Dear Johnny, I love you.

            Everyone has things in life that they want to accomplish someday.  Mine includes traveling throughout Europe with my best friend, getting my dream job, and someday settling down with a hot, loving husband and some cute kids.  It’s the list I made when my biggest concern in life was whether I wanted to spend my afternoons playing dress-up or Barbies—cut me some slack people, I was eight. 

            When I started becoming a sports fan, I made another list.  A bucket list, if you will, of things or places I wanted to see or do—all pertaining to sports, of course.  See the Twins take on the Yankees in New York.  Head down to Arrowhead for the Mizzou-KU matchup in the fall.  Watch Gopher football at all the Big Ten stadiums.  Typical things that most sports fans tend to want to do.

            This past June, I crossed a big one off of my ‘grown-up’ list.  Attend the NCAA College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.  Started in 1947, the CWS moved to Omaha in 1950 where it made its home in the ‘house that Johnny built’—Rosenblatt Stadium.  Next year, the series will be moved to the TD Ameritrade Park, a $143 million stadium currently being built in downtown Omaha.  So as the city—and baseball fans—prepared to say goodbye to the stadium on the hill, my friend and I decided that this would be the perfect year to make the trek.  Here are some of my highlights…

1) Choosing a team to cheer for.

             After the Gophers lost those heartbreaking games to Cal State-Fullerton in the Regionals, it was hard for me to pick a team to cheer for at the CWS.  As a college football fan, South Carolina, Florida, Florida State, and Oklahoma were out strictly on principle.  I couldn’t cheer for any of those teams.  The number one seed going into the tourney, Arizona State was also out because I was not about to jump on the #1 team’s bandwagon my first year at the CWS.  Just didn’t seem right. 

            Leaving Clemson, Texas Christian, and UCLA, I kicked off Clemson because I wasn’t too excited about wearing purple or orange for the whole weekend.  Yes, a girlie decision-making process but when you have no alliances, anything goes.  With just TCU and UCLA left, I was torn.  Choose the Horned Frogs and have Jesus on my side or go with my childhood dream school and be a Bruin for the weekend.  Ultimately, UCLA won out with us and lost the tournament to the Gamecocks—can’t win everything, right? 

2) Unsuccessfully stalking Dave Winfield.

            I’m slightly embarrassed to admit this but I stalked Dave Winfield in Omaha.  Unsuccessfully, of course but I did stalk him none-the-less.  Before the tournament started the NCAA put together a CWS Legends Team of college-athletes who had some of the best performances over the last 60 years and good old Davey was one of the 28 athletes chosen.  To be honest, I don’t even know if he was down in Omaha but I insisted on trying to find him (Barry Bonds made the trek, I found it hard to believe that Winfield wouldn’t show up).  Like I said, I never did find Dave.  But by asking every single person if they had seen him, I got to talk about my two favorite things—the Golden Gophers and the Minnesota Twins.  A successful addition to any baseball road trip!

3) Learning what a Sooner was.

            When the games got delayed because of weather—something we experienced everyday—Katie and I retreated to the comfort of our favorite beer tent right across the street from the stadium.  We made friends with fans from everywhere—a group of married UCLA guys in customized jerseys, a couple of middle-aged dads from Texas, a grandpa-father-son trio from Chicago (in White Sox jerseys, nonetheless).  Our favorite group, by far, were the three new dads from Texas who came to cheer on the Oklahoma Sooners and one of their brothers, closer Ryan Duke. 

            At some point during our conversation, I quietly admitted that I didn’t know what a Sooner was.  This did not go over well with our new Boomer Sooner fans and Katie and I were quickly enrolled in an OU education class.  A Sooner—as they bluntly put it—is a cheater.  When the west was being settled, a Sooner was someone who went out before they were supposed to and claimed land that they wanted before anyone else had the opportunity.  It doesn’t seem to be the most positive choice for a mascot but everyone we met from Oklahoma seemed to like it.  I mean, I cheer for a Golden Gopher.  Anything goes in college sports, I guess.

            In a way, my weekend in Omaha was perfect—fans from across the country all in one place to watch college baseball and at the same time say goodbye to one of sports’ greatest treasures.  Katie and I became ‘the girls from Minnesota’— we took our roll seriously and trash-talked every White Sox fan we saw and gave hugs and high-fives to everyone in a TC hat.  Yes, I will admit I never understood the appeal of the College World Series and Rosenblatt stadium until I went there and experienced it myself.  It really is a baseball-lover’s paradise.  And while I am sure that next year will be a different experience away from Rosenblatt, I plan on being there to soak in every crazy moment.  Maybe I’ll even try and stalk Dave Winfield again—I’ll just find out if he’s going to be there ahead of time.