The Wild Side for May 11, 2008
| OUTDOORS EXTRAS |
NAVIGATION
Louisiana Records |
Happy Mother’s Day
Print
Email
Save
Reprints
Twitter
Share
Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Reddit
Hope you kissed your mom this morning.
However you choose to accept this day and however it is that you mesh Mother’s Day with outdoor pursuits, you couldn’t have done it without your mom — and that goes far beyond her giving birth to you.
If you think you set foot outside your door without your mom’s blessing, then reconsider those days. More than likely dad, grandpa, uncle or older brother had a hand in convincing mom that a Saturday in May spent fishing was better than a day spent studying for final exams, or any other chore she might have scheduled.
For my wife Cheryl and mom-in-law Carolyn Talbot, thanks and Happy Mother’s Day: This is my first without my mom. She cooked the fish I caught, on the trips she allowed me to make.
Sad day
My ties to Alex Box Stadium run deeper than they do to the outdoors for our newspaper.
Thursday’s Fishing Report has run every week since March 1976, but the first time I set foot in Alex Box Stadium was 1961 when my dad took me to see an SEC doubleheader — LSU took a pair from Tulane that day.
Didn’t know it then (I was all of 13) but several of those I met would become friends and prized citizens, folks like Judge Frank Polozola and Dr. John Thomas just to name two among the many.
At LSU, I was a student worker in the sports information department and worked my first games as official scorer in 1969, then covered LSU baseball for the State-Times (Baton Rouge’s afternoon newspaper until 1991) and the Morning Advocate.
Leading up to today’s final regular-season game at 70-year-old Alex Box Stadium, friends made during the past 40 years have called to reminisce, among them a 1969 player. He said he needed to call because he figured I’d seen at least 10,000 innings in Alex Box Stadium and no fewer than 15,000 innings of LSU baseball. Never added it up.
LSU baseball is where I first met Ed Sexton, a third baseman who became a Baton Rouge businessman and is as proficient a speckled trout catcher as there is in Louisiana.
There isn’t enough room on this page to get in all my fond memories. Lord willing, I’ll be at Alex Box Stadium today knowing that:
However you choose to accept this day and however it is that you mesh Mother’s Day with outdoor pursuits, you couldn’t have done it without your mom — and that goes far beyond her giving birth to you.
If you think you set foot outside your door without your mom’s blessing, then reconsider those days. More than likely dad, grandpa, uncle or older brother had a hand in convincing mom that a Saturday in May spent fishing was better than a day spent studying for final exams, or any other chore she might have scheduled.
For my wife Cheryl and mom-in-law Carolyn Talbot, thanks and Happy Mother’s Day: This is my first without my mom. She cooked the fish I caught, on the trips she allowed me to make.
Sad day
My ties to Alex Box Stadium run deeper than they do to the outdoors for our newspaper.
Thursday’s Fishing Report has run every week since March 1976, but the first time I set foot in Alex Box Stadium was 1961 when my dad took me to see an SEC doubleheader — LSU took a pair from Tulane that day.
Didn’t know it then (I was all of 13) but several of those I met would become friends and prized citizens, folks like Judge Frank Polozola and Dr. John Thomas just to name two among the many.
At LSU, I was a student worker in the sports information department and worked my first games as official scorer in 1969, then covered LSU baseball for the State-Times (Baton Rouge’s afternoon newspaper until 1991) and the Morning Advocate.
Leading up to today’s final regular-season game at 70-year-old Alex Box Stadium, friends made during the past 40 years have called to reminisce, among them a 1969 player. He said he needed to call because he figured I’d seen at least 10,000 innings in Alex Box Stadium and no fewer than 15,000 innings of LSU baseball. Never added it up.
LSU baseball is where I first met Ed Sexton, a third baseman who became a Baton Rouge businessman and is as proficient a speckled trout catcher as there is in Louisiana.
There isn’t enough room on this page to get in all my fond memories. Lord willing, I’ll be at Alex Box Stadium today knowing that:
- Left field was the best dove hunting spot in BR.
- Mike Miley (God rest his soul) was the best player I ever saw on that field, and that he made the best play I’ve ever seen in baseball on that field.
- Gerald Keigley hit the first homer over the left-field light pole.
- Bill Bright hit two homers in one game over Nicholson Drive — with a wooden bat.
- Myths will remain myths no matter what and that no one has ever hit the Married Student Apartments with a home run.
- I miss coaches Jim Smith, Ernie Hill, Jack Lamabe, Smoke Laval and Skip Bertman.
- I will miss Alex Box Stadium.
 | ||||
| Most Popular | Most Emailed | Hot Topics | ||
