Rosenblatt memories beckon me back to Omaha

    Don’t tell my wife, but … I am ready for a return trip to Omaha.
    On my last visit to the College World Series, LSU beat Texas in 2009, 2 games to 1 in the championship series.
    Long after LSU’s Louis Coleman got the final out, I took a walk around Rosenblatt Stadium. It was about 2 a.m. After the 2010 World Series, Rosenblatt would be torn down. So, just in case I didn’t get back, it was important for one last tour of a place that had unexpectedly become a big part of many of my summers.
    My first trip to Omaha was with the University of New Orleans in 1984. As the Privateers prepared for Omaha, head coach Ron Maestri posed for a picture, smoking a cigar in front of the scoreboard that simply said, “World Series Bound.”
    Twenty-eight years ago, I discovered that the College World Series was one of the few big events in sports that still had a small-time feel. In Omaha, before the game you could walk across the street and visit the zoo, or drive less than a mile and eat a great steak with all the trimmings for less than $30.
    Two years after UNO, LSU arrived in Omaha for the first time. The Tigers weren’t an instant success there.
    Twenty-five years ago, Stanford’s Paul Carey hit a grand slam off Ben McDonald to beat LSU, 6-5. It would take four more years before the Tigers would break through with their first of five CWS titles under head coach Skip Bertman.
    In Omaha in 2001, I got to see two very important men shake hands, Tulane’s Rick Jones and President George W. Bush.
    June 8, 1996, is by far my best CWS moment.
    Moments after Warren Morris’ two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning beat Miami 9-8, I interviewed Morris’ dad on the field at Rosenblatt. Tears streamed down the face of an overjoyed father. Nothing else needed to be said.
    2009 was special, too.
    In the final inning, the late Wally Pontiff’s little brother, Nick, was inserted into the game to play right field. After the dogpile, Nick’s dad, Wally, cried tears of joy. It was a beautiful way to end a special journey.
    And, what makes the journey to Omaha even more special is the people. On that same trip, late in the night, vandals busted into the back of our WGNO news vehicle. But, my partner Robert O’Shields was a step ahead of them. His television camera was inside his hotel room, away from the thieves.
    We needed a rental car, until ours got repaired. In a huge touch of irony, the gentleman working the front desk at the hotel drove me to the airport to pick up a car. He could not have been nicer.
    He told me about the cold and snowy Nebraska winters. He said, “This is the time of the year to be here.”
    I couldn’t agree more.
    Ed Daniels is sports director of ABC26 WGNO. He can be reached at edaniels@clarionherald.org.