The Marks Post: A skip down memory lane

We tend to throw around the term “gentle giant” a lot today. However, that is an apt description of someone who passed away last week.
Stanley “Skip” Bertman died last Friday on August 14. After leaving Miami to take the LSU baseball job, he led the Tigers’ baseball team to five College World Series Championships.
His last season as head coach before he retired was 2001. It was during my freshman year at LSU.
I was in the old Alex Box Stadium that season for his last regular season game as head coach. I was also in the stadium for the regionals that year when beat VCU. It was a bitter-sweet moment because LSU advanced to the Super Regionals against Tulane, but it was also the last time Skip would be our coach.
After Skip retired, he continued to serve the university as athletic director.
I met him a few times in passing while on campus and a few times after I graduated. We never exchanged more than pleasantries, but it still counts.
I was also at the last game played at the old Box in 2008. I remember one moment where Skip gathered all the enthusiasm from the stadium and put it into a time capsule that would be opened at the new Box down the road. To me, it was a cheesy bit, but what do I know.
If I remember correctly, I was in the stadium when it officially became Skip Bertman Field at Alex Box Stadium.
I said all of that just to tell this story. My favorite quote of Skip is “Starkville is an Indian term for trailer park.”
Years ago, I was at an LSU baseball game against Mississippi State and started talking to a few Mississippi State batgirls. I asked them if Starkville really is an Indian term for trailer park. And, y’all wonder why I’m still single.
Seriously, though, Skip left an impact on so many people in Baton Rouge, around the state, and even around the country. He will definitely be missed.
Skip also died a few weeks after Roger Cador, who was the head baseball coach at Southern University. Both of them died several years after Tony Robichaux, the former head baseball coach at UL-L. I can’t wait to get to Heaven and hear those stories. I’m sure they are a lot better than mine about me and the batgirls.