After 15 seasons and one national championship at LSU, Paul Mainieri has announced he’s retiring as a college baseball coach. Mainieri has the most career victories among active Division one coaches and three more years left on his contract. But the 63-year-old says despite two neck surgeries, he’s been in constant pain since 2018.
“This decision was my decision and it hurt to make this decision because it’s what I’ve done my whole life, it’s going to be weird waking up one morning and not being a coach anymore, but I’m also very excited about the rest of my life, Karen and I are going to enjoy our life and we are going to do some things we haven’t able to do,” said Mainieri.
The successful coach went on to say he wants to go to the Kentucky Derby, the Masters and visit former players.
Mainieri led the Tigers to the College World Series five times, winning it all in 2009 and finishing as a runner-up in 2017. But his critics always pointed to the fact he didn’t win as many national championships as Skip Bertman, who won five titles.
“I told Skip (Bertman) when I came here that my only goal was to make him proud and I hope I’ve done that, I did my best,” said Mainieri.
This year’s LSU baseball team is waiting to find out if they made the NCAA Tournament. The Field of 64 will be unveiled on Monday at 11 AM. The Tigers are on the bubble after going 13-and-17 in SEC play. Higgins said Mainieri’s announcement might give the selection committee another reason to put the Tigers in a regional
“He deserved that kind of send-off that you know people where they go to the regional and they’ll be talked about and Paul Mainieri’s career and they’ll talk about these have been his final games, I think he deserved that,” Tiger Rag Editor Ron Higgins said.
One name that’s surfaced as a possible replacement to Mainieri is Florida Coach Kevin O’ Sullivan.
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