GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson didn’t want to talk about a baseball game as his press conference opened after his No. 1 Tigers defeated Missouri, 12-5, to open Southeastern Conference play Friday night at Alex Box Stadium/Skip Bertman Field.
He wanted to talk about the Bertmans and baseball.
“I’ll talk about that in a second,” Johnson said when asked about winning pitcher Kade Anderson. “I want to talk about Mrs. Sandy Bertman first.”
Sandy Schwartz Bertman, the wife for 63 years of former LSU baseball coach and athletic director Skip Bertman, died on Thursday night in Baton Rouge after battling cancer. She was 87.
“It’s been a tough night, tough 24 hours,” Johnson said. “And I just want to make sure every player that played for Skip, who built this into a powerhouse, every fan, just knows that win today was for her.”
The Bertmans came to LSU in the summer of 1983 with their four daughters, and Skip built LSU Baseball into one of the greatest programs in college baseball history, winning five national championships from 1991-2000 and reaching the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, 11 times from 1986-2000 with Sandy at his side.
The night of Bertman’s last title in 2000, he and his family sat in the hotel restaurant hours later watching a replay of the game.
“I have referenced this several times,” Johnson said. “Personally, the coolest part of this job is the relationship I have with Skip. He was one of my heroes as a young coach, and now to have a friendship, a mentorship, the relationship that I have with coach Bertman is amazing. And she was a very big part of that from the second we landed here.”
Johnson, who is in his fourth season at LSU after leaving Arizona, usually has lunch with Skip once a week – even during the season – and they talk regularly on the phone. Mrs. Bertman befriended Johnson and his wife Maureen immediately upon their arrival in Baton Rouge in the summer of 2021.
“It didn’t take long to figure out how critical she was to all of this here happening,” Johnson said. “When you hear the former players – Doug Thompson (1997-98), Pete Bush (1985-89), Ryan Theriot (1999-2001), all these guys that now are really good friends of mine – talk about coach obviously, but also talked about Mrs. Sandy. So, that was for her.”
Postgame tribute to Sandy Bertman after LSU’s 12-5 win over Missouri. And coach Jay Johnson gave her the Magic Moment award he gives after every win. pic.twitter.com/ULlg4VE1mr
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) March 15, 2025
A picture of Sandy and Skip at the original Alex Box Stadium after Skip’s last regular season game in 2001 covered the entire scoreboard at the new box next to the words, “SANDY BERTMAN – 1938-2025,” from the moment Friday’s game ended until late into the night.
“She got the Magic Moment tonight,” Johnson said.
The Magic Moment is an award Johnson gives to a player or players after each win.
“And just thinking of Coach Bertman and their girls, her family,” he said. “And I wanted to start with that.”
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