BASEBALL PREVIEW: Dubois column

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Turning the page fun for us, essential for Tigers

By CARL DUBOIS
Tiger Rag Associate Editor

There was the celebration at Alex Box Stadium the day after the College World Series ended. There were the Coach of the Year awards and banquets for Paul Mainieri.

The Chicago Cubs invited him to sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” at Wrigley Field. He threw out the first pitch at a New Orleans Zephyrs game. He ate Texas barbecue with Gov. Jindal and LSU players Blake Dean and Anthony Ranaudo after the Lone Star State’s Rick Perry made good on the CWS bet between governors.

There was the trip the Tigers took to the White House and other landmarks in Washington, D.C. There was the public ring ceremony during football season. There were resolutions from the House of Representatives and a declaration from the governor.

There was a stir at the Andonie Museum when the Tigers and their coaches showed up after LSU baseball’s moment in the spotlight at the homecoming parade. There was the Christmas Parade in Natchitoches, where Mainieri was Grand Marshal. There were the invitations to ride in a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans to kick off the week of Fat Tuesday. There was a whole lot more.

“Can I have your autograph?”

“Can we take our picture with you?”

“What did it feel like when you got the last out in the ninth?”

So, in the last two weeks of fall practice, it wasn’t surprising when a longtime LSU staffer pondered the wave after wave of it all.

“I guess the national championship season will end at some point.”

The suggestion seemed to be that it would be good if that hap-pened before the first pitch of the 2010 college baseball season.

Three months later, LSU started planning preseason activities in conjunction with the season-opening series between the Tigers and Centenary, including the annual gathering of reporters and photographers with LSU coaches and players.

“On Media Day we can officially declare the ‘09 season over,” another staffer said.

That might be a good idea. No reasonable person would begrudge the Tigers the enjoyment of the fruits of their success, but last year is history. The 11-4 victory against Texas to wrap up the College World Series ­ and LSU’s sixth national title ­ will have been nearly eight months in the rearview mirror by the first pitch of the new season.

The Tigers start like every other team on Opening Day: unbeaten. Ah, but on the other hand, they haven’t won a thing yet either.

How quickly they realize all their games will start 0-0 will tell us a lot about whether the afterglow has finally faded and their focus is on shaping whatever legacy this team will leave behind this summer.

Forgive us ­ and our cover artwork ­ for reminding them one more time of how it was. We knew it would draw you in as we turn the page from the past to the present and on to whatever future awaits the next team of LSU baseball Tigers.

At that June 2009 championship celebration at Alex Box Stadium, LSU teased you with a glimpse of how the new Intimidator might look. This preview issue has a photo of the image LSU showed its fans. We’ll see the real thing once the season begins.

Anthony Ranaudo said all the right things when I asked if he’d like to close out Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium with an LSU championship. Speaking in mid-January, he said June was a long way off, and the Tigers had plenty of business to take care of before then.

The way he answered, one suspected he and his teammates have been coached about such topics, warned about looking too far ahead. Still, the CWS is not a secret mission they’ll learn about only later.

The day before my conversation with Ranaudo, LSU finished dressing up the team meeting room with reminders of the years of the program’s postseason successes, including tournament bids, all regionals and super regionals, SEC tournaments and titles and CWS appearances and national championships.

“It’s all rather small compared to the `Omaha’ that’s over the white board where Coach talks from,” LSU catcher Micah Gibbs said.

“It’s right over his head. If it was in Word, it would probably be like 1,000-point font. It’s huge. It just says `Omaha.’ It’s pretty much the thing that just explains what you’re there for.”

When the players leave the meeting room and take the field to open the 2010 season, they’ll be at the place where they leave the past behind and take care of the present moment, pitch by pitch,
knowing the future will then take care of itself.

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Associate Editor Carl Dubois is Tiger Rag’s lead LSU baseball writer. Contact him at carl@tigerrag.com.