It’s my favorite time of the year. The sun is shining, the temperatures are comfortable and baseball season is finally here.

LSU baseball, to be precise.

I’ve been around LSU baseball since the early 80s, and my, how things have changed. The old Alex Box Stadium received facelift after facelift, and just last year a new, state-of-the-art Alex Box Stadium opened.

This spring the old Box has finally come down. Driving past it over the past few weekends has been somewhat depressing, as bit by bit it has disappeared.

I really loved that old stadium. It was my home away from home for several years, and I have so many memories of good times there.

I attended my first game at Alex Box Stadium in the early 80s. Me and maybe two dozen other people. It was a beautiful spring afternoon, so students were out getting some sun.

But other fans, there weren’t many.

Then Skip Bertman was hired to coach the team. He immediately went on a public relations campaign, and by the time his first team threw the first pitch, a large crowd had gathered.

Nothing like crowds of today, mind you. But back then, a few hundred people encompassed a big crowd in Alex Box Stadium. And things only got better.

I worked in the Sports Information Office and was assigned to work with coach Bertman and the baseball program. I spent many long hours promoting the program through the media and made some really good friends along the way.

You may not remember some of the players on Coach Bertman’s first teams, but they are the ones responsible for moving the program into the top tier in college baseball. Guys like Mark Cooper, an all-SEC catcher; Tim Sossamon, an all-SEC West outfielder; and all-Americans Joey (Albert) Belle, Gregg Patterson, Barry Manuel and Ben McDonald. Team leaders like Jeff Reboulet, Jack Voigt, Robbie Smith and Mark Guthrie. These guys played when LSU was trying to establish itself as a powerhouse. These are the guys Bertman counted on to draw fans to the Box. These are the ones I remember when I think about the good times in Alex Box Stadium.

The 90s were awesome, of course, with four national championships, and there was nothing better than regional at the Box on Memorial Day weekend.

And those teams were filled with stars many LSU fans should recognize. Players like Paul Byrd and Andy Sheets, Todd Walker, Russ Johnson and Mike Sirotka, Warren Morris, Brad Cresse and Brandon Larson, and Blair Barbier and Wally Pontiff.

When Coach Bertman took the reins in 1984 the stadium was a mess, and he methodically transformed it over the years into one of college baseball’s premiere locales.

A new stadium was certainly welcome. And coach Paul Mainieri wasted little time in bringing the glory days back.

But for those of us who were at the Box back when it was all about the sound of the bat hitting the ball, things will never be quite the same.

Sandy Cunningham is publisher of L’Observateur. She can be reached at sandy.cunningham@wickcommunications.com