Omaha Observations - Day Three

Scott Cowen and Charlotte Travieso

Saturday, June 18, 2005
By Debbie Grant

Game Day is here and the Green Wave faithful are out in force. Lots of folks flew into town on Friday and are making their presence known. Always amazing to me how many types of Tulane t-shirts and baseball caps there are; even spotted a Gumby and T-Wave or two.

Thought I'd get an early start to the 1 p.m. game at Rosenblatt by leaving the hotel at about 10 a.m. Mary Martha and Dave Quinn nicely volunteered to give Mary Mouton, who is producing Tulane's baseball movies, and me a ride to the ballpark. Forty-five minutes later we were still stuck in traffic and still hadn't reached Rosenblatt, which is about three miles from the Hilton.

At least we got a good look at the Mardi Gras-type atmosphere that has invaded Omaha, at least for the CWS. The folks who know the drill had gotten prime spaces adjacent to the stadium and had their tents, grills, lawn chairs and portable bars up and going strong. One guy asked if we were the Green Weenies. Huh? At least he was friendly about it.

Steve Rosenblatt in front a photo of his dad, Johnny Rosenblatt

The alumni-sponsored tent was THE place to meet and greet before and after the game. Hundreds of excited Wave fans milled around and more than a few, including Tulane President Scott Cowen, got their hair painted green courtesy of Charlotte Travieso, head honcho of Alumni Affairs.

There was an amazing collection of folks in the tent, including former players (Aaron Feldman for one), former student body presidents (Nate Hole), people who had driven 15 hours to get to Omaha (Kevin Englande from the Health Sciences Center), Tulane trustees (Rich Schmidt, Jeanne Olivier and Phil Greer) and parents of players and other Tulane folks (Rick Dickson's mom was there).

Rode the elevator to the Press Box with a guy from Sports Ticker and another guy, who took exception to a comment about Rosenblatt Stadium made by the Ticker man. Turned out he was Steve Rosenblatt, son of Johnny Rosenblatt, the stadium's namesake. I asked him if he would mind cheering for the Green Wave and he said he knew a former player and he'd love to! Can't go wrong there.

What's to say about the game except Micah, Bogie, Paco and Scott Madden? In fact those were the guys invited to the post-game press conference, along with Coach Jones, to offer comments about the game.

It's kind of interesting how they do those post-game press conferences. First the losing team sends a few players, along with their coach to answer questions. The guys from Oregon State were pitcher Jonah Nickerson, centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury and first baseman Andy Jenkins, along with Coach Pat Casey. Jenkins said about Micah, “He didn't have too much of his junk, he just came right at us.” No surprise there.

Coach Jones led off our part of the press conference by saying “We had to play as well as we could and we did.” Micah added this comment when asked about falling behind, “We're not gonna give in ‘til the third out in the ninth.” Truer words were never spoken.

Sunday is a day off for everyone and then the Wave faces the Texas Longhorns on Monday night. In the Tulane tradition we're looking for good sign material for the game and we're thinking along these lines: “Cows don't swim. ROLL WAVE!”