2021 College World Series Thread

[ztejas 43,452]

4 minutes ago, msudawg said:

Without Bednar, we wouldn't have made it to Omaha likely.  But that's like saying how you would be without Madden... you would likely be out. 

Btw, we are now 7-6 vs Texas. First Game in 1922. 

You're missing the point. I'm saying you're losing Bednar next year so it's good that you got one in while you could. His pitching carried you there and the rest of your team got it done when they had to. 

You might have a hard time replacing him next year but who gives a fuck, you're CWS champs.

[msudawg 371]

9 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

Negged.

Positive!

Edited July 1, 2021 by msudawg

[orangecat92 306]

3 hours ago, msudawg said:

Without Bednar, we wouldn't have made it to Omaha likely.  But that's like saying how you would be without Madden... you would likely be out. 

Btw, we are now 7-6 vs Texas. First Game in 1922. 

I see this as a great series moving forward.  The maroon gets my attention, and the fact you guys have the best stadium in college baseball makes me think this could be a fantastic series every year or every other year or so.  Home and home.  Let's do this CDC. 

[Valmy77 13,226]

4 hours ago, msudawg said:

Without Bednar, we wouldn't have made it to Omaha likely.  But that's like saying how you would be without Madden... you would likely be out. 

Btw, we are now 7-6 vs Texas. First Game in 1922. 

We will have our vengeance in this lifetime or the next...though I understand games in the next life don't count in the overall record.

[Steel Shank 9,425]

I bet a large portion of the MSU fans celebrated by laying pipe.

Good for them says I.

[msudawg 371]

I see this as a great series moving forward.  The maroon gets my attention, and the fact you guys have the best stadium in college baseball makes me think this could be a fantastic series every year or every other year or so.  Home and home.  Let's do this CDC. 

How sad will you be when we take over your home stadium and all of Austin. ***(don't remember if sarcasm transfers over here)
But seriously there is a large amount of bulldogs up here in dfw.
Maybe I want the series more now that this year happened or is it because I'm married to a longhorn.

#HailState

[msudawg 371]

We will have our vengeance in this lifetime or the next...though I understand games in the next life don't count in the overall record.

People should know when they are conquered....

On that note. I know what I'm watching tomorrow night (early morning for a 3 hour movie)


#HailState

[msudawg 371]

I bet a large portion of the MSU fans celebrated by laying pipe.

Good for them says I.

As long as they grow up playing catch with dad and bat left and can hit a curveball.


#HailState

[Rholl 218]

Wait!!!   I may have missed this, but is Aggie hanging a NC at their baseball field.... cause SECSEC

[msudawg 371]

Wait!!!   I may have missed this, but is Aggie hanging a NC at their baseball field.... cause SECSEC

I believe I said something about a rusty iron rod and an asshole before...

It was hilarious talking to a rebel /black bear fan in my office earlier who professed in the super regionals (once they choked) he would root for us. But then when I finally asked him last night about the game he said he had heard vandy just wasn't playing like they were interested.

Yea. Not interested in fighting for a NC in the 4th inning....


#HailState

[Scheiss Meister 8,408]

Congrats, @msudawg.  Nice run, and a lot of fun to watch.  Well, some of the games.  You know which ones.

[C-Man 27,229]

Did this get posted? Sorry if it did. Pretty awesome story of an MSU superfan getting surprised by tickets to the final game by a co-worker.

https://theathletic.com/2685413/2021/07/02/he-has-to-go-the-story-of-a-mississippi-state-superfans-surprise-last-second-trip-to-the-college-world-series/?fbpw=1&fbclid=IwAR3Oh_HM6Wb_wD596SQeWigaWAAKUZPevtaKbFQVQk-FL_wNUWH--4tepF8

Quote

When Dillon Saffle woke up Wednesday morning in St. Louis, he checked his iPhone and saw that Mississippi State had beaten Vanderbilt to force a winner-take-all Game 3 in the College World Series. Saffle was stoked — not for himself, but for a friend and colleague who bleeds maroon and white. The Bulldogs were one win away from the first team sports NCAA championship in school history. Driving to work a little while later, less than 12 hours before the first pitch of Game 3, Saffle had this thought: Why isn’t Justin in Omaha?

Maybe you don’t know Justin Aguiar, but you surely know a fan like him. He lives and breathes Bulldogs baseball. He sneaks a Mississippi State mention into almost every conversation. He talks about “State” and assumes strangers in the Midwest know which school he means. Sometimes, he’s too nervous to watch a game on TV, so he follows along on his phone. “I’ve never met anyone who is that passionate about a single team,” Saffle said. “It’s unbelievable.”

Sitting in his car outside the office of Rapsodo, Inc. — a sports tech and analytics company whose products are used throughout MLB — Saffle, a manager of sales and MLB player relations, phoned two superiors and asked for approval to send Aguiar to Omaha.

“I was like, he has to go,” Saffle said.

Aguiar, a product manager, was already at his desk. It was, he says, “kind of a normal day.” He had an 8:30 a.m. meeting with engineers, then went back to his laptop. Aguiar was unaware of the texts pinging back and forth around him. Saffle was searching for tickets. The first five tries on Ticketmaster failed. Someone else got them first each time. Saffle also was trying to find someone to make the spontaneous six-hour drive from St. Louis to Omaha with Aguiar.

Just after 9 a.m., Saffle walked up to Aguiar’s desk and handed him two tickets.

“We didn’t know if he was going to cry, throw up or all of the above,” Saffle said. “It was super special. You can tell how much this means to him.”

Aguiar’s reaction, later shared far and wide on social media, was golden. He looked at the $300 tickets, confused. He initially thought it was just the starting lineups for the game. “What?” he asked. Saffle told him he was going to the game. “What?!” Aguiar said again, then buried his face in his hands.

The best day of Aguiar’s life was underway before he ever saw it coming.

The 28-year-old rushed home, stuffed T-shirts and shorts into a bag, then hit the road. Tyler Lewis, a Rapsodo sales rep, played the part of travel buddy and cinematographer for the trip. Lewis wasn’t about to turn down a free trip to the College World Series. The two of them cruised along Interstate 70 in Lewis’ Chevrolet Malibu, then cut north at Kansas City to take I-29 to Omaha.

These days, Aguiar qualifies as a Mississippi State superfan, but there’s more to it than that. He spent much of the past decade working with the Bulldogs baseball team in video and analytics as an undergrad and a graduate assistant. He still knows the Bulldogs players and staff personally. And you’d better believe he knows the 126-year history of Mississippi State athletics.

“Mississippi State has always been the bridesmaid, never the bride,” Aguiar said. “We have all these great things. We have the best stadium in college baseball. We have the best fan base. We have incredible resources. We have all these guys who get drafted and go to the bigs. We have such a strong tradition.

“But our trophy case is missing something.”

Aguiar fell for baseball at an early age, a product of his father’s Cuban heritage and of growing up in Atlanta during the Braves’ Greg Maddux-Tom Glavine-John Smoltz heyday. But Aguiar also had an affinity for computers and technology and numbers, because his father, Joe, worked in IT.

After taping practice and game film for his high school’s football team, Aguiar figured college programs needed the same sort of help. His mother, Sue Harmon, had gone to Auburn. His stepdad, Bobby Harmon, went to Mississippi State. So, as a high-school senior, Aguiar emailed the baseball video coordinators at both schools. The Bulldogs’ coordinator invited him to a game.

That email, Aguiar said, set the course for his career.

“That program — those players, those coaches — they changed my life, man,” he said. “Wherever I go, whatever I do, it’ll always be who I am.”

Lewis and Aguiar arrived in Omaha three hours before game time. They checked into a hotel in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and made the short drive to TD Ameritrade Park. When they entered the ballpark, Mississippi State was taking batting practice. Aguiar walked down behind the dugout. Players saw him and waved. Some had already seen the video of him on Twitter that morning.

“I was like, ‘Hey guys, I’m here. I’m not missing this,’” Aguiar said.

As a numbers guy, Aguiar memorized the official attendance at Wednesday’s game — 24,052 — and then (conservatively) estimated that it was “24,000 Mississippi State fans and 52 Vanderbilt moms and dads.” TV shots showed Dak Prescott and Rafael Palmeiro in the stands. They all erupted when the Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead early against Vanderbilt’s Kumar Rocker.

But Aguiar has fallen for false starts and fool’s gold before. When Mississippi State’s Will Bednar walked two batters in the bottom of the first, Aguiar saw a tipping point. This could be where the mighty Commodores find a foothold.

“Or,” Aguiar said, “we could write a different ending than people expected.”

The next batter bounced into an inning-ending double play.

Aguiar and former Bulldogs pitcher Jacob Billingsley, following the Super Regionals in 2018. (Courtesy of Justin Aguiar)

Aguiar insists the Bulldogs baseball program is a family — closer than any other in college baseball — and he tells this story to illustrate the point.

It was his last home game after seven seasons (and two kinesiology degrees) in Starkville, Miss. — Mississippi State and Stanford in the Super Regional final at Dudy Noble Field on June 9, 2019. A half-hour before the game, Aguiar was cutting up video on his computer. His cousin Laura texted, “Are you doing OK?” Aguiar replied, “I’m fine. What’s up?” No reply. He called his cousin. No answer. He took a screenshot of the text and sent it to his mom. She didn’t answer either. So, Aguiar phoned his mom and asked what was going on.

She told Aguiar his dad had died — had a heart attack at work.

“Just shock,” Aguiar said. “You can’t prepare for that.”

Aguiar remembers sitting there, unsure what to do next. He’d had a complicated relationship with his dad after his parents separated. They hadn’t spoken in a couple of years. His head was swirling with thoughts. He found assistant coach Jake Gautreau in the dugout and told him what had happened. Gautreau told him the team was behind him no matter what. Associate athletic trainer Jason Wire encouraged Aguiar to go home. Aguiar didn’t want to miss the game but finally agreed. “Got that stubbornness from my dad,” he said.

Back at his apartment, though, Aguiar watched the game anyway. Stanford jumped in front early, and Mississippi State surged ahead with four runs in the third inning and another in the fourth. Aguiar was antsy. He rushed back to the ballpark. He sat in the clubhouse, watching on a TV with a 10-second delay.

In the ninth inning, Aguiar crept down the tunnel toward the dugout until he had a sightline. After Jake Mangum and Jordan Westburg singled, Elijah MacNamee, in his last at-bat at Dudy Noble, smoked a full-count fastball for a three-run home run. When MacNamee returned to the dugout, he saw Aguiar in the tunnel. MacNamee, whose grandfather had died a few weeks prior, bear-hugged Aguiar and said, “I’m here for you, brother.”

Afterward, as the Bulldogs celebrated, head coach Chris Lemonis told Aguiar to get out on the field and join the dogpile.

“It was a special night,” Aguiar said.

Aguiar after the Bulldogs’ win over Stanford. (Courtesy of Justin Aguiar)

All of this was going through Aguiar’s mind Wednesday night.

As Landon Sims threw the final pitch of the Bulldogs’ 9-0 win and the first-base umpire signaled the last out, Aguiar was lost in the moment. He cheered. He threw off his cap. Then he collapsed to his knees on the cement, head in his hands again and tears in his eyes. The Bulldogs piled in front of the pitcher’s mound. Their fight song played. Aguiar sobbed.

“That was for the years of almost making it,” he said. “That was for everyone who’s been part of the program, everyone that has supported the program — whether that’s a fan or a family member, a parent, a sister, whoever. You go back to Paul Gregory, the first coach to take us to Omaha; Ron Polk, who changed the whole culture; John Cohen, Gary Henderson, Lemonis, all of those guys.

“It’s for all the players, even the guys who never even played a game but were walk-ons in practice with us in the fall. They still played a part. It was 126 years of having a spot missing in the trophy case. I was just overwhelmed. We did it.”

Meanwhile, Aguiar’s phone lit up. Everyone at the office was checking in. (They demanded that Lewis take video of Aguiar’s reaction. He did not disappoint.)

Aguiar amid the celebration. (Courtesy of Justin Aguiar)

Later, Aguiar and Lewis went to the team hotel. Lewis says at least 50 people told Aguiar they’d seen the video of him being surprised with tickets. Aguiar says they were total strangers to him. As Mississippi State players climbed off the bus and walked through a gauntlet of fans outside the hotel, Aguiar was at the front of the line congratulating them. After that, it was to the bars.

Aguiar stayed out until 3 a.m., stretching the best day of his life for as long as he could. He and Lewis still woke up early on Thursday. They had a long drive ahead of them.

 

Edited July 2, 2021 by C-Man

[RollLeft 5,045]

Welcome to the club.

[TrashMaster G 17,557]

On 7/1/2021 at 8:13 PM, orangecat92 said:

I see this as a great series moving forward.  The maroon gets my attention, and the fact you guys have the best stadium in college baseball makes me think this could be a fantastic series every year or every other year or so.  Home and home.  Let's do this CDC. 

CDC doesn't do scheduling for the baseball team.

[Valmy77 13,226]

On 7/1/2021 at 3:45 PM, Surly Bevo said:

So you don't recognize UPI National Champions?

I don't think football titles count period because Georgia Tech has 3 or 4 of those.

[Valmy77 13,226]

17 hours ago, TrashMaster G said:

CDC doesn't do scheduling for the baseball team.

Oh? Who does if not the AD?

[TrashMaster G 17,557]

43 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

Oh? Who does if not the AD?

Pierce.   I'm sure the AD's office approves contracts, but the coach puts the non-conf schedule together.

[Valmy77 13,226]

32 minutes ago, TrashMaster G said:

Pierce.   I'm sure the AD's office approves contracts, but the coach puts the non-conf schedule together.

I did not know that. Is that unique for baseball or is that how most scheduling is done?

[TrashMaster G 17,557]

38 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

I did not know that. Is that unique for baseball or is that how most scheduling is done?

I think it's the norm for most sports outside of football. 

[Fletch 5,800]

Can we schedule an ooc series with aggy then pound them 3 straight games for ole times sake?