re: Mississippi State Fans....

I think that, going all the way back to little league, baseball has a different vibe here than football in Mississippi generally. Different kind of fraternity involved it always seemed to me, possibly because keeping baseball popular in this state has long been a passion project involving various people around various communities going back to the 80s. There's a lot of diamonds in this state that are still a part of now larger parks that started off with a couple of guys, a tractor, a cooler, and a few Saturdays because they wanted to make sure they had a place to teach their kids how to play the game they loved.

I think that's why you see a lot of support between teams and just a lot of pride in general for MS teams among many Mississippians. Part of it is competition, but there's a pretty deep love for the game among many in the state.

I can't say that I'm one of them - I was fricking horrible at baseball, haha - but my best friend was until he threw his arm out in high school. His dad was one of the guys who helped build a lot of those fields back in the late 80s.