OMAHA, Neb. — How do you say goodbye to a place that’s been your home for 60 years?
A place you were practically born in. Grew up in.
A place where schemes were hatched (Miami’s hidden ball trick in 1982) and where miracles appeared (Warren Morris’ series-winning home run in 1996).
How does the College World Series say farewell to Rosenblatt Stadium?
An elaborate ceremony is planned for next week, after Rosenblatt’s final NCAA champion is crowned. There will be fireworks, speeches and a ceremonial dimming of the lights.
There probably won’t be a dry eye in the house.
A plaque from the stadium’s dedication hangs on a wall near the Rosenblatt entrance. The bronzed date reads Oct. 17, 1948.
The NCAA’s College World Series, then only 3 years old, moved to Rosenblatt in 1950. And though seats have been added and a computerized scoreboard now hangs in left field, the stadium still sits on the hill at South 13th Street, next to Omaha’s award-winning zoo, amid a mostly middle-class and Catholic neighborhood, with pink plastic flamingos and statues of the Virgin Mary in their front yards.
You realize quickly that this is not a place where millionaire professionals play baseball. The architecture is Engineering 101. The sight lines are intimate. The concourses are snug.
The prevalent theme in the newspapers here has been that the grand old girl can no longer squeeze college baseball’s annual Woodstock into her few amenities.
The College World Series will move next year to a soon-to-be completed, $128 million modern stadium in downtown Omaha - TD Ameritrade Park.
The new stadium will have legroom and seats with cup holders, better clubhouses for the teams and a club area with something called “themed menus.”
It’ll be great, visiting coaches and NCAA officials are politely saying publicly.
But at the concession tents, both on the Rosenblatt grounds and on the streets that surround it, the runaway best-sellers all week have been the T-shirts that pay homage to “The Final Year.”
The new stadium is going to be clean and comfortable, but the pink flamingos and the ice cream cones from the Zesto hut will be missed.
There are Omaha people sitting behind home plate at Rosenblatt who have been coming to the College World Series for 50 years. In a lot of cases, their fathers first brought them to Rosenblatt, and now they’re bringing their own kids.
Leaner and wearing Texas burnt orange, Roger Clemens once pitched here. Will Clark hit here for Mississippi State, as did Barry Bonds for Arizona State. In 1973, Dave Winfield pitched and played the outfield here for the Minnesota Gophers.
Plenty of future major leaguers have performed in front of College World Series crowds at Rosenblatt. But the enduring appeal of Rosenblatt hasn’t been its headliners, but the cast of thousands for whom these two weeks in June have been the highlights of their baseball lives.
Most of the players here aren’t waiting for a big contract, but rather a dog pile of bodies after the final out.
That’s why the most photographed point at Rosenblatt by far is “The Road to Omaha” sculpture at the entrance. ESPN shows it on every College World Series telecast - four uniformed players, captured in joyous celebration.
Visitors to Rosenblatt pose in front of the sculpture all day and all night long, some of them raising their arms high, just like the player in the statue.
The major league draft has helped, but mostly these are not yet household names that pass through the dugouts at Rosenblatt. Thus, the loyalties here tend to run along team lines.
The decorated programs - LSU, Texas, Southern California, et al - have developed long and ardent followings. Their T-shirts remain best-sellers, even though they didn’t make it to this final Rosenblatt year.
The warm embrace that Omaha has given this event for 60 years is what brings fans of college baseball back.
At Stadium View Sportscards on 13th Street, just outside the stadium grounds, owner Greg Pivovar still greets every CWS customer with a free beer. Pivovar estimates he’s given away 40,000 over the years.
Just down the road from Rosenblatt is Iowa and its corn fields, but Rosenblatt is college baseball’s true field of dreams.
How do you say goodbye to a place that’s been the dream of so many baseball programs?
If you’re a fan here, you buy a Tshirt and you bring the tissues next week.
Sports, Pages 18 on 06/24/2010