For a few of the members in this year’s Astros Caravan, it was not their first stop through Baton Rouge.The caravan is a two-week trip that goes through Louisiana, Texas and Mexico. Although the names on this year’s caravan may not have been as recognizable to some fans as last year when former Astros Jeff Bagwell and Brad Ausmus stopped through Baton Rouge, more than 100 fans came out to meet this year’s visitors.Pitchers Brandon Backe and Geoff Geary, along with former Astros great Craig Reynolds and broadcaster Brett Dolan, made the caravan’s second yearly stop at Alex Box Stadium on Monday afternoon to talk to the Tigers baseball team and sign some autographs for fans.Dolan said he came here two years ago and saw the football team lose to Arkansas, but he said he enjoyed his time here.”I enjoy college sports, and I enjoy passionate college sports towns, and there aren’t many better than Baton Rouge,” Dolan said.Geary said the team stopped through New Orleans this morning to visit Children’s Hospital, and the experience was humbling.”We saw a bunch of children who were suffering from different types of illnesses that some of them can never come back from,” he said. “It gives you a little taste of reality.”Geary pitched for Oklahoma in a regional game in Alex Box in 1997. They lost their two games in the tournament, but he said the experience was fun.”I had fans throw stuff at me, and then ask me to go have a beer and some barbecue with them after the game,” Geary said. “I had a great experience here, and I would love to come here during a college baseball game.”LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri said the Astros players talked to the Tigers and gave them advice about going through the minors.”[Reynolds] said that the most important advice he could give to them was to enjoy the moment, to enjoy their time at LSU,” Mainieri said. “Sometimes we worry too much about our futures, and we don’t enjoy the present.”Lisa Barclay, nutrition and dietetics sophomore, was among the fans at Alex Box to meet the Astros. She said she goes to as many Astros games as she can, and she was pleased with this year’s caravan lineup.”It’s a lot of fun to meet the players,” Barclay said. “You don’t get to walk into Minute Maid Park and talk to the players and interact with them. It’s a pretty rare opportunity to get to do this.”—-Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]