It’s always hard to know when to hang it up.

You’ve been doing a job you love for so long, and done the job very well.

But eventually, age catches up with all of us and the things that seemed to come so easy in the past begin to wear us down and the results just aren’t there anymore.

So what do you do? Do you stay and continue to try and grind it out, or do you give in to the inevitability and ride off into the sunset?

Mississippi State baseball coach Ron Polk was staring that decision right in the face this week and chose to give in to Father Time and walk away with his honor and pride still intact, announcing his resignation at the end of what has turned out to be a very difficult season.

To most Mississippi State supporters, Ron Polk is Bulldog baseball.

Mississippi State never had more than fleeting success at any sport before Polk came to Starkville in 1976 and proceeded to turn the Bulldogs into the SEC’s baseball powerhouse.

Polk turned the baseball program into a winner and success-starved fans flocked to Dudy Noble Field in droves to see the best athletic program the school had ever seen.

MSU fans who had been used to being the laughingstock of the SEC in most other sports and looked down on by their neighbors in Oxford had something to be proud of when they saw Polk take their Bulldogs to the College World Series four times from 1979 to 1990, including a third-place finish in 1985.

We may not have been any good at football or basketball, but baseball was our thing and no one could take that away from us.

With the success came the Dudy Noble Field expansion and the birth of the Left Field Lounge, a hodgepodge of cars, trucks and trailers for fans to watch the game, grill out, pop a top and talk to the outfielders.

Sports Illustrated voted it the best place to watch a college baseball game in the country.

However, with all the success came some consequences.

SEC schools who had never cared about baseball much before saw how successful Polk and MSU were at it and started to build up their programs as well.

LSU became dominant in the 1990s under Skip Bertman. Alabama, Auburn and Georgia also enjoyed College World Series trips during that decade and Ole Miss has become a power since the turn of the century.

Polk and MSU also enjoyed success in the ’90s and State’s 1997 CWS appearance seemed to be Polk’s last as he announced his retirement following the season.

However, since he was hired back in 2002, State has slipped into mediocrity, other than a miraculous two-week run last season, which resulted in an unexpected College World Series trip.

State has struggled to make even the SEC tournament some years and has hosted only one regional in the second Polk era.

The last few years have been painful ones for MSU fans as they have been forced to ask themselves if the face of Mississippi State baseball should still be in charge.

It’s a question that has been hotly debated among fans with some still swearing by the old guard and others pushing for a change.

If fans have had that much difficulty with the situation, I can only imagine what Polk must have gone through.

To let go of something you have been doing for more than 30 years has to be heart wrenching.

As everyone who has been around me knows, I have been one of the people calling for a change in leadership. I thought the time was past for Polk to hang it up and ride off into the sunset.

However, now that Polk has ended the debate about whether he should still be in charge by resigning, I, as well as all MSU and SEC baseball fans in general can unite and say thank you and job well done to one of the pioneers of Southeastern Conference baseball.

Jeff Edwards is the sports editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3632 or jeff.edwards@natchezdemocrat.com