re: 40 years ago this month Jack Lamabe coached his last game as LSU head baseball coach

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Unfortunately, I was only on campus during the Lamabe years. The bright side was walking into the stadium for free and sitting anywhere

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I was there for his last 3 and Skip's first. Before Skip it was not unsual to go to a game at the Box vs a state team like SE La or Nicholls and the crowd would split if not even a tad more for the other guys.

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Lamabe would not recruit Louisiana kids. Not sure if that was true or not.

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It wasn't. However, he certainly did use his connections from years of being involved with baseball to pull in out-of-state talent. Lamabe went to college at Vermont; his best pitcher ever graduated from high school in Vermont (Jon Soderberg, who ended up being the top overall draft choice in the MLB's 1981 January draft...Soderberg was also on the LSU Indian Mounds one night with his girlfriend when she was struck by a motorist who tried to vault it, and she was badly injured; he was injured too and couldn't start the SEC Tournament-clinching game later that day, nor could the back-up pitcher either who was himself struck by a drunk driver at the same exact time across town - Lamabe was forced to start a third guy who ended up losing, so LSU did not play in the 4-team tournament for the conference title.