College World Series Worth Its Weight in Gold
As North Carolina and Vanderbilt (Vandy won, 7-3) met in the opener on Saturday at the 2011 College World Series at its new digs at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb., one of America's greatest college sports competitions began on a sun- and hope-filled Saturday. The days ahead will determine which team basks in the sun while others feel just sunburned.
Games will be a little different this year than in the past when the venerable old Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, provided the venue for scores of memories. The new $131 million TD Ameritrade Park is 3.17 miles from the old baseball haunt in downtown Omaha (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/college-world-series-fans-adjust-to-sleek-new-stadium-in-omaha/2011/06/08/AGhk0PZH_story_1.html), and becomes the new place for dreams to be fulfilled.
Some of the tradition powers like Texas, and North Carolina (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=6667417) are back to rekindle past glory, upset-minded teams like Texas A&M and California are vying to provide some unforeseen drama, while Florida simply showcases the most powerful starting lineup going.
The CWS has been hosted in Omaha, Neb., since 1950, a run of 61 years. Prior to Omaha, the World Series had a home at Hyames Field in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1947-48 and Wichita, Kan., in 1949. For a little background, the College World Series was a double elimination tournament until 1987 when the format changed to four-team double elimination brackets. The winners of those two brackets advanced to a best of three championship carried on the mother ship, ESPN.
For me, the College World Series is a fun, serious and highlights-filled 12-day drama that ends with a three-game championship series June 27-29. Over the years I have spent quite a few weekdays and weekends watching the World Series in Omaha. Other years, I have curled up with a beverage in front of my TV. The CWS is sports at its finest.
My first College Baseball World Series trip was 1983 when Dave Magadan led Alabama to the championship game against Roger Clemens and Texas. Magadan is one of the greatest hitters in the history of the college game. In 1983, his .525 batting average led the entire NCAA and still ranks fifth best in history.
After Alabama defeated Michigan and Arizona State twice, they lost to Texas, twice. They fell to the Longhorns, 6-4, and 4-3 in the title game (http://www.fanbase.com/article/national-championship-moments/3151). Clemens, 13-5 with a 3.05 ERA in 1983, was the winning pitcher in a tense and pressure-packed championship game.
After Alabama led 2-0, Texas scored two runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh. Texas, led by legendary head coach Cliff Gustafson, finished 66-14, and held off Alabama in the final despite a double from Magadan in the ninth. The Longhorns biggest star was All-American pitcher Calvin Schiraldi (14-2, 1.74 era), who earned MVP honors at the CWS.
However for Schiraldi, his baseball glory basically ended at that college world series. His professional career was defined by unfulfilled promise and disappointment. He was a first round pick in the 1980 draft of the New York Mets and is best remembered for losing two games as the Boston Red Sox closer to the Mets in the 1986 World Series.
Texas, which finished 5-0 in the World Series that season, also featured a star in the speedy second baseman Bill Bates and shortstop Mike Brumley, who had three hits in the championship game. Brumley was a second generation major league player (father caught in the 1960s) from 1987-95. This was a star-packed World Series with Barry Bonds (future major league HR champ) leading Arizona State and Barry Larkin (later an all-star shortstop for Cincinnati) leading Michigan.
But Magadan was the star of stars and a hitting machine. An All-Tournament selection, Magadan later was an AP All-American, earned College Player of the Year honors from Baseball America and received USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award. Magadan's .439 career batting average remains an SEC record and 10th best all-time in the NCAA.
Despite his greatness in college, Magadan, like Schiraldi, didn't have a great major league career. He later played for nine major league clubs, averaging .288 for his career. Perhaps his greatest moment was as a hitting coach for the Boston Red Sox, who overcame a 3-0 deficit in the 2007 playoffs vs. the Yankees and went onto to win the World Series.
However, my memory of Magadan was his smooth, easy swing that couldn't be stopped in 1983.
I was back in Omaha for the 1991 World Series where I watched Skip Bertman's LSU bunch defeat Wichita State, 6-3 in the finals. However, the memorable moment of that year was watching Creighton-Wichita State play in the second round.
As a group of us from Vermillion, S.D., drove down to Omaha, spent a few hours at a watering hole and then walked to the ticket booth for the regional rivalry game, the line was long and the early evening was a little warm. As I stood there, finishing off a diet coke, I had the opportunity to offer up some commentary for a local radio station interested in the fan's perspective of the regional matchup. I don't remember exactly what I said, but no doubt it was enlightening and riveting to the Omaha fans listening on the radio.
As for the game, it was one of more unique matchups in CWS series, as Wichita State won the Missouri Valley Conference and Creighton finished second. What was evident about that game was the dislike fans of each team had for each other (not dissimilar to SDSU-USD football matchups). It was a rare matchup in the World Series. You just don't get to see two teams from the same league do battle, particularly with each school's proximity to Omaha (Creighton is based in Omaha and Wichita is located 254 miles away in Kansas). Creighton became the first team from Nebraska to appear in the World Series. Yes, Husker fans, it was the Bluejays. Nebraska didn't make their first World Series until 2001 (also 2002, 2005).
Creighton, who was 46-18 in the regular season and 16-8 in the Missouri Valley Conference for second place, was led by head coach Jim Hendry, now the general manager of the Chicago Cubs. Like the Cubs, the Blue Jays hope for a World Series title ended in defeat as Creighton fell to favored Wichita State, 3-2, in one of the most memorable games in history.
The Blue Jays couldn't beat the Shockers that season, losing the regular season series 4-0 and falling twice in the MVC tournament.
Wichita State was led by the legendary coach Gene Stevenson. The Shockers, who own the fourth-best winning percentage in college baseball history, won a national title in 1989 and was runner-up three times, including 1991. The 1991 Shockers boasted All-America right-hander Kennie Steenstra (12th round pick of Chicago Cubs), who was 17-0 with a nation-leading 2.17 ERA.
While the two teams played again in the World Series, it was the second round game that turned out to be one of the greatest games ever at the CWS. The game, which drew a then record 18,206, was recently ranked as third on the list of the 25 greatest game in World Series history by the Omaha World Herald.
The game turned against Creighton when Shockers center field Jim Audley threw out Creighton's pinch runner Steven Burns -- the game-tying run -- at home plate in the 12th inning. The play is simply referred to as the "throw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjPiLHAKRAw" in Shocker lore.
One of the little known facts about that game was Audley's throw was just part of his career-best game. The Shockers' hero tripled in the fourth inning for an RBI, scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly, had an infield single and also scored the go-ahead run in the 12th.
While Creighton rebounded to defeat Long Beach State, 13-4, in an elimination affair, and again met Wichita State in the 1991 national semifinals, the result was worse. The Shockers hammered the Bluejays, 11-3, winning for the eighth straight time against Creighton that season.
While all the emotion at Omaha favored Wichita State in its battles with Creighton, the Shockers would be shocked in the final, losing 6-3 to Louisiana State http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro2dtqQDNvA. LSU, who has won six titles, claimed its first in 1991.
In 2003, I ventured south to Omaha with a couple of colleagues in sports information to watched Rice U., directed by the venerable Wayne Graham, win their first-ever title. Rice dispatched Stanford in the finals, 14-2, as Philip Humber (Chicago White Sox) shut down the Cardinal on a five-hitter. It was Rice University's first-ever championship in any sport. From our center field seats, the game wasn't the classic I saw in 1991 but it was a title game and that you don't forget championship affairs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eizReCICkh4.
The 2003 series featured a number of outstanding players including Rice pitchers Humber, Jeff Neimann (Tampa Bay), and David Aardsma (Seattle closer), both currently in the big leagues. Carlos Quentin, now of the White Sox, starred for Stanford while teammate Sam Fuld (now of Tampa Bay) set a career record with 24 hits in the series.
In 2005, my least memorable CWS, occurred while I was working for CBS when head coach Augie Garrido led the Texas Longhorns to a title. Texas won its sixth College World Series title with 4-2, 6-2 wins over Florida http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2gBCF9h1Lw.
For me the series was indeed forgettable. I was at the event but I did not enjoy it. I worked in a trailer for CBS Sports. One of my "fun" jobs was heading to a local ice cream shop to pick up 30 malts and carry them back to the trailer. By the time I got back to the trailer, many of the malts were leaking and melted and my hands felt like Orlando Jones' in the 2000 movie, "The Replacements," when his coach Gene Hackman put the stick'um on his hands http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZtSA9lGfk8&feature=related. Except, I didn't have one of those "ah, hah!" moments (TD catch late in the game). All I wanted was to get out of Omaha.
I was asked by one of the crew if I wanted one of the malts and said "no thanks, I am going up and watching the final inning of the title game."
While the 2005 adventure wasn't much fun, my memories of this event are overwhelmingly special and memorable. And, I will continue to try to make it back to college baseball championship jungle in Omaha. It is always a great picture.
One final point -- to me the CWS has always provided a family entertainment value. You see campers located around the stadium, fathers taking sons and daughters to games, friends joining friends in bar scenes after the game and the assorted pre-game and post-game tailgaters.
Today, we watched Kevin Stallings, the Vanderbilt men's basketball coach, hope the best for his son Jacob, who was playing for North Carolina against the school that employs him.
Then, there is this bit, my cousin David Bub's son Matthew played for Mike Fox, the Tar Heels baseball coach, when Fox was at North Carolina Wesleyan more than 13 years ago. So I have to pull a little for North Carolina.
There is a local connection as Sam Lind, a South Dakota kid from Sioux Falls Roosevelt (http://www.argusleader.com/article/20110616/SPORTS02/110616017/Roosevelt-grad-Sam-Lind-finds-his-field-dreams) is playing for Vanderbilt. Maybe I should root for Vandy.
A friend of mine in the media business, Brad Peterson, makes watching the CWS a tradition for his family, something many families across the country also make part of its passion for college sports like baseball.
So, while the six degrees of separation pulls us in varying directions, this competition has tie-ins all over the place.
Whether it is family-oriented entertainment for you or something else, the CWS features drama, joy and dreams come true for many gathered in Omaha. It is athletic competition worth its weight in gold.
Tigers retiring Sparky's #11...
On June 12, 1979 George "Sparky" Anderson replaced Les Moss as manager of the Detroit Tigers. On June 26, the Tigers will retire #11, Anderson's number. A native of Bridgewater, S.D., who moved with his family to L.A. at the age of eight years, spent 17 years as the Tigers' manager, going 1,331-1248 and leading Detroit to the 1984 World Series Championship.Anderson's wore #10 as he led the Cincinnati Red to the 1975 and 1976 World Series championships. In 2005, the Reds retired the number. Anderson had 2,194 career wins which ranks sixth most by a manager in history. He was the first manager to win World Series titles in both leagues. Anderson,, elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000, was named American League Manager of the Year in 1984 and 1987. One interesting tidbit on Anderson is that he was on the national championship American Legion team in 1951 with the title game played at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. He is the first manager to win 100 games in a season in both leagues and the first to win 600 games in both leagues. The Tigers will wear #11 on their right sleeves during 2011 and the number will be placed on the brick wall at Comerica Stadium.
Games will be a little different this year than in the past when the venerable old Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, provided the venue for scores of memories. The new $131 million TD Ameritrade Park is 3.17 miles from the old baseball haunt in downtown Omaha (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/college-world-series-fans-adjust-to-sleek-new-stadium-in-omaha/2011/06/08/AGhk0PZH_story_1.html), and becomes the new place for dreams to be fulfilled.
Some of the tradition powers like Texas, and North Carolina (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=6667417) are back to rekindle past glory, upset-minded teams like Texas A&M and California are vying to provide some unforeseen drama, while Florida simply showcases the most powerful starting lineup going.
The CWS has been hosted in Omaha, Neb., since 1950, a run of 61 years. Prior to Omaha, the World Series had a home at Hyames Field in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1947-48 and Wichita, Kan., in 1949. For a little background, the College World Series was a double elimination tournament until 1987 when the format changed to four-team double elimination brackets. The winners of those two brackets advanced to a best of three championship carried on the mother ship, ESPN.
For me, the College World Series is a fun, serious and highlights-filled 12-day drama that ends with a three-game championship series June 27-29. Over the years I have spent quite a few weekdays and weekends watching the World Series in Omaha. Other years, I have curled up with a beverage in front of my TV. The CWS is sports at its finest.
My first College Baseball World Series trip was 1983 when Dave Magadan led Alabama to the championship game against Roger Clemens and Texas. Magadan is one of the greatest hitters in the history of the college game. In 1983, his .525 batting average led the entire NCAA and still ranks fifth best in history.
After Alabama defeated Michigan and Arizona State twice, they lost to Texas, twice. They fell to the Longhorns, 6-4, and 4-3 in the title game (http://www.fanbase.com/article/national-championship-moments/3151). Clemens, 13-5 with a 3.05 ERA in 1983, was the winning pitcher in a tense and pressure-packed championship game.
After Alabama led 2-0, Texas scored two runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh. Texas, led by legendary head coach Cliff Gustafson, finished 66-14, and held off Alabama in the final despite a double from Magadan in the ninth. The Longhorns biggest star was All-American pitcher Calvin Schiraldi (14-2, 1.74 era), who earned MVP honors at the CWS.
However for Schiraldi, his baseball glory basically ended at that college world series. His professional career was defined by unfulfilled promise and disappointment. He was a first round pick in the 1980 draft of the New York Mets and is best remembered for losing two games as the Boston Red Sox closer to the Mets in the 1986 World Series.
Texas, which finished 5-0 in the World Series that season, also featured a star in the speedy second baseman Bill Bates and shortstop Mike Brumley, who had three hits in the championship game. Brumley was a second generation major league player (father caught in the 1960s) from 1987-95. This was a star-packed World Series with Barry Bonds (future major league HR champ) leading Arizona State and Barry Larkin (later an all-star shortstop for Cincinnati) leading Michigan.
But Magadan was the star of stars and a hitting machine. An All-Tournament selection, Magadan later was an AP All-American, earned College Player of the Year honors from Baseball America and received USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award. Magadan's .439 career batting average remains an SEC record and 10th best all-time in the NCAA.
Despite his greatness in college, Magadan, like Schiraldi, didn't have a great major league career. He later played for nine major league clubs, averaging .288 for his career. Perhaps his greatest moment was as a hitting coach for the Boston Red Sox, who overcame a 3-0 deficit in the 2007 playoffs vs. the Yankees and went onto to win the World Series.
However, my memory of Magadan was his smooth, easy swing that couldn't be stopped in 1983.
I was back in Omaha for the 1991 World Series where I watched Skip Bertman's LSU bunch defeat Wichita State, 6-3 in the finals. However, the memorable moment of that year was watching Creighton-Wichita State play in the second round.
As a group of us from Vermillion, S.D., drove down to Omaha, spent a few hours at a watering hole and then walked to the ticket booth for the regional rivalry game, the line was long and the early evening was a little warm. As I stood there, finishing off a diet coke, I had the opportunity to offer up some commentary for a local radio station interested in the fan's perspective of the regional matchup. I don't remember exactly what I said, but no doubt it was enlightening and riveting to the Omaha fans listening on the radio.
As for the game, it was one of more unique matchups in CWS series, as Wichita State won the Missouri Valley Conference and Creighton finished second. What was evident about that game was the dislike fans of each team had for each other (not dissimilar to SDSU-USD football matchups). It was a rare matchup in the World Series. You just don't get to see two teams from the same league do battle, particularly with each school's proximity to Omaha (Creighton is based in Omaha and Wichita is located 254 miles away in Kansas). Creighton became the first team from Nebraska to appear in the World Series. Yes, Husker fans, it was the Bluejays. Nebraska didn't make their first World Series until 2001 (also 2002, 2005).
Creighton, who was 46-18 in the regular season and 16-8 in the Missouri Valley Conference for second place, was led by head coach Jim Hendry, now the general manager of the Chicago Cubs. Like the Cubs, the Blue Jays hope for a World Series title ended in defeat as Creighton fell to favored Wichita State, 3-2, in one of the most memorable games in history.
The Blue Jays couldn't beat the Shockers that season, losing the regular season series 4-0 and falling twice in the MVC tournament.
Wichita State was led by the legendary coach Gene Stevenson. The Shockers, who own the fourth-best winning percentage in college baseball history, won a national title in 1989 and was runner-up three times, including 1991. The 1991 Shockers boasted All-America right-hander Kennie Steenstra (12th round pick of Chicago Cubs), who was 17-0 with a nation-leading 2.17 ERA.
While the two teams played again in the World Series, it was the second round game that turned out to be one of the greatest games ever at the CWS. The game, which drew a then record 18,206, was recently ranked as third on the list of the 25 greatest game in World Series history by the Omaha World Herald.
The game turned against Creighton when Shockers center field Jim Audley threw out Creighton's pinch runner Steven Burns -- the game-tying run -- at home plate in the 12th inning. The play is simply referred to as the "throw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjPiLHAKRAw" in Shocker lore.
One of the little known facts about that game was Audley's throw was just part of his career-best game. The Shockers' hero tripled in the fourth inning for an RBI, scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly, had an infield single and also scored the go-ahead run in the 12th.
While Creighton rebounded to defeat Long Beach State, 13-4, in an elimination affair, and again met Wichita State in the 1991 national semifinals, the result was worse. The Shockers hammered the Bluejays, 11-3, winning for the eighth straight time against Creighton that season.
While all the emotion at Omaha favored Wichita State in its battles with Creighton, the Shockers would be shocked in the final, losing 6-3 to Louisiana State http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro2dtqQDNvA. LSU, who has won six titles, claimed its first in 1991.
In 2003, I ventured south to Omaha with a couple of colleagues in sports information to watched Rice U., directed by the venerable Wayne Graham, win their first-ever title. Rice dispatched Stanford in the finals, 14-2, as Philip Humber (Chicago White Sox) shut down the Cardinal on a five-hitter. It was Rice University's first-ever championship in any sport. From our center field seats, the game wasn't the classic I saw in 1991 but it was a title game and that you don't forget championship affairs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eizReCICkh4.
The 2003 series featured a number of outstanding players including Rice pitchers Humber, Jeff Neimann (Tampa Bay), and David Aardsma (Seattle closer), both currently in the big leagues. Carlos Quentin, now of the White Sox, starred for Stanford while teammate Sam Fuld (now of Tampa Bay) set a career record with 24 hits in the series.
In 2005, my least memorable CWS, occurred while I was working for CBS when head coach Augie Garrido led the Texas Longhorns to a title. Texas won its sixth College World Series title with 4-2, 6-2 wins over Florida http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2gBCF9h1Lw.
For me the series was indeed forgettable. I was at the event but I did not enjoy it. I worked in a trailer for CBS Sports. One of my "fun" jobs was heading to a local ice cream shop to pick up 30 malts and carry them back to the trailer. By the time I got back to the trailer, many of the malts were leaking and melted and my hands felt like Orlando Jones' in the 2000 movie, "The Replacements," when his coach Gene Hackman put the stick'um on his hands http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZtSA9lGfk8&feature=related. Except, I didn't have one of those "ah, hah!" moments (TD catch late in the game). All I wanted was to get out of Omaha.
I was asked by one of the crew if I wanted one of the malts and said "no thanks, I am going up and watching the final inning of the title game."
While the 2005 adventure wasn't much fun, my memories of this event are overwhelmingly special and memorable. And, I will continue to try to make it back to college baseball championship jungle in Omaha. It is always a great picture.
One final point -- to me the CWS has always provided a family entertainment value. You see campers located around the stadium, fathers taking sons and daughters to games, friends joining friends in bar scenes after the game and the assorted pre-game and post-game tailgaters.
Today, we watched Kevin Stallings, the Vanderbilt men's basketball coach, hope the best for his son Jacob, who was playing for North Carolina against the school that employs him.
Then, there is this bit, my cousin David Bub's son Matthew played for Mike Fox, the Tar Heels baseball coach, when Fox was at North Carolina Wesleyan more than 13 years ago. So I have to pull a little for North Carolina.
There is a local connection as Sam Lind, a South Dakota kid from Sioux Falls Roosevelt (http://www.argusleader.com/article/20110616/SPORTS02/110616017/Roosevelt-grad-Sam-Lind-finds-his-field-dreams) is playing for Vanderbilt. Maybe I should root for Vandy.
A friend of mine in the media business, Brad Peterson, makes watching the CWS a tradition for his family, something many families across the country also make part of its passion for college sports like baseball.
So, while the six degrees of separation pulls us in varying directions, this competition has tie-ins all over the place.
Whether it is family-oriented entertainment for you or something else, the CWS features drama, joy and dreams come true for many gathered in Omaha. It is athletic competition worth its weight in gold.
Tigers retiring Sparky's #11...
On June 12, 1979 George "Sparky" Anderson replaced Les Moss as manager of the Detroit Tigers. On June 26, the Tigers will retire #11, Anderson's number. A native of Bridgewater, S.D., who moved with his family to L.A. at the age of eight years, spent 17 years as the Tigers' manager, going 1,331-1248 and leading Detroit to the 1984 World Series Championship.Anderson's wore #10 as he led the Cincinnati Red to the 1975 and 1976 World Series championships. In 2005, the Reds retired the number. Anderson had 2,194 career wins which ranks sixth most by a manager in history. He was the first manager to win World Series titles in both leagues. Anderson,, elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000, was named American League Manager of the Year in 1984 and 1987. One interesting tidbit on Anderson is that he was on the national championship American Legion team in 1951 with the title game played at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. He is the first manager to win 100 games in a season in both leagues and the first to win 600 games in both leagues. The Tigers will wear #11 on their right sleeves during 2011 and the number will be placed on the brick wall at Comerica Stadium.
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