NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — South Carolina, according to DI baseball, will hire former LSU coach Paul Mainieri as its new baseball coach. As a fellow 66-year-old, I can’t say I am surprised. Since he left LSU three years ago, Mainieri’s name has been floated with other openings, Miami and Notre Dame, included.
In January of last year, Mainieri spoke at the first ever baseball bash presented by the New Orleans quarterback club. When the subject of him returning to the field was broached, here’s what Mainieri said.
“I don’t know Ed to be honest with you. I feel I have a lot more left in me, and I would like to do it, but the game has also changed a lot with the transfer portal, and the NIL. All that kind of stuff. I think it would depend on where the opportunity was. And, it was something I really wanted to do.”
Well, he wants to do it , obviously, and he gets a chance to coach at a place where the game is, like LSU, incredibly important. South Carolina won back to back CWS titles in 2010 and 2011, under head coach Ray Tanner, who is now the school’s director of athletics.
Since Tanner left the dugout, he has hired three baseball coaches. Mainieri is his third. He has hired a coach who has won a national championship (2009), reached the CWS finals (2017), and coached two schools, Notre Dame and LSU to a combined five College World Series appearances.
If you look at that resume’, you can see why South Carolina and Paul Mainieri have decided to give a go.
A year Mainieri said his golf game was getting better and better. Being scratch at golf would seem to be a noble pursuit, but instead Mainieri had to scratch another itch. And you can’t blame him, not one bit.
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