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Team that refused to lose |
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Monday, 08 February 2010 |
(Editor’s Note: To coincide with the Eight Days of Dudy Gras celebration at Mississippi State, the Starkville Daily News will profile each of the eight College World Series teams from MSU. Today, the 1985 team is highlighted. On Monday, the spotlight will be turned to the 1990 squad.)
By DANNY P. SMITH
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Mississippi State’s 1985 College World Series team had four players who made it to the major leagues.
Will Clark, Rafael Palmeiro, Jeff Brantley and Bobby Thigpen all went on to contribute to various clubs at the highest level.
Even though he enjoyed his time with the San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds, Brantley especially valued his time with the teammates and friends he made during his time with the Bulldogs.
Working together to achieve a common goal like the College World Series helped that process along.
“What made it so special was probably the fact we were all so close,” Brantley said. “We all came up together as far as through college. We played together for two years and it got to the point where we felt we could get to the World Series.”
MSU was one pitch away from earning a trip to Omaha, Neb., in 1984 with Brantley on the mound.
During the regional championship game against New Orleans, Brantley gave up a grand slam to put the Privateers in the CWS instead of the Bulldogs.
That result stayed with Brantley the entire offseason into the next year and he vowed to make up for not getting the job done.
“To give up a grand slam on an 0-2 pitch to a guy who was hitting .200 at the time, it had never happened to me before and I assured myself it wouldn’t happen again after that pitch,” Brantley said. “We made up our mind that the following year we were going and treat every game like it was our last. In each game, the failure of that 1984 team cropped up and we had a great year because of the emotion we took into every game.
“We went into it saying to ourselves, ‘this is it and we’ve got to do it.’ It changed a lot of thoughts of things you take for granted. It didn’t matter if it was Ole Miss or William Carey, we came out to play every game.”
MSU came back with a vengeance in 1985 by winning its first 14 games and went on to 50 victories, a Southeastern Conference regular season championship and SEC Tournament title.
The Bulldogs began the South I Regional by beating West Virginia 10-1, then got revenge against New Orleans for the previous year by winning an 8-4 decision.
A new nemesis rose to challenge the Bulldogs in 1985 and that was the Barry Larkin-led Michigan Wolverines.
After Michigan defeated MSU 14-6 to force a deciding game in the regional, the Bulldogs exploded offensively to beat the Wolverines 19-8 and advanced to the College World Series.
Thigpen, who hit a grand slam in his first-ever at-bat at Dudy Noble Field in 1984, cracked another home run with the bases loaded to help the run production against Michigan.
Brantley was chosen the Most Valuable Player, but he believes MSU would be in trouble if it hadn’t been for the mindset the entire team had.
“It was the resolve we had in (the Michigan) game,” Brantley said. “We decided we weren’t going to lose no matter what. On that day, we had nine guys killing the baseball (on offense).”
Brantley led the pitching staff in victories (18-2), strikeouts (136) and innings pitched (145.2). Gene Morgan had the best ERA at 2.28, while Thigpen came out of right field to close games and had seven saves.
Offensively, Clark led the Bulldogs in batting average (.420), home runs (25), runs batted in (77), hits (94) and runs scored (75). As the leadoff hitter for MSU, Dan Van Cleve stole 38 bases.
“When you have Clark, Palmeiro and Thigpen in the middle of that lineup with Dan Van Cleve at the top and his ability to steal bases, that’s some instant runs built in to work with,” Brantley said.
Brantley stays in contact with many of his former MSU teammates, especially Clark because they were teammates for a time with the San Francisco Giants.
“I saw him twice in the last year,” Brantley said. “He still works in San Francisco.”
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 09 February 2010 )
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