Rhett Hobart, dressed in orange and blue, is returning to Starkville, Mississippi, on a windy Friday afternoon, where he helped establish the renowned “Carnegie Hall of College Baseball.” The Mississippi State team is batting practice on the field that day before a scrimmage in January, which is almost baseball season.
Hobart was one of several Auburn representatives in the city prior to Auburn’s basketball team’s game against Mississippi State at Humphrey Coliseum the following day. The Auburn athletic department is currently managed by someone with close ties to Mississippi State.
Hobart, who is currently Auburn’s associate athletic director for external affairs and the administrator in direct control of baseball, unveiled his creation on this day, which was precisely three weeks before Auburn’s 2024 opening day.
He also discussed how his new employment, which is four hours east of Dudy Noble Field, motivated him. He is going to unveil the facility todaThe Mississippi State baseball team and Auburn are closely related, beginning at the top. John Cohen, the athletic director of Auburn, was a Mississippi State baseball player. There, he served as head coach from 2009 until 2016. After then, he served as the athletic director for Mississippi State until 2022, when he relocated to Auburn.y, three weeks after it was built, and Friday’s debut game versus Eastern Kentucky is scheduled for six o’clock.
Ahead of the NCAA College World Series best-of-three baseball finals on Sunday, June 23, 2013, at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska, Mississippi State coach John Cohen speaks while UCLA coach John Savage watches. Monday’s first game of the playoffs between UCLA and Mississippi State will take place. (Photo by Nati Harnik for AP)
Hobart is another Mississippi State alum who has worked in the sports department of the Bulldogs for more than eight years, specializing on baseball.
From 2009 until 2015, Butch Thompson, the head baseball coach at Auburn, served as an assistant coach under Cohen in Starkville. Director of player development at Auburn, Scott Foxhall, led Mississippi State’s pitching staff to a national championship in 2021. Greg Dyre, the director of baseball operations at Auburn, worked as an administrator at Mississippi State for eleven seasons before to joining the university in 2016.
Dudy Noble Field had a massive restoration under the direction of Cohen and Hobart, which started in 2017 and cost more than $60 million to complete. Currently, it is the biggest baseball stadium on campus in the nation.
Hobart exhibited the Triple Crown Club behind home plate and the Omaha Club on the upper level of the stadium, with the famed coach Ron Polk’s tobacco-stained table directly outside, during his January tour of his alma mater’s home field. He pointed out his family’s own beach-themed setup while strolling through the stadium’s distinctive outfield lounges, which were designed to resemble tailgating areas.
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