Good article from outsider perspective of regional

Item sports guy sinks teeth into assignment at Baton Rouge
Regional


BY GENE SCHALLENBERG Huntsville (Ala.) Item
June 2, 2013

BATON ROUGE, La. — As a young sports fan growing up in south Louisiana, there were a few things you
could count on with nearly absolute certainty.

You’d get excited looking forward to the upcoming Saints season with low, low expectations (eight
wins in a season was a smashing success). LSU football was fun to watch, except when Steve
Spurrier’s Gators came to town.

Then you’d also know that once it started to heat up in the summer, LSU baseball,
under the direction of legendary coach Skip Bertman, was more than likely headed back to Omaha,
Neb., to take another swing at the College World Series.

All these years later, the names of several of those great LSU baseball players such as Brandon
Larson, Ben McDonald, Ryan Theriot, Todd Walker, Brad Cresse, and even more recent players such as
D.J. LeMahieu, Louis Coleman and Jared Mitchell – trust me, the list can go on and on – still
resonate in a profound way. It’s not so much for what they did in the big leagues, but for the
things they accomplished wearing purple and gold.

Once football is over, two things you know to expect: Mardi Gras is right around the corner and
another LSU baseball campaign is about to get underway.

In southern Louisiana especially, basketball is mostly just a filler until the college baseball
season starts. The emphasis on college baseball as opposed to pro baseball is mostly, and I speak
for myself, there isn’t really a pro baseball team close enough to develop and interest. The
closest MLB teams are in Houston, Arlington and Atlanta.

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