Dubois: No better way to send out The Box
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Fans in the grandstand at the next Alex Box Stadium will see Tiger Stadium like never before. For eyes gazing from behind home plate and between each dugout, Death Valley will loom majestically above and beyond the outfield wall.
It’s a smart wager, maybe the safest involving LSU athletics, that fans will come to love that view like few others in Baton Rouge.
The way LSU baseball has returned to the national conversation, there just might be a need after all for a stadium that holds more fans and media.
The under-construction Alex Box Stadium will have bonuses the existing ballpark lacks, including what promises to be an iconic view of LSU’s most famous sports facility.
But the old Box has given our eyes what they’ll soon never see again except in videos, photographs and memories. That’s why fans lingered May 11, after the last scheduled home game there, taking snapshots.
Others, including those who work at LSU games, did the same Sunday night after the Tigers’ regional championship.
Call me sentimental, but I had my version of that stay-in-the-moment loitering, wandering around The Box and checking out sightlines like I did during daylight hours before that May 11 game between LSU and Mississippi State.
There are some terrific views.
Near third base, looking at the Intimidator, the PMAC and Tiger Stadium.
Flip the vantage point a bit and it’s the I-10 bridge, and a hint of downtown.
Stand at the top of the grandstand, like I did late Sunday night, and you might see and hear a train roll by, the football operations facility and the distant levee as backdrops.
Some old, some new.
The Box has lately been about a view to a kill — the LSU Tigers rolling through a regional as they crush the opposition — but for most of its 71 seasons it was simply a good place to catch a ballgame, eat some peanuts and reflect.
Reflect on this: Now there are as few as two and no more than three games left.
Its patrons will lose more than familiar seats when LSU moves down the road. They’ll leave behind appropriated tailgating locations that for years were second homes.
Or maybe they’ll still use them and walk farther. It’s hard to give up a favorite shade tree or parking space after so many years.
A month ago, you hoped there would be extra innings for The Box. There are.
But this is it.
Some might secretly want the super regional to last three games, the maximum, to milk it for all they can. Others would say why lose when you can win it in two?
LSU has a 23-game winning streak and a shot at the College World Series. It’s a chance to return to Rosenblatt Stadium before the CWS moves into a shiny new ballpark.
There might even be an emotional Skip Bertman sighting.
Whatever your view, I doubt you could script it any better.
It’s a smart wager, maybe the safest involving LSU athletics, that fans will come to love that view like few others in Baton Rouge.
The way LSU baseball has returned to the national conversation, there just might be a need after all for a stadium that holds more fans and media.
The under-construction Alex Box Stadium will have bonuses the existing ballpark lacks, including what promises to be an iconic view of LSU’s most famous sports facility.
But the old Box has given our eyes what they’ll soon never see again except in videos, photographs and memories. That’s why fans lingered May 11, after the last scheduled home game there, taking snapshots.
Others, including those who work at LSU games, did the same Sunday night after the Tigers’ regional championship.
Call me sentimental, but I had my version of that stay-in-the-moment loitering, wandering around The Box and checking out sightlines like I did during daylight hours before that May 11 game between LSU and Mississippi State.
There are some terrific views.
Near third base, looking at the Intimidator, the PMAC and Tiger Stadium.
Flip the vantage point a bit and it’s the I-10 bridge, and a hint of downtown.
Stand at the top of the grandstand, like I did late Sunday night, and you might see and hear a train roll by, the football operations facility and the distant levee as backdrops.
Some old, some new.
The Box has lately been about a view to a kill — the LSU Tigers rolling through a regional as they crush the opposition — but for most of its 71 seasons it was simply a good place to catch a ballgame, eat some peanuts and reflect.
Reflect on this: Now there are as few as two and no more than three games left.
Its patrons will lose more than familiar seats when LSU moves down the road. They’ll leave behind appropriated tailgating locations that for years were second homes.
Or maybe they’ll still use them and walk farther. It’s hard to give up a favorite shade tree or parking space after so many years.
A month ago, you hoped there would be extra innings for The Box. There are.
But this is it.
Some might secretly want the super regional to last three games, the maximum, to milk it for all they can. Others would say why lose when you can win it in two?
LSU has a 23-game winning streak and a shot at the College World Series. It’s a chance to return to Rosenblatt Stadium before the CWS moves into a shiny new ballpark.
There might even be an emotional Skip Bertman sighting.
Whatever your view, I doubt you could script it any better.
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