• By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Feb 21, 2009 - UPDATED: 8:40 a.m.

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Is the new Alex Box Stadium as loud as the old one?

“That’s a good question,” former LSU coach and athletic director Skip Bertman said. “That’s a very good question.”

Bertman took full measure of the volume as he stood at the center of the new, immaculate venue Friday night while LSU baseball super fans Joy Hammatt, in a formal dress, and Chris Guillot, with purple vest and tie underneath his long-tail tuxedo jacket, led the first blast of cheers.

As Guillot worked one side of the stadium to yell “Geaux!” and Hammatt worked the other side to yell “Tigers!,” as they have done for years, Bertman and Anita Haywood, the “K Lady,” opened an oversized baseball-shaped container in which the spirit of the old stadium was symbolically captured after the final regular-season game in May.

When the lid opened Friday night, the space inside the ball ignited with pyrotechnics as fireworks went off behind the center-field wall.

“Let me think about it. I remember thinking and listening. … Yes,” said Bertman moments after the first pitch sailed at 7:16 p.m. “I think it was about the same volume. I think the noise levels will still be there.”

Bertman knows full well how loud the old Alex Box Stadium could get at full roar. He led LSU to five national titles from 1991-2000 as interest in the program skyrocketed and the old stadium became one of the nation’s most feared places to play.

The old venue came alive again in June — nearly a month after the ball had been sealed with yellow tape — as the Tigers rallied from nearly being eliminated by UC Irvine to winning a super regional and getting to the College World Series under second-year coach Paul Mainieri.

With alumni players, including Mel Didier, Brad Cresse and Todd Walker, ringing the infield dirt, LSU staged a ceremony to bring in the new venue.

“I was so happy for Skip,” Mainieri said. “He was like the proud father. It was his baby.”

The most poignant moment came when the namesake of Alex Box, his nephew, handed Bertman the boxed American flag that had been draped over Alex Box’s coffin during his funeral in 1943.

Box, an LSU outfielder in 1942 (and also a football player), was an Army lieutenant and tank commander who was killed in North Africa during World War II in February 1943.

“That’s an amazing thing,” said Bertman, who said that memorial will go in the stadium’s hall of fame. “That means a lot to me.”