By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
EDITOR’S NOTE: On this Memorial Day, when there is no LSU baseball on the schedule for the rest of the season for the first time since Memorial Day of 2011 and only the fourth time this century (2006, ’07, ’11 and ’26), let’s go back in time. To a time when LSU Baseball regularly played past Memorial Day. That was under coach Skip Bertman from 1984 through 2001. Over that span, the only time thoughts of postseason college baseball didn’t fill the minds of LSU fans like kids on Christmas on Memorial Day was in Bertman’s first two years in 1984 and ’85 and in 1988, 1992 and ’95. Those last three misses all came a season after College World Series appearances, much like this season that followed coach Jay Johnson’s second national championship in three years. The ’26 Tigers (30-28, 9-21 SEC) season ended with a 3-1 loss to Auburn in the SEC Tournament last week on May 20 – the earliest an LSU baseball season ended since 2007 when the Tigers (29-26-1, 12-17-1 SEC) finished on May 19 and did not make the SEC Tournament or NCAA Tournament.
Bertman celebrated his 88th birthday on Saturday, May 23. Through his 18 seasons as LSU’s coach, he failed to make the NCAA postseason just twice – 1984 and ’88. Yes, the game has changed and is more difficult now with more SEC teams taking the sport seriously and winning in addition to NIL and the Transfer Portal making it more difficult to guard against roster turnover.
But Bertman still stands virtually alone in the history of college baseball with what he did at LSU with five national championships, 11 trips to Omaha, Nebraska, for the College World Series and 16 NCAA postseason appearances.
So, Happy Birthday, Skip, and thanks for the memories and all the Memorial Days with games yet to play.
(Reprinted with permission from the Alexandria Daily Town Talk May 24, 1993, editions by Glenn Guilbeau.)
BATON ROUGE – Happy Birthday Skip Bertman. Make a wish, and blow out all the trophies.
Bertman turned 55 on Sunday and collected his 13th championship trophy in his 10th year on the job when his No. 4 LSU baseball team defeated Mississippi State, 7-3, for the school’s fourth consecutive overall Southeastern Conference championship. Before Sunday, three was the most by one school as LSU won three straight from 1943-46 with the 1944 season cancelled due to World War II. Alabama also won three in a row from 1934-36.
HOW TO BUY “EVERYTHING MATTERS IN BASEBALL: The Skip Bertman Story”
Let’s count those 13 championship candles (regular season and tournament, excluding division titles) by season: 1986 – SEC, SEC Tournament, NCAA South I Regional (3 candles). 1987 – NCAA South II Regional (4). 1989 – NCAA Central Regional (5). 1990 – SEC, SEC Tournament Co-Champions with Mississippi State, NCAA South I Regional (8). 1991 – SEC, NATIONAL CHAMPIONS (10). 1992 – SEC, SEC Tournament (12). 1993 – SEC (13). … And counting.
Bertman particularly likes the four straight in the SEC, which had been dominated by Mississippi State and coach Ron Polk, his old friend from his Miami days, with five league titles from 1979-90.
“The boys may not sense it, but to win four in a row in the strongest baseball conference in the United States meant a lot to us,” Bertman said after Sunday’s win at Alex Box Stadium. “It entailed eight straight weeks of baseball plus the tournament this year. And that made it a little tougher. I am really proud of the guys.”
In a new format this year, the SEC West Tournament here and the SEC East Tournaments in Columbia, S.C., were counted toward the regular season title. LSU (47-15-1 overall) finished 18-8 in the SEC, edging Tennessee of the East at 20-10 by percentage points, .692 to .666, for the crown.
“Anybody can win over a weekend or in a tournament,” Bertman said. “But eight straight weeks is really something. They’ve been playing well for three months. Four straight years is a model of consistency, shows a lot of discipline. And they deserve all the credit in the world.”
Will Hunt, a former regular starting pitcher who threw three and a third innings of relief in two losers’ bracket wins Saturday, was given the start Sunday by Bertman just 45 minutes before game time over Matt Malejko. Hunt (9-1) responded with the longest outing of his career as the senior limited state to five hits and two runs in six and two-thirds innings for the win.
“I kind of like it that way – not finding out until just before the game,” Hunt said. “If I think about it too much, I get nervous. It helps being a reliever, too.”
If Hunt watched State beat Auburn, 13-10, earlier Sunday, he had more reason to be nervous. The Bulldogs registered 15 hits with five home runs, including a three-run shot by Rex Buckner, to win it in the 10th.
“Will Hunt was masterful. He held them to two hits into the seventh, and Mississippi State is a fine hitting team,” said Bertman, who masterfully called the pitches as usual.
“He had tremendous movement on his fastball early,” Polk said.
“He’d go on the outside half with a fastball, then come back inside with a fastball when you were thinking, ‘This guy’s got to throw a curve,’” State’s Ricky Joe Redd said. His solo home run in the seventh cut LSU’s lead to 7-1.
LSU struck State for 14 hits in all. Russ Johnson hit a solo home run in the first inning and a two-run homer in a three-run third inning as the Tigers took a 4-0 lead. That grew to 6-0 in the fourth on RBI singles by Jason Williams and Harry Berrios, who hit .526 for the weekend (10-for-19) with nine RBIs, three home runs, seven runs scored and two doubles in taking tournament MVP honors.
“We came out today to win four straight SEC titles and make history,” Berrios said.
A sacrifice fly by Jim Greely hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth for a 7-0 lead.
Blake Anderson’s RBI double in the seventh cut LSU’s lead to 7-2 after Redd’s home run. Malejko finished State off, allowing just a solo home run to Drew Williams in the ninth for the 7-3 final.
Bertman had ace Mike Sirotka ready for relief just in case.
“I was thinking Will would go four or five,” Bertman said. “But even when he’s tired, his stuff is good because his ball sinks and sails. Then Matt really came on.”
And everyone lit the candles.
“Happy Birthday, Skip,” Polk said with slight sarcasm as he boarded the team bus.
The crown has been passed from one king to another as Polk, 49, continues to search for his first national championship. Bertman will go for No. 2 in the weeks ahead.
“By the time I’m 55, I’ll probably be dead,” Polk said.
A lot of other people may be, too, before someone replaces the Skipper of the SEC.
EDITOR’S UPDATE: Bertman would win his second national championship three weeks later, 8-0, over Wichita State on June 12, 1993, at the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. Two more SEC championships in 1996 and ’97 would follow for Bertman along with an SEC Tournament title in 2000 and three more national championships in 1996, ’97 and 2000 and 11 trips to Omaha in all (1986, ’87, ’89, ’90, ’91, ’93, ’94, ’96, ’97, ’98, 2000) before he retired after the 2001 season.
Bertman went on to become athletic director from 2001-08 and produced four more national championships for a total of nine at LSU – five national titles as coach and four from LSU coaches whom he hired. Those were Les Miles in football in the 2007 season (hired in 2005), Paul Mainieri in baseball in 2009 (hired in 2007), Dennis Shaver in women’s outdoor track in 2008 (hired in 2004), and Chuck Winstead in men’s golf in 2015 (hired in 2006).
And Ron Polk is not dead. He is 82 and still coaching as an assistant with the Danville Dans summer league team in Danville, Illinois, and remains a special assistant to the athletic director at Mississippi State.
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