MSU's Rooker deserved better for award picks
Brent Rooker appeared to be slighted when it came to being considered for two of the most coveted awards in college baseball.
The Mississippi State first baseman had one of the greatest offensive seasons in Southeastern Conference history. Yet, he did not get either the Dick Howser Trophy or the Golden Spikes Award this year. Instead, both went to Louisville's Brendan McKay.
When McKay was announced as the winner of the Howser Trophy earlier in June, I didn't think too much of it at the time because there were still some hardware to be gained for Rooker and that the recognition would be spread out a little bit.
The Golden Spikes Award was announced on Thursday night on ESPN2 and there were four finalists. Three of them were present on the set and one of those was Rooker.
Each finalist was interviewed briefly, then the winner was revealed. Once again McKay was recognized over Rooker.
Rooker was the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year and was chosen National Player of the Year by Collegiate Baseball. He was selected as a first-team All-American by five different publications.
During his junior season with the Bulldogs, Rooker put up numbers that had not been seen in Starkville since the “Thunder and Lightning” days of Rafael Palmeiro and Will Clark in the mid 1980s.
Rooker won the Southeastern Conference triple crown with his batting average of .397, home runs of 23 and runs batted in of 82. He and Palmeiro are the only two players to ever win the league's triple crown.
On top of that, Rooker became the first player ever in the SEC to get over 20 home runs, 30 doubles and 75 RBI in a single season.
Rooker's 30 doubles were the best in MSU history for a single season, while his 23
home runs rank fifth in the school record book and his 96 hits stand eighth on the all-time charts.
With all of that kind of production in a league that produced an all-SEC national championship matchup this year, Rooker should have gotten either the Howser, Golden Spikes or both in my mind.
Of course that's just one person's opinion, but the immediate reaction across the Twitter landscape after McKay won the Golden Spikes Award seemed to be sympathetic toward Rooker.
This is no disrespect to McKay. He was an outstanding and versatile player for the Cardinals.
When considering what Rooker has done in the best conference in college baseball, it just seemed like someone missed something here.
Danny P. Smith is the sports editor and columnist for The Starkville Daily News. The opinions in this column are his and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SDN or its staff.