Auburn led 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth inning at LSU’s Alex Box Stadium. There were two outs, and Auburn needed one more to win the first game of the series. Then LSU’s Jordan Thompson hit a fly ball down the right field line.
Auburn outfielder Josh Hall ran to the ball, not knowing if it was foul or fair. He caught it to win the game for Auburn – and in the same instant ran into the LSU bullpen in foul territory, smashing a foot and knee into the wooden benches. He grimaced in pain.
Hall sat out for the rest of the weekend but assumed he would be back the next week to play Vanderbilt at home.
But his season was done. Hall had received one of the rarest injuries in baseball – turf toe – and missed the rest of the season in a year that Auburn made the College World Series.
Hall’s injury in that 2022 game was one of many at LSU’s Box stadium, where the placement and construction of the home and visitor bullpens present an injury hazard for players fielding foul balls. Those injuries prompted LSU to plan renovations starting later this year.
“Injuries do happen,” Hall said. “What made it so hard was that it was a freak injury that could have been prevented if correct precautions would have been made.”
The changes will include moving the bullpens, where relief pitchers warm up, to another part of the stadium. The renovations will also put about 160 additional seats down the first and third base lines – adding to the stadium’s current capacity of 10,326.
Hall wasn’t the only player to be injured since the new Alex Box Stadium opened in February 2009.
Drew Bianco, a former LSU baseball player, was also injured on the same night that Hall ran into the bullpen benches. Bianco dove for the ball and hit the bullpen benches, injuring his shoulder.
“When you are running full speed to catch a fly ball, you are looking at the air and you aren’t looking at the ground,” Bianco said. “So, it’s easier to trip and then hurt something in your lower body if you aren’t careful and then obviously that possibility to hit the benches like Josh and I did.”
Bianco missed extended time during the 2022 season after hurting his shoulder.
He said that during his four years at LSU, other minor injuries occurred along the bullpen areas.
“Even all of my teammates at LSU would talk about how ridiculous it was to have the bullpens there,” he said.
Hall acknowledged that fans like the aesthetic and historical feel of Alex Box Stadium.
“But there does come a point where safety of the player and student athlete has to come in mind,” he said. “We work so hard to play at that level and too hard to have a season stripped away because of something so uncommon and could have been prevented.”
Hall believes the changes to Alex Box will be beneficial to everyone.
“It will free up outfielders to play their game, and then I don’t think moving them off the field will affect the aesthetic of Alex Box Stadium. That’s one of the greatest ballparks in the country,” he said.
Another injury stood out to Bill Franques, senior associate communications director and the public announcer for LSU baseball.
Franques said Anthony Rendon, a Rice third baseman, injured his knee down the left field line in 2009. Rendon missed the rest of that season and then extended time into the next season.
Franques said LSU had brought the aesthetic of the old Alex Box Stadium to the new stadium. The bullpens were on the foul lines in the old stadium as well, which is why LSU is still one of few teams to have bullpens on the field.
The bullpens down the line also give fans better access to players than in other ballparks, but Franques said student athletes’ safety should be the priority.
“It’s time to move past the old ways of Alex Box Stadium and enhance it for everyone,” Franques said.
With the changes, the LSU Baseball program also will see benefits from a revenue standpoint with 160-plus tickets becoming available to sell each game.
“From a revenue generation standpoint, it’s tremendously important what the renovations can accomplish in that area along with being an opportunity to enhance the experience of our fans and ultimately our players,” Franques said.
The new seats will serve as premium seating for Tiger Athletic Foundation members, adding to the Champions Club seating behind home plate. There will be tables for three to four people and the view will not impede any other person watching the game’s view.
“The premium seating will almost be an addition to our TAF seating. If I had to guess, they are going to have a wait service on the premium seating,” Matthew Montgomery, Alex Box Stadium general manager, said.
Bullpens will be moved off the field. The home bullpens will be moved to under the diamond deck in rightfield, sections 97, 98 and 99.
The visitor bullpens will be “off the field” after a fence is built around the area with a wall down the left field line. According to Montgomery, the visitor bullpens will be something like the LSU Softball visitor bullpens.
The changes will cost LSU an estimated $3 million.
Montgomery said construction will begin the day after the last game of the season at Alex Box Stadium and will be finished by February 2025, for the start of the season.
