Somewhere in all of the festivities surrounding LSU’s football game against Tulane, the LSU baseball team had a small celebration of its own.
LSU held its formal ceremony Saturday in Alex Box Stadium to give the baseball players their championship rings from its 2009 College World Series championship.
The ceremony started with a video montage on the scoreboard of LSU’s highlights from its time in Omaha this summer.
The members of the 2009 team lined up in the dugout to watch the video while reminiscing about LSU’s sixth baseball national title.
“It makes my heart pound fast just watching this!” LSU coach Paul Mainieri exclaimed to his players while watching the highlights.
After the video, the players walked out of the dugout to a small set of seats behind a table and a podium, all sitting right in front of the pitcher’s mound.
Athletic director Joe Alleva and Chancellor Michael Martin then spoke to the crowd, giving their congratulations to the baseball team.
“Congratulations on being champions and purporting yourselves like champions,” Martin told the team.
During the prominent figures’ speeches, the enormous championship rings sat in a tray covered by a towel, sitting on top of the bat racks in the dugout. An equipment manager carefully cradled the tray while bringing it out to the infield after Alleva and Martin finished talking.
Team managers received their rings first, followed by the players in order of class then jersey number.
Former LSU pitcher Louis Coleman, the 2009 Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Year, was given his ring last among players, receiving the loudest ovation of any player from the crowd of what appeared to be a few thousand people.
Coleman also garnered recognition from LSU fans during a timeout at the LSU football team’s game against Louisiana-Lafayette on Sept. 19. He got his own celebration because he was unable to attend the previous LSU home game against Vanderbilt on Sept. 12, when the whole baseball team was honored on the field.
“The feeling here is much better just because we’re getting our rings,” Coleman said. “But for 93,000 [fans] yelling, it was really cool. That was the loudest I’ve ever heard anything.”
The LSU coaches then received their rings after the players, with Mainieri going last and hearing the loudest cheers of any person of anyone who received a ring on the day.
Mainieri turned around the Tigers in a short amount of time, taking them from 29-26-1 in his first season to a national championship in his third.
“As a young boy, you dream of days like this,” Mainieri said. “Then the day gets here, and I can tell you it’s better than your dreams.”
And with the 2009 national championship all but behind LSU, Mainieri already seemed set for more.
“I think we ought to do it again and again and again,” Mainieri said, exciting the fans in attendance.
All but two of the players on the 2009 team attended the ceremony. Former Tiger second baseman DJ LeMahieu was stuck in the Dominican Republic, playing for a farm team in the Chicago Cubs’ organization.
And the other player, a certain left-handed relief pitcher, was busy with another event happening Saturday.
“Chad Jones is somewhere over there,” LSU public address announcer Dan Borne’ said while pointing toward Tiger Stadium, referring to LSU’s starting free safety on the football team.
 
—-Contact Robert Stewart at [email protected]