Heard a Skip Bertman story tonight

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He spoke of Bertman like he was a baseball god.

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He pretty much was

Bertman is all about respecting your opponent. You can hear it in everything he says even to this day when he's interviewed on radio.

He retired way too early, he could have probably coached at least until 2015.
He's on the radio in town a lot. He was telling the story when he was Athletic Director and Wayne Huizenga and the Dolphins came calling. Of course he said it wasn't about money, LSU offered what they could but couldn't match the Dolphins, but Bertman....wasn't bragging or anything trying to predict the future, he just said he kept telling Saban, you're not a pro coach, you're a college guy, you're for the college game with your processes and what's important to you, tried to talk him into staying, but of course Saban said it was too good of an opportunity and offer from Miami, and he had to go.
I hate hearing that story every time he tells it

A former player told this story about Skip & how he worked the umps. On a cold nite, first game of a 3 game series, Skip would have extra heaters placed in the ump's locker rooms, to where they were nice & toasty. Third inning, he would have 2 of the bat girls go out between innings & give each ump a set of new, really nice gloves, especially designed to keep hands warm. From the 4th inning on he rode their butts, threatening to take the gloves back, remove the heaters, etc. And he would just stand at the edge of the dugout, never moving a muscle .

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Too many smokes and his hips were terrible.

Absolutely sucks he retired at 63.

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Exactly, he even basically said himself, he cost himself a fortune, starting in the 2000s, that's when the salaries starting getting ridiculous, can you imagine what LSU would have paid him had he kept on

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he was a baseball god.

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correct

He worked hard to expand the sport. He knew college coaches made very little at the time, and their facilities were often rec league quality.

He coached during an era when LSU refused to play the smaller schools in Louisiana in football, and that mentality often trickled down into other sports. That philosophy is still in place at a lot of P5 schools across the country, but Skip was the driving force to end it at LSU.

He made a point to play other Louisiana schools as much as possible. As the popularity and success of the baseball team grew, he began to schedule road games at those schools because he knew it would generate revenue for their programs. LSU would often play Northwestern or La Tech in Shreveport when they had a minor league team and stadium so the game could draw a larger crowd and more revenue.

He wanted college baseball to grow and thrive not only in Louisiana, but across the SEC and the rest of the country. He also worked to increase the quality of coaching and instruction at the college level.

5 NCs tends to elevate one’s status.

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He spoke of Bertman like he was a baseball god.

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Skip used to tell this story about his early struggles getting LSU baseball off the floor of college sports: "a 6'4" athlete in La. is a football player, any other sport is fill in for the off season. In Fla. that same athlete may play golf, baseball, basketball, swim, etc. Facilities in Fla. were, across the board, first class.In La.they were of play ground quality." But he always added that in Fla. drugs were everywhere & always had to be considered when evaluating an athlete's long term value. He revolutionized college baseball, in La. & across the League.