Apparently, there is some controversy about whether or not Mississippi State’s dandy of a shortstop Ryan Gridley should miss a baseball game Saturday in Starkville to attend his sister’s wedding in Nashville.

Important to note: The controversy doesn’t come from inside the program. No, everybody inside the State program is fine with it. His coach, Andy Cannizaro, says it’s a “no-brainer” that Gridley should go to the wedding.

But from outside the program – talk radio and such – people have questioned whether Gridley should skip a conference game against Alabama to attend a wedding.

Horse hockey. Perhaps a little math is the best way to examine the situation. Mississippi State plays a 55-game schedule every season and this is Gridley’s third. His sister, Samantha, has one wedding. How much more simple can it be?

College coaches and players talk all the time about “family,” meaning the program. And that’s great. The best, most successful programs are like family.

But seems to me that everybody should understand that your real family, blood family, always comes first.

Period.

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Gridley controversy? Family comes first

by Rick Cleveland, Mississippi Today
April 20, 2017

<h1>Gridley controversy? Family comes first</h1> <p class="byline">by Rick Cleveland, Mississippi Today <br />April 20, 2017</p> <p>Apparently, there is some controversy about whether or not Mississippi State’s dandy of a shortstop Ryan Gridley should miss a baseball game Saturday in Starkville to attend his sister’s wedding in Nashville.</p> <p>Important to note: The controversy doesn’t come from inside the program. No, everybody inside the State program is fine with it. His coach, Andy Cannizaro, says it’s a “no-brainer” that Gridley should go to the wedding.</p> <p>But from outside the program – talk radio and such – people have questioned whether Gridley should skip a conference game against Alabama to attend a wedding.</p> <div id="attachment_62753" class="wp-block-image wp-caption"> <figure class="alignright is-resized"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Rick-PNG.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Rick-PNG.png?resize=140%2C140&amp;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-62753" height="140" width="140" /></a><figcaption>Rick Cleveland</figcaption></figure> </div> <p>Horse hockey. Perhaps a little math is the best way to examine the situation. Mississippi State plays a 55-game schedule every season and this is Gridley’s third. His sister, Samantha, has one wedding. How much more simple can it be?</p> <p>College coaches and players talk all the time about “family,” meaning the program. And that’s great. The best, most successful programs are like family.</p> <p>But seems to me that everybody should understand that your real family, blood family, always comes first.</p> <p>Period.</p> <p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://mississippitoday.org/2017/04/20/gridley-controversy-family-comes-first/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://mississippitoday.org">Mississippi Today</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/MT_square-thumb.jpg?fit=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://mississippitoday.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=64492&ga=UA-75003810-1" style="width:1px;height:1px;"></p>

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