Baseball: Goodbye old friend – Former players reflect on end of Tigue Moore Field
Kevin Foote, The Advertiser, May 3, 2016
UL baseball’s home of 38 years to be replaced with state-of-the-art facility
Athletic Network Footnote by Ed Dugas. Click here for AN profile of Marion Lartigue "Tigue" Moore.
Shortly after the conclusion of the 2016 UL Ragin’ Cajuns baseball season, it’s going to happen.
M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field — as UL’s baseball home has officially been known since March 3, 1995, a year after the death of Marion Lartigue Moore — will be destroyed.
In its place will be a new state-of-the-art college baseball facility that promises to look more like a Major League ballpark than the chain-link fence field that Moore Field was in its infancy almost four decades ago.
Mr. Moore himself would be reveling in the progress of Cajuns baseball and fully support the next huge step in the program’s mission to remain one of the nation’s elite Division I baseball programs.
University of Louisiana at Lafayette benefactor M.L. Tigue Moore speaks at the dedication of the UL baseball field that bears his name. (Photo: Contributed photo)
This weekend, UL is the only non-power five program nationally to be hosting one of the 16 NCAA Regionals. The No. 1 seeded Cajuns are hosting No. 2-seeded Arizona, No. 3 Sam Houston State and No. 4 Princeton.
Unless the Cajuns are fortunate enough to host a Super Regional next week, this weekend’s NCAA Regional will be the farewell song for Tigue Moore Field, which has been the home for UL baseball since 1978.
For the many coaches, players and fans who have enjoyed the park over the past 38 years, the wrecking ball will certainly produce some mixed feelings … sort of like having to wave goodbye to an old friend on your way to a life-changing opportunity far from home.
It’ll definitely be that way for UL associate head coach Anthony Babineaux.
Consider his relationship with "The Tigue," as the field has affectionately become known by many of its fans over the years.
Babineaux played American Legion ball for the Guaranty Bankers out of Carencro High in 1988 and 1989. He then played four years of college baseball with the Cajuns beginning in 1990 and has now been coaching for 22 years under head coach Tony Robichaux.
That’s 28 years of memories for the 45-year-old Babineaux.
“That’s well over half my life," he said. "It’s definitely going to be a little tough to watch. When you think of all of the memories in that place, there will definitely be some bittersweet feelings.”
Perhaps no one has been more up, close and personal with Tigue Moore Field over the years than Babineaux. For 15 years, he was, in effect, its groundskeeper.
“I put so much effort and energy into it to make it as good as it could be,” said Babineaux, who recalls the idea of adding one more new amenity to the park each year to keep it updated.
“It was special to see the transformation of the place over the years.”
Much of his field-preparation duties lessened in 2010 when the playing surface was transformed to turf.
“It’s going to be tough, but the thing that makes it easier to deal with is that I know something bigger and better is replacing it,” Babineaux said. “If it was coming down to build a parking lot or something like that, it would be different. That would be a lot harder to deal with.”
The stories Tigue Moore Field could tell are far too many to name.
There’s the man himself, all the championships, the renovations, the great players, the ground-breaking wins, all the heartbreaking losses and, for some, a few memorable brawls.
hey even had a wedding at home plate when star outfielder Papo Ramos married Tina Giron on May 3, 1992, after an 8-6 win over the hated Lamar Cardinals.
For future Cajuns such as Babineaux and Paul Bako, the introduction to Tigue Moore Field was actually as American Legion players in the summers prior to their college careers.
Mr. Moore, as everyone called him no matter how old they were, ran the local American Legion program with an iron fist.
“It was truly an honor to be able to compete on a college field,” Babineaux said. “We were all deathly afraid of Mr. Moore. He believed in doing things the right way all the time. He didn’t believe in being a second late, your jerseys had to be tucked in and caps worn properly at all times. I made sure I had all of those things taken care of before I even got out of the car in the parking lot, much less walked onto the field.”
If pregame drills were supposed to begin at 5:10, Mr. Moore would soon be heard blowing into the old Moore Field microphone and then say, “Guaranty Bank time, 5:12.”
For Bako, it was during those Legion years that the future 12-year Major League catcher convinced high school coach Sam Taulli to let him pitch.
“That was the first and only time,” laughed Bako, who played for Lafayette High-based Mr. Cook. “It only lasted a few batters. I hit the backstop a few times.”
Bako would soon start his college career at UL (1991-93) when the Cajuns began showing potential of making noise nationally with a NCAA Regional finals showing in 1991 and their first at-large NCAA Regional invitation in 1992.
“There are just tons of memories at that field,” Bako said. “For me, the things I remember most are the relationships you built during those years, the players, all the personalities and the talent we had. Catching guys like Gary Haught and Javi DeJesus.
“Papo’s wedding clearly stands out.”
Arriving at UL two years before Bako was Abbeville High product Ken Meyers.
Add the fact that his older brother Kevin’s Cajun career began in 1986, he both witnessed and took part in many of the major renovations to Tigue Moore Field that made it look more like the field UL fans know today.
Blood, sweat and tears
When coach Mike Boulanger arrived in 1988, there was no Cajun Cooking Club. There was no clubhouse behind the third base line. There were no bleachers above the first and third base dugouts. The bullpens were on the field where the patio seating currently resides.
Meyers said when he began his playing career at UL, he was sharing a “locker” with three teammates in the old building near the right field wall, along with the track and field squad.
“When coach Boulanger got there, he set the table for success,” Meyers said. “It was literally, ‘If you build it, they will come.’ After a while, you were asking yourself, ‘Did I come here on a baseball scholarship?’ There were some long days.”
College baseball was just beginning to create its place in the football-loving Deep South and UL baseball was doing its part to eventually reap those benefits at Tigue Moore Field.
As Meyers remembers, they would practice for three hours and then three work crews (of players) would begin constructing the bleachers over the dugouts down each baseline.
The materials were sent with instructions and the “work crews” did the actual constructing of the seats where future rowdy Ragin’ Cajun fans would wreak havoc on opposing teams for decades to come.
The next step was adding a baseball-only clubhouse, the one that still resides behind the third-base bleachers.
“It was three dads with limited budgets, my dad (Lynwood), Tommy Vincent, Ron’s dad and Mike Guidry, Todd’s dad, doing it in their spare time.”
The rewards were enjoyed almost immediately. The Cajuns made the NCAA Regionals for the first time ever in 1988 (ironically eliminated by Tony Robichaux’s McNeese State club in Stillwater, Okla.), got spurned by the NCAA selection committee despite 49 wins in 1989, but then returned to NCAA Regional play for three straight years from 1990-92.
That phase of Tigue Moore Field’s progress, though, certainly weren’t the toddler steps.
The Cajuns actually began playing at what would soon be called Moore Field during the 1978 season. On March 31, 1979, it would be called “Moore Field,” technically after Mr. Moore’s wife, Catherine.
It wouldn’t actually become "The Tigue" until 1995.
Mark Lalande remembers the old park in its infancy. He was a senior at Lafayette High in 1978 and joined the Cajuns in 1979.
“It was a real nice ball park in the ’70s,” Lalande said. “Other than the old Alex Box, places we’d go like Lamar, Tulane and McNeese were more like high school fields.”
It would take a long time, though, until the playing surface was something to be proud of.
“When (legendary MLB scout and former UL A.D. and baseball coach) coach (Mel) Didier came my junior year, we had to spray paint on the grass to make it look green,” Lalande laughed.
Don’t touch the pine trees
In 1981, Lalande said he remembers his brother, Sid, and assistant coach Mark Cunningham leading the charge to plant the pine trees that have been such a signature part of Tigue Moore Field for decades.
In those days, no one could envision UL hosting the 2014 NCAA Regionals and Super Regionals on national television in front of more than 4,000 screaming fans.
“In four years, I don’t think we ever had the stadium anywhere near full,” Lalande said. “It was pretty much your parents and your brothers and sisters that your parents dragged to the game.
“It’s a totally different world now. I wish I could be playing right now. It’s going to be sad to see it (field) go, but I can’t wait to see the new one.”
In those days, Lalande recollects teams coming down from the cold Northern states.
“We had a few (pitchers) that every once in a while would drop down and throw underhand like fast-pitch softball,” Lalande said. “I remember one time David Guidry just crushed one of those pitches. He must have hit it to the track.”
That 1981 team went 40-23, at that time the most wins in Division I era in school history.
That fall, Garrett O’Connor arrived at UL from Lafayette High and as the Mr. Cook pitcher who hit the game-winning home run in the 12th inning to give Lafayette its first American Legion state title for Mr. Moore.
“I remember that freshman class — Kenny Nezat, Todd Credeur, Darren Duhon, Claude Corley — helping to plant those pine trees,” said O’Connor, who was drafted three times in the MLB draft, including by the New York Yankees in the second round. “They grew fast. By my senior year, they were over the top of the fence.
“I’m fine with them taking it (field) down. As long as they don’t tear down those pine trees.”
By 1984, O’Connor was a top-notch pitcher on the 1984 team that thought it might make NCAA Regional play at 39-18 under head coach Brad Kelley, who is still working in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization.
In 1985, the local fans gave the first signs of catching on when the Cajuns beat LSU 6-5 at Moore Field in a 35-23 campaign. And by 1986, Xavier Hernandez was leading the Cajuns to a 7-5 road win over No. 1-ranked Texas.
The flame had been lit for Cajun Country’s love of baseball at Tigue Moore Field.
