Growing up, college baseball was never at the forefront of my mind.
I watched a lot of Major League Baseball, but being from Louisville, Kentucky, college baseball was always second (or third) fiddle.
Football had its time in the spotlight from July-September and the rest of the year was fully reserved for Wildcat and Cardinal basketball.
Louisville and Dan McDonell had a great run of four College World Series appearances in the 2010s. More recently, Kentucky has found its stride on the diamond, reaching its first ever CWS in 2024. The programs have been successful, but college baseball was always the little brother of football and basketball. It was just never a part of my life.
But just two weeks in Starkville has me asking, “What have I been missing out on?”
I’ve never seen anything like what I saw during the Athens Super Regional this weekend. Twenty-one home runs and 45 combined runs in one of the greatest displays of offensive baseball ever.
A six-run and five-run lead, deficits in the majors that would be turn-the-TV-off advantages, erased in the blink of an eye. Back-to-back-to-back home runs that closed a four-run deficit to just one in a snap, and a freshman, Jacob Parker, taking his best swings in the biggest game of his life.
Even off the diamond, the stands of Foley Field in Athens, Georgia, were a spectacle.
The red and black clad faithful who often, like synchronized swimmers, raised their hands over their head and clapped on beat to Billy Squire’s “The Stroke,” following the lead of Georgia players perched along the dugout fence.
The shirtless fans along Kudzu Hill, taking part in the “tarps off” trend, and leading UGA to its first CWS since 2008. The banners, displayed beyond the outfield fences, prompting hitters to “Feed the trees.”
I covered the supers from home in Starkville, but through my TV, I was captured, enamored by the theatrics and drama of one of the greatest sporting events I will ever witness.
What I’ve always loved most about college sports is the pageantry. It’s what I fell in love with when I was a kid, and what I credit most for leading me to a career in sportswriting.
Over the last few years, it feels like what I’ve loved most about the game is slowly slipping away. The customs, cultures and community that once surrounded college athletics feel clouded by the growing uncertainty around NIL, the transfer portal and now, the justice system.
But on Saturday and Sunday, and really all of this 2026 NCAA Baseball tournament, I’ve felt transported back to the moment I fell in love with college sports.
Unbelievable baseball and an unbelievable environment.
Even though State won’t make the trip to Omaha, you best believe I’ll be glued to my TV during the College World Series. After this weekend, how could anyone not be?
Jake McMahon covers Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch.
Jake is the Mississippi State athletics reporter for The Dispatch.
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