The Cannizaro Effect
The story of how a 38-year-old, Mandeville, La native became the savior of the 2017 Mississippi State Baseball season.
John Cohen coming off his first regular season SEC championship of his eight year Mississippi State coaching career. It appeared he would be coaching into the foreseeable future, but Scott Stricklin surprised the Mississippi State faithful by foregoing his alma mater to accept the same position at the University of Florida. Many pinned John Cohen as the front-runner to become Mississippi State’s next Athletic Director, and although the university announced a “nationwide” search for the next Athletic Director, they didn’t look far. John Cohen became Mississippi State’s Director of Athletics on November 4, 2016, although many suspected this earlier as Michael Bonner, Clarion-Ledger’s former Mississippi State beat writer, leaked the correct information earlier. As one search ended another began, and John Cohen knew exactly, who he wanted to become his successor, Andy Cannizaro.
Andy Cannizaro was hired as Mississippi State’s baseball coach on November 5, 2016 only a day after John Cohen became MSU’s Athletic Director. The former major league player and scout, was scolded by some, as they didn’t see his potential with no earlier head coaching experience, but to the fans’ delight, he has done nothing short of incredible to make Mississippi State’s baseball team into a legit contender for back-to-back SEC championships.
The 2017 baseball season started as a rebuilding year with tons of injuries to key position players as well as pitchers it appeared that this team would be lucky to even make it to the NCAA Tournament. Through the 9th inning meltdowns, to get swept their first SEC weekend of the season, it appeared that this team wouldn’t even make the postseason, but then something changed.
Mississippi State coming off an embarrassing sweep from Arkansas was slated to host Tennessee, and then everything changed. Mississippi State swept Tennessee to begin its seven game win-streak, which included a midweek win over Memphis, and then a sweep of arch rival Ole Miss. Super Bulldog weekend was fast approaching, and a consensus Top 10 opponent coming into Starkville, it looked as if this team’s luck had run out losing 2 of its last three going into Saturday of its pivotal, SEC series. Then insert in 38th round draft pick in the 2016 MLB draft, Brent Rooker. The numbers Brent Rooker has put up during this season are astronomical garnering national attention, and although this story of success didn’t begin with this game it definitely reached boiling point when Brent Rooker hit his 3rd home run of the game, and leading Mississippi State to a win over Kentucky. Brent was named National Player of the Week, after his amazing performance, and led many analyst to begin to project Mississippi State as a real contender, and Mr. Rooker, as a serious First Round Draft prospect. The question then became, “How could this success be sustained?” The bulldogs then reeled off back-to-back series wins over South Carolina and Alabama, to catapult into first place in the SEC standings.
“We all knew it was coming.”, the narrative put forth by many Mississippi State message board users after Mississippi State dropped back-to-back games to Auburn, who now leads the SEC. Mississippi State’s pitching couldn’t get outs, and as a result Dylan Ingram, a former MSU player, made Mississippi State pay with a Grand Slam, and off the bat all energy was cumulatively sucked out of Dudy Noble.
This doesn’t underscore the fact that without Andy Cannizaro’s guidance this team would maybe hover around (.500) for the season, but the simple fight Cannizaro has instilled in his team, is nothing short of extraordinary. Offensive numbers have all climbed from a year ago, thanks to Andy’s aggressive approach, as well as Brent Rooker’s monster season, and through these factors the Cannizaro Effect is in full swing, and through results it seems to be a home run.
