CWS Tickets

Road To Rosenblatt Preview: Part 1

In the first of a 12-part series, we preview some of the contending teams from the 30 NCAA Div. I conferences that hope to have fans buying CWS tickets this June to make the trip to the 2008 College World Series in Omaha on the "Road To Rosenblatt."

In our first part of the series, we preview the America East, Atlantic Sun and Colonial conferences.

America East Conference

Defending conference runner-up Binghamton looks like the team to beat heading into the season, and will rely on the arm of lefthander Jeff Dennis, who was selected to the Brooks Wallace Player of the Year Award watch list, presented to the nation's top collegiate baseball player. Dennis led BU last year with a 2.62 earned-run average and struck out 54 in 55 innings to lead the Bearcats to the regular season title.

Both Maine and Vermont had great recruiting years and each were among the top five teams in the nation for recruiting, according to Baseball America. Maine coach Steve Trimper has three solid pitchers coming in that can make an immediate impact for the Black Bears, who had the third best recruiting class in the nation. The Catamounts have 15 newcomers on the team this year and could be a contender for the conference title as well.

Defending champion Albany, which beat Binghamton in a thrilling conference final last year and qualified for the NCAA tournament, should also be a contender for conference honors this spring.

Atlantic Sun Conference

Defending conference tournament champion Jacksonville leads a group of three teams that should contend for conference honors. The Dolphins have several key players back from last year's NCAA tournament team, including junior hurler Matt Davis (4-2, 3.41 ERA), freshman pitcher Carson Andrew (3-2, 3.65) and sophomore Chuck Opachich, who had the game-winning hit in JU's conference final win over Belmont.

Belmont will have a balanced team returning, led by relief pitcher Chris Manning. The junior was 3-0 with a 2.67 ERA last year and had 11 saves, third most among Atlantic Sun pitchers. He was named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers preseason All-America third team and is a Wallace Watch honoree.

Stetson, the conference regular-season champion, will be led by pitching standout Robbie Elsemiller, who was second in the A-Sun in saves with 12 and ranks third in conference history in career saves. He is also a Wallace Award nominee and was named to the Louisville Slugger preseason All-America second team.

Colonial Conference

Old Dominion appears to be the lead horse in this conference heading into the season, as they have six returnees from last year's 35-24 season. Right-handed ace Anthony Shawler (11-2, 2.20 ERA, 130 K) is a preseason All-America first-team selection and will anchor a strong pitching staff for ODU, which also includes junior Dan Hudson (109 K).

Virginia Commonwealth earned a trip to the NCAA tournament last year and should have a strong team retunring from last year's 37-23 season. Jared Bolden (.383, 5 HR, 49 RBI) leads the VCU offense while Cody Epply paces the VCU hurlers.

Delaware, the conference tournament runner-up, should also be in the hunt along with UNC-Wilmington. UNC-Wilmington is led by catcher Mark Carver (.316), while Jeff Hatcher and Brad Holt lead the pitching staff for UNC-Wilmington, while the Blue Hens return five starters, including preseason All-America shortstop Alex Buchholz (.387, 11 HR, 63 RBI) and outfielder Adam Tsakonas.

Remember to buy your CWS tickets for the 2008 College World Series at Ticket Express, where no CWS game is ever sold out.

2008 baseball season begins Feb. 1

The 2008 college baseball season gets underway this Friday, Feb. 1, with a universal start to practice for all NCAA Div. 1 teams as they prepare for a chance to reach the 2008 College World Series.

In past years, southern teams had an advantage in that they could start practice and play earlier than northern schools. The NCAA changed that rule in the offseason, and now all teams won't be able to officially begin practice until Feb. 1, with the first day of competition set for Friday, Feb. 22.

The goal, of course, is to make it to Omaha's Rosenblatt Stadium for the 2008 College World Series, and the NCAA anounced some changes in CWS tickets for the 2008 event, which begins Saturday, June 14.

The tournament start date is being moved back one day from its traditional Friday start, allowing teams an extra day of practice in prepartion for the CWS. Fan Fest activities will now be held on Friday, June 13, and the eight-team, double-elimination tournament, which is set up in two four-team brackets, will run through Saturday, June 21. The best-of-three championship series will start Monday, June 23.

The NCAA is increasing the price of CWS tickets by $1, the first price increase in two years.

The 2008 College World Series schedule will be as follows:

Saturday, June 14 -- 1 p.m.: Game 1; 6 p.m.: Game 2 (both first-round matchups)

Sunday, June 15 -- 1 p.m.: Game 3; 6 p.m.: Game 4 (both first-round matchups)

Monday, June 16 -- 1 p.m.: (Game 5) Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2; 6 p.m.: (Game 6) Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2

Tuesday, June 17-- 1 p.m.: (Game 7) Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4; 6 p.m.: (Game 8) Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4

Wednesday, June 18 -- 6 p.m.: (Game 9) Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 6

Thursday, June 19 -- 6 p.m.: (Game 10) Winner Game 7 vs. Loser Game 8

Friday, June 20 -- 1 p.m.: (Game 11) Winner Game 6 vs. Winner Game 9; 6 p.m.: (Game 12) Winner Game 8 vs. Winner Game 10

Saturday, June 21 -- 1 p.m.: (Game 13) Loser Game 11 vs. Winner Game 11; 6 p.m.: (Game 14) Loser Game 12 vs. Winner Game 12 (If only one of these games is necessary, it will be played at 6 p.m.)

Monday, June 23 -- 6 p.m.: Championship Finals, Game 1

Tuesday, June 24 -- 6 p.m.: Championship Finals, Game 2

Wednesday, June 25 -- 6 p.m.: Championship Finals, Game 3 (if necessary)

Get your CWS tickets now at Ticket Express, where no College World Series game is ever sold out.

Arizona leads way in preseason polls

Although their in-state rivals have more No. 1 rankings, the Arizona Wildcats are ahead of Arizona State in the College Baseball Insider.com composite preseason rankings released Friday.

The Wildcats finished 42-17 last year and are ranked No. 1 in the Collegiate Baseball preseason rankings. They are ranked second by Baseball America and fifth by both the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and the USA Today/ESPN preseason polls.

Arizona State, a qualifier in last year's College World Series, comes in right behind the Wildcats in the composite poll despite being ranked No. 1 by the NCBWA and USA Today/ESPN. They are ranked third by Collegiate Baseball and ninth by Baseball America.

Two-time runner-up North Carolina is third in the composite rankings, followed by South Carolina, Ole Miss, Rice, Vanderbilt, San Diego, Texas and two-time defending CWS champion Oregon State. North Carolina is the only team other than Arizona to be ranked in the top five of all four major rankings.

The Collegiate Baseball Insider.com rankings totals the rankings of all four organizations to come up with its overall rankings. Teams not ranked in the top 25 are ranked 26th for the purpose of the compsite rankings.

The results of the Collegiate Baseball Insider.com rankings, as well as those of each media outlet, are as follows:

Collegiate Baseball Insider.com -- 1. Arizona, 2. Arizona State, 3. North Carolina, 4. South Carolina, 5. Ole Miss, 6. Rice, 7. Vanderbilt, 8. San Diego, 9. Texas, 10. Oregon State, 11. Wichita State, 12. Miami (Fla.), 13. Missouri, 14. Michigan, 15. UCLA, 16. Florida State, 17. Long Beach State, 18. Clemson, 19. Cal State Fullerton, 20. Virginia, 21. Texas A&M, 22. Baylor, 23. UC Irvine, 24. Kentucky, 25. Louisville.

Baseball America -- 1. UCLA, 2. Arizona, 3. Vanderbilt, 4. Ole Miss, 5. North Carolina, 6. Missouri, 7. Oregon State, 8. Michigan, 9. Arizona State, 10. Miami (Fla.), 11. San Diego, 12. South Carolina, 13. Long Beach State, 14. Rice, 15. Baylor, 16. Texas, 17. Virginia, 18. Fresno State, 19. Louisiana-Lafayette, 20. Wichita State, 21. Texas A&M, 22. Tulane, 23. Clemson, 24. East Carolina, 25. Old Dominion.

Collegiate Baseball -- 1. Arizona, 2. South Carolina, 3. Arizona State, 4. Ole Miss, 5. North Carolina, 6. Rice, 7. San Diego, 8. Texas, 9. Wichita State, 10. Michigan, 11. Vanderbilt, 12. Florida State, 13. Clemson, 14. Miami (Fla.), 15. Missouri, 16. Cal State Fullerton, 17. Long Beach State, 18. UCLA, 19. Oregon State, 20. Kentucky, 21. Fresno State, 22. Texas A&M, 23. Louisville, 24. Virginia, 25. Georgia Tech.

NCBWA -- 1. Arizona State, 2. North Carolina, 3. Rice, 4. South Carolina, 5. Arizona, 6. Texas, 7. Ole Miss, 8. Vanderbilt, 9. San Diego, 10. Wichita State, 11. Oregon State, 12. Miami (Fla.), 13. Florida State, 14. Cal State Fullerton, 15. Michigan, 16. Clemson, 17. Missouri, 18. Long Beach State, 19. UCLA, 20. Texas A&M, 21. Virginia, 22. UC Irvine, 23. Louisville, 24. Mississippi State, 25. Kentucky.

USA Today/ESPN -- 1. Arizona State, 2. North Carolina, 3. South Carolina, 4. Rice, 5. Arizona, 6. Vanderbilt, 7. Texas, 8. Ole Miss, 9. San Diego, 10. Wichita State, 11. Oregon State, 12. Florida State, 13. Missouri, 14. Miami (Fla.), 15. Cal State Fullerton, 16. Clemson, 17. UCLA, 18. Michigan, 19. Long Beach State, 20. Virginia, 21. Texas A&M, 22. UC Irvine, 23. Mississippi State, 24. Baylor, 25. Louisville.

Public meeting set for stadium, Legislature considering funding bill for Rosenblatt

The committee looking into the possibility of a downtown stadium to replace Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha will be making a public presentation next month.

The Nebraska Legislature isn’t waiting for that Feb. 6 meeting, though – it is weighing in on the issue with legislation that would provide funding to renovate the 62-year-old stadium.

The Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority is holding a special meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 6 to hear from the baseball stadium review committee on its suggestions for potential options for a new baseball stadium that would be built in downtown Omaha. The committee will go over each of the options it has researched and make a pitch for the Lot C parking lot area north of the Qwest Center as the ideal site for a new baseball stadium that would replace Rosenblatt Stadium as the home of the College World Series.

The committee is also looking into potential options to renovate Rosenblatt Stadium, and Nebraska state legislators may have added a little fuel that fire with recent legislation that was introduced in the Unicameral by Omaha state Sen. Dan Synowiecki.

Synowiecki, who represents the South Omaha area, has introduced a bill that would provide for $20 million in state funding to help rebuild or renovate Rosenblatt Stadium. The money would come from the state’s cash reserve fund, but is contingent on the city of Omaha providing an additional $60 million.

Synowiecki said building a new stadium would bring about additional infrastructure improvements that would be more of a burden to the city and the state than renovating Rosenblatt.

Several Omaha representatives, including Mayor Mike Fahey, have been pushing for a new stadium in an effort to secure a long-term commitment from the NCAA to keep the College World Series in Omaha, where is has been since 1950. The current agreement has the CWS in Omaha until 2010, and Fahey is looking to get a 15- to 20-year commitment from the NCAA if a new stadium is built.

A number of stadium options were being considered, including the old Civic Auditorium and other downtown locations, but the Fahey administration seems set on the Lot C parking area west of 10th Street between Webster and Cuming streets.

Baseball America Preseason Poll Released

The Baseball America pre-season poll was released today and in my eyes it does the best job yet of predicting who will make it to the College World Series next year of any poll released.  The top eight was sprinkled with some old favorites and past CWS teams such as Oregon State at #7 and North Carolina at #5.  But the top eight also housed some interesting choices.

First, Baseball America picked the UCLA Bruins baseball team as the #1 team coming into the 2008 season.  I am skeptical of this pick for a number of reasons.  I think that UCLA is a team that can win games but can't win big games.  The last time the Bruins made it to Omaha for the College World Series was in 1997 and they fell short of the big prize.  The other reason for my skepticism is the 2007 season record of 33-28.  That is barely a winning record, and many other teams that made it to the CWS in 2007 all had around 40 wins.

The second interesting choice is Missouri at the #6 spot.  Missouri has been left out of every other top 10 list, but is a team that may surprise people by making their first trip to Omaha for the College World Series this year.  Missouri's strength lies in their pitching staff.  Aaron Crow leads the pack as the Tiger's best pitcher and received preseason All-American honors already.

Oregon Baseball Recruits May Never Play

I found a bizarre story today at CSTV about the newly formed University of Oregon baseball team, who may have a hard time making it to the College World Series in the near future if all of their players enter the MLB draft.  The Oregon baseball team just was just re-instated as an official sport in the University and will start play in 2009.  The recruits this year will have to wait just one more season to play for the Ducks.

But here comes the bizarre part.  Two junior college transfers that were recruited by new Oregon Duck's coach George Horton (formerly head coach at Cal State Fullerton) may not ever suit up to play a game because they will elect to be drafted next year near the end of next season.  Justin LaTempa and Zack Thornton are two California pitchers that have what it takes to be taken high in the next MLB draft.

Why would you go play for a school that was just starting a team if you thought that you might enter the draft next year! 

My question is, will those to pitchers claim to have played for the Ducks baseball team?

Stadium Committee Loses David Sokol

David Sokol has once again caused a stir in Omaha regarding the building of a new downtown stadium for the College World Series.

The first time David Sokol stirred things up was when Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey's stadium committee was formed in the summer.  Sokol is the chairman of MECA in Omaha which runs the Qwest Center (Omaha's largest arena).  He fought Mayor Fahey on the issue of putting the new CWS stadium in Parking lot D of the Qwest Center.  Parking lot D was Mayor Fahey's preferred site to put a new College World Series stadium, but Sokol contested that if a new stadium was put there that it would take away space from the Qwest Center for parking and further expansion.

Once again Sokol is making headlines, but this time it's not Parking lot D that is getting him so riled up, it's Parking lot C!  The MECA group does not support taking away parking or future growth spots anywhere at the Qwest Center; and with Sokol being the chairman of the board, he naturally has a problem with being on the committee that was considering the Qwest Center's Parking lot C as their top choice.  In fact, according to Omaha.com, Sokol felt such a conflict of interest with being on the stadium committee board and on the MECA board that he quit!

What will David Sokol do next?  Your guess is as good as mine, but I do know that he will not be leaving the headlines anytime soon.

Council Bluffs is Possible CWS Stadium Spot

One of the most bizarre stories concerning a new stadium spot for the College World Series came from Omaha news channel WOWT recently.  They reported that Council Bluffs, IA may be a future site of the new CWS stadium.  There is a lot of un-used land that could be used as the College World Series new home in Council Bluffs, which lies directly across the Missouri river from Omaha.  The possible sites are close to Omaha's downtown area, and would provide more room for grassy areas and parking that the NCAA desires for the new stadium.

I admit, finding good parking at the College World Series is hard to do, but I don't think that is enough to move the series from historic Rosenblatt stadium to a new stadium, or for that matter, a new city.  Although this option cures the parking and grass problems, the people of Omaha won't let the series move to another town.  There is too much money to be made during the CWS; letting it leave to a new city would be letting go of something great.

MLB Teams vs College Teams

What's harder than facing talented teams in the College World Series in June?  The answer is facing MLB teams in February.

CSTV writer Doug Kroll, one of my favorite college baseball writers, wrote about the MLB vs college team match ups that are happening this year.  I will highlight some interesting ones here.

The first interesting match up is between the Michigan Wolverines and the New York Mets.  The Wolverines have a very solid chance of making it to the CWS this season and are set to win the Big 10 conference.  Led by preseason All-American Zach Putnam, a right hand pitcher that has MLB talent, the Wolverines could pull off an upset.  Why are the Mets playing Michigan you ask?  Well the same guy thats name is on the Wolverines new stadium, owns the Mets.  Thats some shameless promotion if I've ever seen any.

The second match up that I find interesting is between the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis University.  Led by new head coach Darin Hendrickson, SLU will have it's hands full with the Cardinals strong returning squad.  So why is this game interesting?  Well, you would expect two St. Louis teams to play somewhere in St. Louis (the new Busch Stadium), but no, the two teams will play in Florida where the Cardinals train in Spring.

Two Different Downtown Stadium Plans

Two sites have been mentioned recently as possible spots for a new College World Series stadium.  Let's take a look at the two downtown stadiums that could replace Rosenblatt Stadium as the home of the CWS in future years.

The first site that is causing a stir is the current site of the Civic Auditorium.  The Civic Auditorium is almost as old as Rosenblatt Stadium and has had most of its high profile events taken by its larger counterpart the Qwest Center in recent years.  Jim Suttle of the Omaha City Council told Omaha TV station KETV that "the Civic Auditorium was coming into play because of its age, other questions, and the fact that it was a piece of city-owned land."  The Civic Auditorium sits in the heart of downtown Omaha and is surrounded by taller office buildings (by Omaha's standards).  It is not far away from other Omaha attractions such as the Old Market and the Qwest Center and it is close to hotels.

The other site that was mentioned was the Parking lot C of the Qwest Center.  You can find the map of the Qwest Center parking here.  Originally, the Mayor's plan was to build a new stadium in Parking lot D of the Qwest Center.  Parking lot D hugs the Missouri river and leads right to the new walking bridge that is being built across the river.  MECA chairman David Sokol put the kibosh on that plan stating that by putting a stadium there it would inhibit Qwest Center parking and block future growth of the arena.

I'm not sure what changed between then and now and why Parking lot C of the Qwest Center is now being considered.  But if the new CWS stadium were to end up there, it would have more room for beautiful grassy areas like the NCAA requested.  It would also provide ample parking for College World Series visitors, so that residents would not have to rent out their yards anymore.