Rosenblatt Stadium memories to live on for World Series faithful
Associated Press
OMAHA, Neb.
To people in college baseball, Rosenblatt Stadium is as much a shrine to the sport as Wrigley Field, Fenway Park or the old Yankee Stadium.
Every year since 1950, the Division I championship has culminated with the College World Series at the ballpark atop a hill in Omaha, Neb.
Come Saturday, the series will begin its last run at Rosenblatt before moving to a new downtown stadium in 2011. The final field at Rosenblatt includes TCU, Florida, Florida State, UCLA, Arizona State, Oklahoma, Clemson and South Carolina.
Retired LSU coach Skip Bertman said he feels the pangs of nostalgia. He won five national championships and made 13 other visits to Rosenblatt as either a head coach or assistant, and he’s come back most years since retiring in 2001.
The Tigers won’t be back to defend their national title this year, but Bertman will be here anyway.
“They can’t take away the memories,” Bertman said. “It’s only girders, steel, aluminum and wood, and they’re just going to move it a couple miles. They’re not taking the College World Series away from Omaha. The new girders, steel, wood and metal will house the fans and players in a more comfortable fashion and everyone will benefit.”
A ticket for the CWS’ last go-round at Rosenblatt is a tough one. Sports fans across the nation who have put off making a trip to Rosenblatt suddenly realize that this is their last chance, local ticket broker Chad Carr says.
A box seat to Saturday’s opener, with a face value of $27, was listed as high as $325 on Carr’s Ticket Express website earlier this week. Carr said his CWS sales were about 30 percent ahead of a comparable time last year.
“There’s a sense of nostalgia in the air, with people wanting to experience the College World Series in its true, non-corporate form one last time,” Carr said.
Rosenblatt was considered state-of-the-art when it opened as Omaha Stadium in 1948. The city spent about $1 million to build what originally was a 10,000-seat stadium.