PCL Day Trips: LSU campus -- Baton Rouge, Louis.

One day after heading east to Biloxi, it was time to head west to Baton Rouge to visit the Louisiana State University campus.

College campuses are among my favorite places to spend an afternoon before a night game. The architecture of the buildings are impressive, steeped with history and tradition, there's always locally owned mom-and-pop good cheap food around the campus, and sneaking inside football stadiums is usually pretty darn easy.

Sneaking into the hallowed grounds of "Death Valley" was very easy. Gates were wide open. People were coming and going. I just gave a confident wave and walked with purpose anytime somebody spotted me. [Once they saw me snapping photos, it was painfully obvious what I was doing, but whatever.]

The turf at Death Valley was being resodded, which was both disappointing and interesting. The scope of the stadium remains imposing. Even moreso than before, it really makes me want to watch a night game in this stadium.

It was stifling hot, I was super hungry, and my time was limited, so I didn't aimlessly wonder on the campus. I stuck mostly to the athletic fields. All the facilities on LSU's campus are quite impressive. They had just finished hosting some type of tournament at the Softball Complex and the two guys breaking down equipment just ignored me as I walked inside.

Even from a distance, the football field seems to hover over the entire complex. The view of the football field from the baseball field was even more impressive.

The baseball stadium is arguably the best in the nation. It's better than a few triple-A ballparks, and blows away the ballpark we're playing in New Orleans/Metairie. The LSU baseball team was practicing before the start of a NCAA Regional and the gates were open for fans to watch, cheer, buy merchandise, and soak up the atmosphere. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say there was almost as many people watching the Tigers practice than were at Zephyrs Field earlier in the week.

At the end of their practice, the LSU players celebrated as if they won their Regional and advanced to the Super Regional. I like coaches who encourage this kind of stuff. Practicing celebrating is a way of visualizing success. Plus, it's college kids. That rah-rah stuff plays at that level.

I do know this for a fact: there's three times as many grounds crew members for the LSU baseball field than for the triple-A New Orleans Zephyrs.

If you look closely at that last photo, you'll notice the dirt behind the home plate circle is a different shade. That's because it's actually artificial turf. The grass on the infield and outfield is real. The dirt on the infield and home plate area is real. But the darker red and darker green that you see are actually field turf. These areas of the field get the most wear-and-tear, mostly with people just lingering around the batting cage during practices. This is a smart way of preserving that area, and saving having to replace that grass every year or two.

Just outside the ballpark, they call it "Championship Plaza" and have plaques commemorating their national championship teams and best players.

For lunch, I just relied on Yelp and discovered a place called Fat Cow, just a few blocks off campus. Quality bacon burger and fries.

Then it was back to the New Orleans for the final game of our series against the Zephyrs. In all, it's about 90 minutes each direction. Total time elapsed -- with driving, pictures and food -- was about five hours. Went straight to the ballpark and prepared for our games.

Can't wait to return to Death Valley for a football game in the Fall one day.