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re: Today's Tiger Baseball Fans don't know the true greatness of Skip Bertman.

Posted on 5/12/21 at 12:55 pm to
Posted by Alt26
Member since Mar 2010
28752 posts
Posted on 5/12/21 at 12:55 pm to
quote:

Ask yourself, how did Skip do it?

LSU didn’t have any baseball tradition to build on. Football was king, then MBB. High school baseball in La. wasn’t that big of a deal.
The stadium was a dump. They use to practice football in the outfield and park cars there in game day. There was no electronic equipment, a huge budget for baseball and TOPS didn’t come until late.
So what made the difference? You know the answer, and it’s not tradition, a new stadium, shiney new toys or anything else. The difference was the genius of Skip Bertman.


True. But you can't discount the fact that he could not have timed the rise of the program any better. When LSU won the NC in 1991 the football program was a disaster and the basketball program was beginning it's decline. LSU fans were desperate to feel proud of SOMETHING and baseball provided it. Had basketball and football been rolling in the 90's it is very likely LSU baseball would have a following/local interests more similar to Florida than leading the nation in attendance year after year.

That's also why interest has exploded at places like Arkansas, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Vanderbilt. Those are generally the bottom feeders in SEC football and their fans (like LSU fans in the 90's) just want something to cheer about. That interest led to greater resources being pumped in which led to greater success.

Skip is probably one 3 or 4 greatest coaches in college baseball history. But he was also the right man at the RIGHT TIME to make LSU a juggernaut
Posted by doubleb
Baton Rouge
Member since Aug 2006
36561 posts
Posted on 5/12/21 at 1:28 pm to
quote:


True. But you can't discount the fact that he could not have timed the rise of the program any better. When LSU won the NC in 1991 the football program was a disaster and the basketball program was beginning it's decline. LSU fans were desperate to feel proud of SOMETHING and baseball provided it. Had basketball and football been rolling in the 90's it is very likely LSU baseball would have a following/local interests more similar to Florida than leading the nation in attendance year after year.

That's also why interest has exploded at places like Arkansas, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Vanderbilt. Those are generally the bottom feeders in SEC football and their fans (like LSU fans in the 90's) just want something to cheer about. That interest led to greater resources being pumped in which led to greater success.

Skip is probably one 3 or 4 greatest coaches in college baseball history. But he was also the right man at the RIGHT TIME to make LSU a juggernaut

Here is the correct timeline with no baloney.
Skip’s first season at LSU was 1984. That’s when he went to work. 1991 was the culmination of those early efforts, not the beginning.

Skip got LSU into a regional in his second season.
Skip got to the CWS in 1986, 87, 89 and 90.

Football won the SEC in 1986 and in 1988 and went to the Sugar Bowl both years. Football was not down when Skip first started and didn’t hit the skids until 1989. Skip had LSU in the CWS in 1989 and twice before then.

Skip making LSU a baseball power had little or nothing to do with the decline of football. He put LSU on the baseball map when we were winning SEC titles in football.

In the late 80s LSU basketball was elite. There was no lack of hoops interest. There was the final four in 86 the year Skip first got to the CWS. They went to the ncaa tourney every year until 1993. We saw super stars like Shaq and Chris Jackson in the PMAC.

Skip built his program ftom the ground up. He was way more than a coach, he was a marketing genius and a master motivator. He set up family plans for tickets, built playgrounds for toddlers, brought in the San Diego Chicken and beat junk cars with sledge hammers. Baseball became a destination place fir a family of four in BR. It had nothing to do with football or basketball. Skip competed against these programs when they were both good snd carved out a rock solid baseball fan base.

Your entire posts ignored reality. Skip started with nothing and built LSU baseball into the greatest baseball program in the US in a fee short years. There was no perfect storm or unique circumstances, there was only one great man, Skip Bertman.
This post was edited on 5/12/21 at 1:31 pm
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