Polk-DeMent Stadium, 1987-2017, opened the year I was born. The home of Mississippi State Baseball was also the home of my childhood. Big chunks of it, anyway. I was raised around MSU baseball, spending afternoons and nights jumping back and forth between the seats in the grandstands with my parents high up on the third base line and all the distractions, activities and pleasures that the Left Field Lounge and the surrounding areas had to offer for kids with endless energy and short attention spans.
After watching Jay Powell or Gary Rath or Eric DuBose pitch for a few innings, I’d run down to find my friends and play wall ball on the side of the stadium in the area between the grandstands and the bleachers.