Polk’s Summer Paradise

STARKVILLE – There are always markers for the changing of the seasons. Leaves shift colors to indicate fall has arrived, soon followed by the first blast of cold air foreshadowing winter's chill. Then the flowers blossom come the spring.

At least in the state of Mississippi, one of the surest signs summertime is just around the corner is that Ron Polk heads northward. It used to be those trips were to Nebraska as the legendary coach at Mississippi State and other stops totaled eight College World Series appearances in his career. For the last decade though, Polk's trek has shifted more eastward than Omaha as he has become a staple as an assistant coach in the Cape Cod Baseball League in Massachusetts.

"I enjoy it," Polk – now a Special Assistant to the Athletic Director at MSU – said last week, only days before heading up to the Cape. "I enjoy the weather and enjoy the competition. I enjoy the coaches up there. It's kind of a working vacation."

This year marks Polk's ninth season as a CCBL assistant. What used to be annual trips to the Cape to see his own players back when he was a collegiate head coach evolved into more in the years following his retirement from MSU in 2008.

"I went over to UAB and I had my summers free because I was a volunteer [assistant] for 12 years," Polk said. "I wasn't able to recruit. So I talked to [then-UAB head coach Brian Shoop] and said, 'I think I'm going to reach out to several of the coaches [in the Cape] and see if they want an assistant.' Well I did and, bang, I got [a job with Wareham] quick."

Polk spent his first two years in the CCBL with the Wareham Gatemen. He then helped with the Hyannis Harbor Hawks for six seasons. After the 2020 Cape campaign was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Polk is now back where it all began for him. In 2021, he's once again assisting with Wareham.

Now for anyone who thinks this is just some honorary post for a baseball icon, you'd be sorely mistaken. Remember, this is what Polk called a working vacation – emphasis on the working part. Just ask one of his former Cape players and current MSU Bulldog Rowdey Jordan.

"When you're up there you can tell how much he loves coaching and being around the kids," Jordan said. "I remember him telling me before I got up there about the players coming in to play with us. Now, when he's at Mississippi State, I'll talk to him before games and he'll talk about, 'I'm looking at bringing this player up to the Cape.' You can really tell how much he loves it. Then when you get up there and play with him, it just enhances your understanding of how much he likes it because of how involved he is."

Yes, this is all very much a labor of love for Polk. He says he enjoys working with the best, and the best often come through the CCBL. Polk says that in his eight previous seasons in the Cape, 23 guys that he's gotten to coach have made it to the big leagues already. And it all happens in a place where it's the baseball itself that's at the center of the attention. It's very much old school, just the way a coach that still totes around a flip phone and frequently uses his typewriter likes it.

"They're high school fields up there [in the Cape]," Polk said. "I take a Mississippi State boy…they come up there and might say, 'Where's the bathroom in our dugout?' I say, 'You see that hill up there? There's a Porta John at the top.' Or, 'Where's the water fountain? Where's the managers to take care of all my equipment and laundry?' I'll have to say, 'Hey, you're on your own baby.'
They don't charge admission up there. It's a lot of people. Not like we have [for games at Mississippi State] but they get up and spread their blankets out and get their chairs out. Everybody claps for everybody because there's no alumni. There's no students ragging you. It's just baseball. Pure baseball."

And for a lucky few each summer, they get to learn from one of the game's most knowledgeable minds. That's not limited to just players either.

Chad Gassman is now the athletic director at Waldorf University in Iowa, but he's the former head coach at Hyannis in the CCBL. Polk used to be a member of Gassman's Harbor Hawks staff.

"I was the head coach, but come on, I had an assistant that was one of the best coaches ever," Gassman said with a chuckle. "But I think the reason it worked was he was so gracious and humble to help me and I didn't let my ego get the best of me. I was the head coach, but I thought, 'I'm going to learn from this guy.' I really think it helped my career as a coach and a leader.

"What I learned from him is that he truly, genuinely cares about people. He's getting addresses so he can write every one of [the players] a letter. That was very important to him. The first day he met them, he put them through an orientation and he wanted to get their addresses and their phone numbers. He'd call them. And he'd say, 'Don't text me. I want to talk to you.' He'd call them on their birthday. He'd call them when they advanced in Minor League ball. I was just overwhelmed with how he cared about people. He's extremely organized. Extremely detailed. He has a plan for everything. I'm so thankful I got the opportunity to work with him."

This year at Wareham, Polk was slated to help out longtime friend and Gatemen head coach Jerry Weinstein. As it turns out, Weinstein will soon depart from Wareham to work with Team USA, but Weinstein knows while he's away, the Gatemen will be in fantastic hands as Polk remains part of the staff.

"This is what he likes to do and he's good at it and thank goodness, because the players really benefit from his expertise and his willingness to do it," Weinstein said.

So from now until somewhere around the middle of August, Polk will be back in his element. He'll be out on a baseball diamond most days, leading and guiding some of the top baseball players in the country. He'll likely grab a fungo bat and hit a little infield. He'll almost assuredly tell several of his many, many stories from a lifetime in the game.

"Let's say we had [batting practice] at 4 p.m. We'd be at the field at 3 p.m., sitting there on the hill, listening to him tell a story for 45 minutes about when he was coaching back in the 80s," Jordan said.

But perhaps above all else, Polk will simply be returning to the game just a bit of all that it has given him. And it benefits all parties – the players, his fellow coaches and Polk himself.

"Basically, I've been blessed financially and I enjoy that, being that I've done well and can give back," Polk said.

Mississippi State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Rowdey Jordan

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