Omaha Observations - Day One

Thursday, June 16, 2005
By Debbie Grant

Tulane in Omaha! Waited all season to say this and boy does it feel good. Yesterday was the first event of the College World Series (CWS)--Fan Appreciation Day. Rosenblatt Stadium opens its doors free to all and there is food and drink, games, music and a special opening ceremony that features the coaches and players of all the teams.

The weather was just great, about 78 degrees with a light wind blowing. Folks here think it’s hot (they better not try Turchin in May). Anyway, there were two big highlights, first being the player autograph session. All eight teams come in and sit at long tables. The CWS gives baseballs to kids under 12 and there are posters at each table for the players to sign.

By the time the doors opened at 7:30 p.m. for the autographing, there were 1,000 people in line, both kids and adults. The teams are seated in alphabetical order along a concourse in the stadium. It worked out great for the Green Wave, because even though alphabetically we are last—Arizona State, Baylor, Florida, Nebraska, Oregon State, Tennessee, Texas and Tulane—they do things Olympic style with the host team last. Nebraska was at the end of the line and their hundreds of fans who poured in stopped by the Tulane table and got autographs from our guys, too.

Our team wore dark green shirts that said Tulane Baseball and they were accompanied by Coach Rick Jones, who in turn was accompanied by his wife Gina, nephew Jacob, and Coach Jones’ mother Lena. Hard to say who is prouder of whom—Coach or his Mom.

At 9 p.m. the official ceremonies started with all the teams being marched into the stadium. A policeman who’s worked the event for four years said the crowd was over 12,000. All the teams got ovations, but Nebraska’s was thunderous.

There were three outstanding elements of the ceremony:

1. The Navy Leap Frogs parachute team started things with an electrical moment. Eight guys floating above the stadium, until they landed one by one in the alphabetical order of the teams. AND each parachutist carried a team flag, which was later presented to the captains.
2. Awards were presented to the individuals with the highest GPA on each team. Scott Madden accepted Tulane’s with his usual grace and style. But better yet, Coach Jones accepted one, too because the Green Wave has the highest team GPA of all eight teams at the World Series--3.0 for this semester. How about that—No. 1 on the field and No. 1 in the classroom.
3. Fireworks like I’ve never seen. Probably 20 minutes of spectacular and pounding pyrotechnics. Accompanying the show were several songs, starting with the baseball anthem “Centerfield” and ending with our National Anthem and everyone standing on their feet and cheering like crazy.

It was a terrific way to start the Green Wave’s stay in Omaha.