CWS Schedule

By John Manuel
June 14, 2002

OMAHA--Getting to Omaha is never easy.

The majority of coaches never get here with their teams. Some get here as spectators, or as members of some NCAA or American Baseball Coaches Association committee.

Others have trouble getting here thanks to travel. Take your loyal Baseball America writer. For the first time in three years, my luggage got here with me. Good sign. Of course, something had to go wrong on the way to Omaha.

This year, it was the rental car. I didn't make a reservation. (You'd think, as many times as I have imitated Jerry Seinfeld's car reservation bit, I would never forget such a detail.) Fortunately, one company still had a few vehicles available, so if you're coming to Omaha this year, and you see a maroon Pontiac Aztec being driven as if that person has never driven a car that big, feel free to wave.

When you finally get here, even for those of us who don't work nearly as hard as the players and coaches, it's all worth it. For those of us lucky enough to be here year after year, sometimes it's easy to take the atmosphere at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium for granted.

Any such feeling dissipated at Thursday night's opening ceremonies. I missed the Olympic-style entry every team makes but got to catch plenty of the Rawlings Home Run Challenge, which was won by New Mexico State's Canadian slugger, Ryan Kenning.

There wasn't much to cover, but it's a good chance to stake out a spot in the press box and to schmooze with the coaches at the least pressurized time of the tournament. Most of the familiar faces in the press box are here--the NCAA's Jim Wright and Gary Johnson, Bo Carter of the Big 12 Conference. Happened to run into Bo at the best time--he was on his way to Zesto's.

There are familiar faces in the College World Series field this year, too. Mark Marquess has brought Stanford to Omaha four years in a row and six times since 1995. Texas is in its 29th CWS, and coach Augie Garrido has been here plenty before with the Longhorns and Cal State Fullerton (or as a spectator with pal Kevin Costner).

But it's always fun to see some of the fresh faces. Georgia Tech assistant coach Bobby Moranda is making his first trip to Omaha in 16 years as a coach, and he said he planned to savor every minute. Give Tech head coach Danny Hall credit for melding a team with 17 new players and three new assistant coaches into his second CWS team.

Rice coach Wayne Graham has been here three times since 1997, but the Owls are hardly a traditional power. And Graham doesn't take anything about Omaha for granted. He was happy to talk baseball for a few minutes, while letting his players enjoy the spectacle.

Rice's players were seated next to a group of players in garnet, but it's not the garnet and gold of Florida State. Instead, it was Ray Tanner's South Carolina Gamecocks, though Tanner and his coaching staff were more formally attired. I hadn't seen Tanner out of uniform since the 2000 Olympics, when as an associate coach he had to sit in the stands during games. He didn't seem comfortable then, and he was looking forward to getting comfortable in the Rosenblatt dugout this weekend.

Perhaps none of the newcomers were as excited as Notre Dame's Paul Mainieri and his coaching staff. The Fighting Irish coach was a hit at Thursday's press conference, which was no surprise. Mainieri is as savvy with the media as any coach, and he'll put those talents on display on the national stage in Omaha.

He and his team have earned that right, and I thanked him for making BA's repeated high rankings of the Irish look good. It's just too bad Notre Dame's success had to come at the expense of Florida State and coach Mike Martin, one of the sport's good guys.

Even some of the food at the ballpark is new this year. One vendor was selling "Georgia Pulled Pork Barbecue." It tasted suspiciously like North Carolina barbecue, though not quite my preferred variation. But it's a welcome improvement over past ballpark food.

One change for the worse in 2002: no Jim Callis. Jim is sending me a check for the steaks he owes me from our prediction competitions the last two years. Jim and his wife have four children, and it tells you all you need to know about Jim's passion for college baseball (and his wife's understanding) that he kept coming to Omaha every year. He'll still probably wind up here before the series is done to keep his streak going: he has been to every CWS since 1987.

Don't worry, Jim, I'll hit the Drover and have a whiskey steak on your behalf, and probably a Zesto's too.