Blue Jay Way
This about as close to the real thing as we're going to get before actually coming back here to Omaha for the College World Series in a few weeks. Yesterday, we visited Rosenblatt Stadium -- home of the CWS -- to talk with a couple of players on the Omaha Royals, but tonight the stadium looks totally different.
Which is to say, it's packed.
Nebraska and Creighton have quite a rivalry, and this game drew 18,316 fans to Rosenblatt, which isn't far off from how full it will be when eight teams have completed the Road to Omaha in June.
In fact that's the second-largest single-game crowd of the year in the nation, beat only by a Georgia-Georgia Tech game that brought more than 21,000 to Turner Field in Atlanta.
Bad time to go get Dippin' Dots.
In addition to seeing the biggest fan turnout thus far in the trip -- eclipsing the 12,000-plus that were in Jacksonville for Florida-Florida State -- we also got to hear some opinions on what might be the biggest hot-button issue in Omaha these days: the building of a new stadium.
Rosenblatt has all the history, but because the CWS is a two-week event and the Omaha Royals play a full season here (not to mention some Creighton games) there is a proposal to build a new stadium in north downtown that would be far smaller capacity-wise with the ability to be expanded for the CWS each year.
So for answers on that topic, we went straight to the top and chatted with Omaha mayor Mike Fahey this afternoon before the game. Then, when we were at Rosenblatt, we asked some fans what they thought about the proposal.
In our very unscientific polling method, we found that most of the fans we encountered were against the new stadium. Then again, they might be biased since they were watching the game here at Rosenblatt.
But based on the vehemence some of them displayed, it's clear that die-hard traditionalists won't be convinced that a new ballpark is a good idea, even if it is.
They'll put anyone on TV these days.
We also got to see Pat Venditte pitch for Creighton. What's interesting about Venditte is that he can pitch righty or lefty -- and does both in a game.
We know yesterday was a bit of tease, since we promised ambidextrous pitching today, but we promise: tomorrow you'll get to see that since we'll have a lengthy drive to Arkansas.
And of course, we'll tell you a little more about him tomorrow as well, but suffice it to say we've never seen anything like him. In the meantime, just know that he came in to pitch the eighth inning with the Blue Jays leading 7-2 and struck out two in his inning of work. Creighton added a couple more to cruise to a 9-2 victory.
The latest in hybrid technology: Half car, half giant boy.
