In the end, Rosenblatt Stadium just didn’t want to let go.  Not just yet.  The College World Series had been played at “The ‘Blatt” for sixty years.  A couple of more innings wasn’t going to hurt anything.  So, they played on.  Just a little bit longer.  On Tuesday night, June 29th, South Carolina defeated UCLA 2-1 in eleven innings, after a Whit Merrifield liner into right field scored Scott Wingo from third base.  South Carolina players and family rushed the field…the last to be able to do so on this field.  Ceremonies were held, awards were given out.  Speeches were made.  And then, the lights went out.  For the last time.

The win gave South Carolina their first College World Series title.  In fact, it is the first NCAA Team Championship for South Carolina’s men’s athletics.  And what a way to win it.  South Carolina showed the excitement and enthusiasm that made you want to see them win.  Many people talked about the “perfect way” to send Rosenblatt out.  The wish list ranged from walk-off homers to LSU comebacks.  No one could have predicted this, but this is exactly what Rosenblatt needed…and deserved.

And now, Rosenblatt sits quiet.  Sure, there will be minor league professional baseball and exhibition games played throughout the summer there.  But, for all practical purposes, Rosenblatt is retired.  Soon, it will host minivans full of zoo patrons, yellow painted lines, and a small park for off of us to remember what once was the site of some of the greatest college baseball games the world has ever seen.  Will it be enough?

Next year, the CWS moves to the yet-to-be-completed TD Ameritrade Park, just north of downtown Omaha.  It will be a fine stadium.  Modern look, fan-friendly, all of that.  But, it will be different.  It will still be the College World Series.  It will still be in Omaha.  But, it will be different.  Do you know what I mean?  Maybe it will be better than it was.  Who knows?  Maybe we will say ten years from now that we can’t believe the games were ever played in such a dump.  But, in that “dump” was where college baseball evolved into what it is today.

Goodnight, Rosenblatt.  You’ve earned your rest.  Hello, TD Ameritrade.  You’ve got quite a legacy to live up to.  Make us proud.

Kyle Parker, Clemson’s star right fielder, First Round draft pick of the Colorado Rockies, and (most importantly) a Ping!Baseball First Team All-American, had a goal at the beginning of the year: to join the 20-20 club.  Not an outrageous goal for a baseball player, except Parker was talking about home runs…and touchdowns. 

Parker, the starting quarterback for the Clemson Tigers football team, threw for over 2,500 yards and 20 touchdowns, leading the Tigers to a 9-5 record.  In the spring, he went from the gridiron to the park (George Carlin reference there), and proceeded to hit dingers.  On June 7th, he hit his 20th home run of the season against Auburn.  Big deal?  Well, yes it is, because it has never been done before in Division I.  The closest to 20-20 before Parkerwas from Rodney Peete, who threw 21 TD’s for USC in 1987, and then hit 12 home runs for the Trojans the following spring.  Oklahoma State’s Josh Fields threw for 21 TD’s in 2003, and then hit 10 homers in the spring.  Some guy named John Elway hit 9 homers for the Stanford Cardinal in 1982, and then threw for 24 TD’s that next fall.  None of them could do what Parker did this season.

Pre-season goal achieved.  Now, what’s next?  Does Parker come back next year to try to join the 25-25 Club, or does he take his big signing bonus check and try to tear up the South Atlantic League for the Asheville Tourists (the Rockies’ Class A affiliate)?  Parker’s not saying.  He told Ping!Baseball that he wanted to make his decision by June 30th, but he’s not going to rush it.  It’s a tough choice: Big Man on Campus, or Big Man on the Bus driving to Savannah.

Keep an eye on Kyle Parker.  He has the potential to be the next great two-sport professional athlete.  Regardless of his decision, those of us in attendance at the 2010 College World Series can say in the future that we saw Kyle Parker play college ball.

“Why is it so quiet?”

I was at the Clemson/South Carolina game on Saturday night with my wife and she asked me that question midway through the game. I wish I would have had an answer for her, but I was thinking the same thing. I’ve seen more boisterous crowds at Omaha Royals games (especially during the race between the steak, corn and beer bottle) which is a very unflattering comparison. It didn’t help that the heat and humidity on Saturday was atrocious and the attendance was lacking, but it was not the first game when its been eerily quiet at Rosenblatt. The Oklahoma/South Carolina game was just as museumlike – and that was an extra inning elimination game. ESPN’s Ryan McGee tweeted Saturday, “If any of my Tweeps are at the #CWS game tonight stand up and yell “Read @TheRoadToOmaha!” It’s so quiet everyone should hear you.”

The common denominator in the games mentioned was South Carolina. Some Gamecocks fans have spent over a week in Omaha and are undoubtedly getting tired (and large credit card bills), but they need to take it up a notch or twenty once the best of three series starts.

It’s not the stadium that makes the CWS such a memorable event. It’s the play on the field and the atmosphere around the game. Without the fans it’s just not the same. Gamecock fans get out to the game and get out of your seat!

A monument to college baseball, Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium has hosted the College World Series since 1950. The allure of Omaha, the city that envelopes Rosenblatt, and the stadium have been a beacon to college baseball players for decades.

Throughout the offseason, players dream of Omaha and breakdown countless practices with Rosenblatt as their goal. Later, after the teams return to campus and the national champion shows off its trophy for adoring fans, the memories of Omaha still glitter. While they might get relegated into the back of the young ballplayers’ minds, Omaha has found a spot in all of their hearts, no matter whether they were in the winners’ bracket of the losers’.

Trevor Crowe and Chris Perez have moved on to bigger stages, leaving college behind for the major leagues and the Cleveland Indians. It’s been years and thousands of games since they played in the College World Series, but both remember 23,000-seat Rosenblatt Stadium as the biggest setting of their early careers.

As a sophomore, Crowe led Arizona to the College World Series in 2004. It was the first time he played in a stadium that had stands spanning the outfield. Even coming from a Pac-10 power, the fans and their passion left a lasting impression on Crowe.

“At Arizona, we might draw 5,000 on an entire weekend,” he said. “It’s not like the SEC, where there are 8-9,000 [fans] a game. That’s a pretty special feeling.”

The size of the stadium was impressive to Perez, who pitched for the Hurricanes in their trips to Omaha in 2004 and 2006. But more than the size of the crowd, Perez remembers the kindness of the people.

Over the course of the years and many trips to the College World Series, Miami had developed a relationship with a local high school where it always practiced and had been adopted by an elderly couple.

“They’ve been going there since Ron Fraser was there in the ‘70s,” Perez said. “They would bring us snacks and drinks after BP.”

The large, friendly crowds are at the center of the Rosenblatt debate. The College World Series has become wildly popular, but the setting remains decidedly homey. As now-retired Ohio State coach Bob Todd noted in an interview with Ping! Baseball in May, the College World Series is the NCAA’s second-biggest money maker, trailing only the men’s basketball tournament.

There are no easy decisions about closing Rosenblatt and moving the College World Series downtown. Rosenblatt represents tradition and history, while the new stadium offers progress and prosperity.

Within the Indians’ clubhouse, Perez and Crowe seem divided on the best route. Perez sees the advantages of moving downtown, while Crowe falls more on the side of keeping Rosenblatt.

“When you associate college baseball, you automatically think Rosenblatt Stadium,” Crowe said. “That’s going to be a tough project to top.”

Perez, meanwhile, has a slightly different perspective. While playing with Class AAA Memphis, he saw the Rosenblatt under the veneer of the College World Series. What he saw was a mostly empty, old stadium.

“It’s a totally different experience,” Perez said. “I’m sad to see Rosenblatt go, but it’ll be a state of the art stadium, and that’s how it should be.”

Perez, though, wonders what will happen to places like Zesto’s. A recent ESPN.com article reported the ice cream parlor makes 80-90 percent of its money during the College World Series. Zesto’s is just one of the local businesses that stand to take a hit when the $128 million TD Ameritrade Park opens three miles to the north.

But that was the price of keeping the College World Series in Omaha, its long-time home. Only time will tell if the right decision was made to abandon Rosenblatt. Maybe the tailgaters and longtime fans will find new niches in the new stadium. Maybe the College World Series will take on the corporate feel the Final Four has, and maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

In a few months, Rosenblatt will be a parking lot for the Henry Doorly Zoo next door. The dome beyond right field will still lurk in the background, only the boys of summer won’t play in its shadow anymore.

We don’t know what will happen to the fading memories of Steve Arlin, Rod Dedaux and Bob Garibaldi. But there’s no chance Rosenblatt will be forgotten by the thousands of fans and scores of players who lived their dreams under the wide-open, Omaha sky.

I was able to talk to Jerome Pena, TCU Second Baseman, shortly after his batting heroics in CWS Game 11 against UCLA.  Did we talk about his home run?  His ability to fight off pitches from UCLA pitcher Rob Rasmussen and company, and increase their pitch count?  Sure.  But, there was one burning question on my mind…what’s up with the Mohawk haircut?  “The Mohawk,” Pena told me, “I got one earlier in the season.  Coach told me to cut it off.  Then I asked him before conference tournament at the beginning of May if I could do it again.  He said ‘yeah, go ahead.’  That’s where it all started.” 

Now, why would TCU Head Coach Schlossnagle tell Pena to cut of his warrior haircut?  “He’s not a very good-looking guy (with the Mohawk)” Schlossnagle told me.  Quick to Pena’s defense was TCU superstar pitcher Matt Purke.  “I think he’s a pretty-good looking guy,” Purke said.  “He works it (the Mohawk) well.” 

What about getting the rest of the Horned Frogs to don the fabulous Mohawk?  “You can’t,” Pena told me.  “That’s the superstition with what we’re doing.”  So far, it’s working well for TCU, and for the only pseudo-Mohican on the roster, Jerome Pena.