MSU, MLB Pitching Standout Jay Powell Tabbed To Speak At "First Pitch" Banquet
Feb. 23 in the new Palmeiro Center
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Former Mississippi State University and 11-year Major League pitching standout Jay Powell is the featured speaker at the ninth annual "First Pitch/Meet the Team" baseball banquet Feb. 23 on the MSU campus. More than 300 tickets have already been sold for the 7 p.m. event, to be held for the first time in the new Palmeiro Center.
The Meridian, Miss., native and former West Lauderdale High School standout saw his 11th season in Major League Baseball cut short last July when he sustained a broken arm pitching for the Atlanta Braves. Powell, a first-round draft pick of the Baltimore Orioles in 1993 following his three-year (1991 to 1993) MSU career, has compiled a 36-23 record with 22 saves and a 4.17 career earned run average in 512 career appearances pitching for the Florida Marlin (1995-98), the Houston Astros (1998-2001), the Colorado Rockies (2001), the Texas Rangers (2002-04) and the Atlanta Braves (2005). He was the winning pitcher in the Florida Marlin's 11-inning win over Cleveland in the deciding seventh game of the 1997 World Series.
Powell resides in Madison, Miss., where while rehabilitating his arm he serves as an assistant baseball coach at Jackson Academy. He joins an impressive list of past "First Pitch" banquet speakers ?€? MSU standouts Jeff Brantley, Will Clark, David "Boo" Ferriss, Alex Grammas, Burke Masters, Bobby Thigpen, Dan Van Cleve and best-selling author and MSU alumnus John Grisham and former Los Angeles Dodgers skipper Tommy Lasorda.
Ron Polk, set to begin his 27th season at State, will formally introduce State's 116th baseball edition at the banquet. The team features 18 returning letter-winners, including 10 pitchers and all but one starting position player from last year's 42-22 edition. The Bulldogs won the 2005 Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament in four games and advanced to the program's ninth NCAA Regional Tournament in the past 10 seasons.
Banquet tickets cost $25 per person and can be purchased during normal weekday business hours at the ticket office in the Bryan Athletic Administration Building on campus. Patrons can also place telephone orders for tickets by calling (662) 325-2600 and are reminded that no tickets will be sold on the night of the banquet.
Mississippi State, ranked as high as 13th in the preseason national polls and tabbed by the league's coaches to win the 2006 Southeastern Conference Western Division crown, begins preseason practice Feb. 6.
A pre-banquet autograph session with the MSU team has been added to this year's banquet lineup.
The Mississippi State ticket office is also accepting orders for 2006 baseball season tickets. As of Feb. 3, MSU has processed orders for 3,503 baseball season tickets through the first four weeks of State's season ticket sales campaign.
State plays 32 games at Dudy Noble Field in the coming season, including three-game SEC weekend series with Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee and a three-game Cadence Bank Classic weekend series against the Arizona Wildcats.
For additional ticket or banquet reservation information contact the MSU Athletic Ticket Office (662-325-2600).