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FROM THE SIDELINE

Former American Press sportswriter Carl Dubois blogs about the games people play, in and out of sports, and the people you meet between and outside the lines.

Carl is an award-winning reporter and columnist living in the Willamette Valley in northwest Oregon, near Portland. He is sports editor of the News-Register newspaper in McMinnville, Ore.

 Meet the Blogger

Fall ball

Posted October 28, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment

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BATON ROUGE — So, I went on LSU’s campus for only the second time in nearly two months, to Alex Box Stadium for the first time since the Tigers won the June super regional against UC Irvine for the right to play in the College World Series.

It was a beautiful day for baseball.

fall-ball-at-the-box-2.jpg

Fall practice continues at LSU, where Paul Mainieri is preparing for his third season as coach of the Tigers. We spoke briefly before today’s practice, and he said he’s in the unusual position of having a lot of talented veteran players who know how to get to Omaha, plus some promising newcomers who need to learn the ropes. Together, the group needs to learn how to win the College World Series, he said, and not just get there.

The players said they’re excited about what they’re seeing at practice.

I wandered a bit and looked at the ballpark. Caked dirt on counter tops in the press box is a reminder of Hurricane Gustav, and with LSU projecting to play in a new stadium beginning in February, there’s no need to clean up the mess.

From the field and from the stands, the facade of the press box looks as good as it did in June when the Tigers last played there.

baseball-at-the-box.jpg

Sophomore catcher Micah Gibbs told me about his trip to Europe with the U.S. National Team, about the long flight from Washington, D.C., to Frankfurt, and then on to Amsterdam. He’ll have stories to tell for years about the Netherlands, Germany, Czechoslovakia and the people and customs he encountered.

Maybe we’ll talk about that here in more detail at another time.

I didn’t stay for the entire practice, but before I left, I did the best I could in giving you a (distant) glimpse of the future.

the-new-box.jpg

Clearly, I’m no photographer. But that’s how the new Alex Box Stadium looks from the top row of the old Box. Driving past it, I noticed the exterior coming together nicely. Here is a photo gallery on LSUsports.net.

So anyway, these are the first photos I’ve ever taken that I’ve posted on the Internet. Thank goodness I wasn’t trying to shoot a moving target. I was using my BlackBerry.

That’s the view from the sideline on a gorgeous fall afternoon. Wish you could have been here.

See you soon.

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