How South Carolina’s baseball coaching search led Ray Tanner to Paul Mainieri

When South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner was still wearing a baseball uniform and winning back-to-back national championships with the Gamecocks, he coined the phrase “Win Anyway.”

In the week-long search for the replacement for Mark Kingston, he came up with another slogan that USC faithful might be able to rally behind — “How about you?”

Tanner introduced former LSU coach Paul Mainieri as the 31st coach of the South Carolina baseball program on Thursday afternoon at Williams-Brice Stadium’s Cookaboose Club. The news conference concluded a whirlwind stretch that began with reports and speculation of job candidates and ended with a hire that few outside of Tanner and Mainieri saw coming.

Kingston was fired Monday, June 3, a day after the Gamecocks were eliminated from the Raleigh Regional of the NCAA Tournament. Lists of possible coaching candidates quickly surfaced from local and national media outlets.

Those lists included Wake Forest’s Tom Walter, East Carolina’s Cliff Godwin and South Carolina assistant coach Monte Lee, among a few others. There was no mention of Mainieri.

Tanner, doing his due diligence on each potential replacement, knew there was a friend with plenty of baseball knowledge living in Baton Rouge who could offer some valuable input on the search.

So the South Carolina AD called Mainieri sometime late last week or over the weekend, he said. And Tanner expected the conversation was going to turn at some point.

Tanner shared his list of potential candidates and took feedback. Mainieri’s health was discussed. Then came Tanner’s surprising question, “How about you?”

“When he opened the door, I was wide open,” Tanner said. “I was back in the (former USC player) Drew Meyer mold when I tried to get him to come play shortstop for me. When he gave me a crack that he could have interest, it was no holds barred at that point. I was going full bore to get him in here.

“He was excited about it. It’s not like I had to convince him. ... Listening to him and knowing him like I do, the last chapter had not been written.”

Mainieri, in a radio interview with 107.5 FM, said he called Tanner a day after that phone call to say yes.

“Ray’s still got the recruiting ability. I can promise you,” Mainieri said Thursday.

The news of Mainieri even being in the discussion never surfaced until Baseball America’s Teddy Cahill posted to X (Twitter) late Monday afternoon of the impending hire. By Tuesday afternoon, the USC Board of Trustees was meeting to approve Mainieri’s $1.3 million contract.

“A week ago, I couldn’t have imagined standing here at this podium talking to you all about coaching the Carolina Gamecocks,” Mainieri said. “We don’t know what life will throw you. I was born to coach … and it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

Mainieri stepped down from LSU at the end of the 2021 season due to neck and nerve issues. He had to undergo a couple of surgeries, but Tanner knew his friend wasn’t altogether pleased with how his stint at LSU ended. Mainieri left that job in 2021 with over 1,500 wins, one national championship and six total College World Series appearances in a career that spanned 39 years. He wasn’t forced out or retired. It was more due to the medical issues he faced.

“I knew last year at this time, he entertained a couple of other jobs,” Tanner said. “He didn’t quit at LSU, he didn’t retire. He had the surgeries he had to go through. There were two of them, so he had to step away. When he got healthy again, he was ready to play but he didn’t do it last year.”

This might not have been the first time the South Carolina job seemed appealing to Mainieri.

He and Tanner formed a bond and friendship despite leading two of the most successful college baseball teams in the country. They clicked almost from the beginning and had that relationship grow over the course of a couple of decades.

LSU had just opened a new baseball stadium in February 2009. The Gamecocks opened Founders Park that same season. The Tigers made the trek to Columbia for a three-game series that March en route to winning the College World Series.

Tanner walked Mainieri around and showed off the new stadium. There were two things that stood out: Tanner could see the Founders Park playing surface from his office and the state-of-the-art weight room that was on-site.

“They opened a new stadium that year down at LSU. He couldn’t see the field from his office. He didn’t have a view of the field. I took the opportunity to say, ‘How about the view?’ He didn’t have one,” Tanner said. “I took him to the weight room — he didn’t have a weight room. Eventually, he got one. I took an opportunity to enjoy that time together.”

Now the 66-year-old Mainieri is in that very office, at that very desk, in his final coaching spot.

“The reason I came here is because of Ray Tanner,” he said. “I mean this sincerely. What an awesome opportunity for a college baseball coach to have as his boss a good friend, one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game and a tremendous administrator. It’s a privilege.”