Former MSU, MLB Great Jay Powell Helps MSU Usher In The 2006 Campaign Thursday
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Mississippi State won't open it's 2006 baseball season until Friday when the Bulldogs welcome Marist to Dudy Noble Field for a 4 p.m. lid-lifter.
But a gathering of nearly 600 Bulldog fans, MSU players and their family members will help usher in the new diamond season tonight at the Palmeiro Center with the ninth annual "First Pitch/Meet the Team" banquet. The banquet, the first public event to be held in the 68,000-square foot indoor practice center, gets under way at 6:30 p.m. with an autograph session on the north end of the new baseball complex prior to the 7 p.m. banquet.
A familiar face returns to the MSU campus to help the Bulldogs raise the curtains on their 116th season of baseball and their 40th campaign at the current Dudy Noble Field site - former MSU and Major League pitching standout Jay Powell.
The Meridian, Miss., native is also scheduled to throw out the ceremonial first pitch Friday at 4 p.m. when State launches the 2006 campaign and against Marist.
Powell, a former West Lauderdale High School standout, has given Diamond Dog fans plenty to remember on the diamond. In three years at Mississippi State (1991-93), Powell made 67 mound appearances (56 in relief), notching 11 wins, a sparkling 2.82 earned run average and 17 saves, fourth-most in school history. His 10-save rookie season in 1991 still ranks as the fourth-best at MSU.
The Baltimore Orioles made Powell a first round draft pick in 1993, and the Bulldogs hurler would go on to an 11-year career in Major League Baseball pitching for the Florida Marlins, the Houston Astros, the Colorado Rockies, the Texas Rangers and last season with the Atlanta Braves. He compiled a 36-win, 22-save mark with a 4.17 ERA in 512 career relief appearances. Perhaps the most celebrated of those wins came in the deciding seventh game of the 1997 World Series when Florida downed Cleveland in 11 innings to claim professional baseball¹s world championship.
Powell, who resides in Madison, Miss., with his wife Candace and children Wyatt and McKinna, saw his 11th season in the majors curtailed by an arm injury while pitching for the Braves last summer in Atlanta. But the 34-year old right-hander is still heavily involved with baseball, serving as an assistant coach at Jackson Academy. He¹s also staying closely connected with his alma mater, joining six other former Diamond Dogs whose financial contributions made possible the new baseball coaches office complex.
Mississippi State skipper Ron Polk, set to embark on his 27th season at MSU, will formally introduce the 2006 Diamond Dogs and the MSU staff during Thursday night's gala. Polk enters the season with 1,275 career wins, sixth-most among the nation's active NCAA Division I head coaches and 10th-most among the sport's all-time baseball coaches.