Welcome to the Barnyard with Steve Robertson, as always.

I am your good friend and host, Steve Robertson, here on the Maroon Friday edition of the yard. Hope you're wearing maroon today. It's a big day. It's our return to Duty Noble Field. Hadn't been there in a little bit. And so we'll get back. We'll welcome to Florida Gators. We're going to preview that a little bit later in the show. But, you know, here's the deal is we don't get too many chances to congregate together. I like it when you guys come to town. Not just because you're supporting Mississippi State, but you're supporting local industry and local business. And not to mention, you know, I had this discussed you with my youngest son yesterday. He's like, hey, Daddy, I really want to go see the Dr. Strange move with some friends of mine. Do you mind if I go? I'm like, no, I don't mind if you go. Matter of fact, I encourage you to go. I want you to go make some memories with your friends. I want you to go have a good time. And the older that I get, the more that stuff matters to me. because I know that I have less life in front of me than I have behind me.

And so the know that I have less life in front of me than I have behind me.

And so the things that I value most are the time spent with people that I care about the most.

And so I encourage you as always get in the car, bring the kids, bring those you love, and come support the Bulldogs.

And if you can't, let me encourage you to gather around a TV set with those you love and support too.

So I think it's important. I really do.

I'm excited today, too. I've got an article that'll be up by the time this show is published.

I love Mississippi State baseball. I do. Maybe you've heard,

but I wrote an article this morning. I started working on it yesterday. I was kind of inspired

to write it. I was working on some other things. You know, earlier this week, I wrote a piece,

you know, 10 names that deserve to be considered for the Ron Polk Ring of Honor. And it is an amazing thing that we do that. And I think we do a great job of honoring our former greats here at Mississippi State. I think we do. I think we can do a little bit more. And I'm probably a little bit of the flying the ointment when it comes to that, because I like to talk to people about that. Hey, you know, what about so-and-so? We hadn't anything for them. And I think about those families out there, you know, maybe their player is gone. You know, maybe they're, maybe it was their grandfather or their great-grandfather. And they've heard all of these great stories about, you know, hey, when your grandfather played at Mississippi State, he did this and he went on to the major leagues, and he had this, and he had that, how cool would it be to allow those

grandkids and those kids to be able to come to Dutie Noble Field and see their ancestor or

the patriarch of their family be honored and be remembered by Mississippi State? You know, we remember them, and I've done my best to document, you know, several of these stories for posterity's sake, too, and also, too, to kind of shine light on the fact that we've had so many great players in multiple sports here at Mississippi State. But again, and I know this offends some people, which I think is silly. We're baseball school.

You know, that's the one sport we've always been able to compete at. You know, there's been a few lean years here and there. But by and large, we have been one of the best baseball programs in history of college baseball. And yes, we just have the one NAFEL championship to show for it. But I did my math a while back. we had a discussion on Gene's page about where does Mississippi State rank? I think I had us 12th all time. We're definitely in the top 15

college baseball programs of all time. I don't think there's any question about that. I think it's one

of those things. Sometimes we kind of struggle to come to grips with that because we don't know the history.

We don't not just our history.

We don't always know the history of college baseball.

But we have been a premier program in college baseball since our inception in 1885.

When William Jennings through the very first pitch in Mississippi State Baseball, we were winning program.

We have been in many respects what other people aspire to be. And the good thing is, and I give

...