re: Anyone else remember the Lamabe years?

Daigeaux, you must have early Alzheimers 'cause we won the first game of a three game series 6-3 at the Box and witnessed one of the greatest displays of honesty and sportsmanship I've ever seen!
Ga. was leading 3-1 when the LSU batter hit a foul ball down the right field line with 2 runners on base. The home plate ump called the ball fair and the runners scored to tie the game.
The ball was clearly foul to everyone but the ump, who was an old dude that wore those thick coke-bottle lensed glasses.
Sitting behing the Tiger dugout, which at that time was the 3rd base dugout, I can still hear Jim Smith as he walked out and said, "I can't take that!" He walked up to the ump, told him it was a foul ball and put the runners and batter back. We scored anyway and won the game 6-3.
We went to Ga. for the other 2 games, had a 5-1 lead when the rains came and had to play again the next night where we won the title. I remember waiting out at Ryan field til 4am to meet the team that was weather delayed.
At that time, LSU had it's own plane, an old C-47 that was painted with Tiger stripes. Bombo Saizan, the catcher, told me he thought they were gonna crash, the plane was jerked around so much.
Man, I loved that team!

I talked to Jim Smith after Lamabe was hired. He told me Brodhead hired him on his recommendation.
Many people either don't know or forgot that Smith was baseball coach as a secondary job. His main job was equipment manager.
Another example of the kind of man he was is that in '76, I believe, LSU and Ole MIss finished in a tie for the Division title calling for a playoff game. The rule to decide the site came down to a coin flip. He called Jake Gibbs, Ole Miss' coach and told him to flip a coin and call it for the site. Gibbs was flabbergasted and said, "Are you kidding me?" Smith replied, "No, can't I trust you?"
Gibbs flipped the coin, told Smith he won and Smith said, "What time do you want us up there?"
Ole Missus won the game and the division crown.
Jim Smith was as fine a man as you'd ever want to meet.
But I'm still puzzled to this day how he never made Mike Croswell an everyday player!
And at that time, if we had 250 people for a game, it was a big crowd.

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Jim Smith was as fine a man as you'd ever want to meet.

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Y'all have shared some great stories about this man. Thanks. He sounds like one of the classiest guys we've ever had.

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Those were the days! Walking in to the Box on your ID and sitting anywhere you pleased.

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Same thing Skips first years.....I was there.....

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Season tickets for two were 75.00 total. You could sit anywhere

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Going to the baseball games, and the LSU-USC football game were my two best memories .... oh ... and meeting my wife!!

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I was in school when Lamabe was dismissed and Skip was hired. Lamabe claimed Brodhead never told him ahead of time he was fired, that he found out about it reading the then Morning Advocate and seeing a position for LSU's baseball coach in the classifieds.

Brodhead was a tool, but surely that story isn't accurate ?

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May or may not be true, but definitely what the Lamabes claimed

A friend of mine tells a story sometimes and its telling of how far the program has come. Sometime in the early 80's when Lamabe was coaching LSU they came to Ponchatoula and played a game against the Coast Guard Academy at Athletic Park ( home to our defunct minor league team ) He said after the game they stopped at a convenience store when a mini bus pulled up driven by Lamabe. When the door opened he said chicken bones and beer cans were falling out of the van onto the ground

the chicken was skips doing.
75 for a family of 4.
big mac sign lit up they hit a homer u get a free big mac.
had plenty free big macs