The Left Field Lounge is the area beyond the outfield fence in Dudy Noble Field, Polk-DeMent Stadium at Mississippi State University. It is truly unique in college baseball, and has enabled the grounds to be named the "#1 place to watch college baseball" and among the "100 things you gotta do before you graduate" by Sports Illustrated. In 2009 the Left Field Lounge was named "the country's best tailgaiting experience" (among all venues and sports) by ESPN Magazine.
The famed author John Grisham is an alumnus of Mississippi State and avid fan of MSU college baseball. For the book Inside Dudy Noble: A Celebration of Mississippi State Baseball, he wrote an introduction about his time at MSU and in the Left Field Lounge.
The Left Field Lounge started out in the 1960s with just fans driving cars and trucks into the area to watch a game. In the late 1960s, fans started bringing grills, tables, and ice chests full of drinks for a full tailgate party experience. At that time, fans would drive in before the game to set up their tailgates, and then take it all down after the game and drive back out. As the area became more popular, a line would form to get in before the game, the area would fill up, and some would be turned away. In a 2003 article by a Mississippi State alumnus: In the early 1970s one truck driven to the Left Field Lounge would not start and was unable to leave after the game was over, so the owners just left the truck there. For the next game, the truck was still there, creating an automatic reserved spot. Other fans took advantage of this and brought in trucks and grills intending to leave them there. Some trucks that were no longer drivable were towed into a spot. To allow more fans to share a space, home-built seats and bleachers were built onto the beds of the trucks. Later, motor homes and flat bed trailers were brought in with more elaborate and sturdy bleachers. Eventually the university established rules for the cherished spots in Left Field Lounge. Spaces are rented for the season, and after all of the spaces are filled, those not receiving a space are placed on a waiting list. The trucks/trailers/motor homes must be on wheels, brought in by a certain day before the season starts, and removed after the season ends.
Read more about Left Field Lounge: NCAA Record Attendance
Famous quotes containing the words left, field and/or lounge:
“What’s left to sigh for,
Strange night has come;
God’s love has hidden him
Out of all harm,
Pleasure has made him
Weak as a worm.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The head must bow, and the back will have to bend,
Wherever the darkey may go;
A few more days, and the trouble all will end,
In the field where the sugar-canes grow.
A few more days for to tote the weary load,—
No matter, ‘t will never be light;
A few more days till we totter on the road:—
Then my old Kentucky home, good-night!”
—Stephen Collins Foster (1826–1884)
“I drink the five o’clock martinis
and poke at this dry page like a rough
goat. Fool! I fumble my lost childhood
for a mother and lounge in sad stuff
with love to catch and catch as catch can.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)