By Mel Franks
Associate Athletics Director
June 19, 2007

Each time one leaves Omaha and the College World Series, a pervasive thought always pops into mind: "When will I be back? If ever?"

(Travel note: the bulk of the Titan traveling party is taking a charter airliner to Ontario Airport with a scheduled 2 p.m. PDT landing).

The odds and obstacles are long and numerous, yet with Cal State Fullerton it's become almost a 50-50 proposition with 15 trips in 33 years. Remarkably, my longest Omaha drought has been three years - the 1985 through 1987 and 1996 through 1998 seasons. Four trips in the past five years almost have made the trip seem commonplace.

Coming back so frequently has blurred together the many changes made over the years in the College World Series. And there have been many - in the format, the arrival of television, the hotel situation, the city, tickets and, of course, the growing ballpark. In this 25-year "anniversary" trip, I've tried to leap all the way back and recall what it was like in 1982 when I made my first trip.

The format was single bracket, double elimination. It was changed in 1988 to a pair of 4-team brackets with a one-game, winner-take-all title game to satisfy CBS. In 2003, the bracket winners began playing a best-of-three series for the trophy. Other seeding policies have been changed along the way as well. And the Super Regional round was added in 1999.

A fledgling ESPN television network brought the 1982 series into more homes than ever before. Omaha and the CWS became a favorite stop for the production crews, which were more familiar with 1-day or 3-day road trips. They got a chance to "settle down" for at least 10 days and they became enamored with the local hospitality and their coverage showed it. Zesto's ice cream and hamburger stand became "nationally known" thanks to thousands of dollars of air time in exchange, I would hope, for shakes and malts and burgers for the crew. CBS took over the title game, disappointing the ESPN people who had covered the preliminary rounds but exposing the championship game to even more viewers. ESPN got the whole show back in 2003 and the renewed marriage seems long-lasting.

In 1982, all eight teams plus the NCAA staff stayed in the same hotel - the rambling Holiday Inn at 72nd St. and I-80. It was a maze-like layout with a "Holidome" recreation area which fostered interplay between opposing players who already knew each other from summer leagues and travel squads. The coaches weren't happy with the party atmosphere and then the event simply outgrew the facilities. It became every team for itself as teams would win a regional and immediately call hotels at random for rooms. Two and three teams could end up at the same hotel and favorites developed. Some hotels began "saving" rooms for such well-traveling (meaning full-tab paying parents and friends) schools as LSU, gambling that the Tigers and the like would qualify.

As the event continued to grow, teams began having trouble finding enough rooms at one property so a plan is now in place randomly designating eight hotels well in advance to unknown winners of each Super Regional (not all hotels and staffs are created the same).

In 1982, each team was provided three courtesy Oldsmobiles emblazoned with the College World Series logo. Sadly, those vehicles became targets of overzealous fans and even criminals, since they were screaming "tourist with valuables aboard." Now each team gets three non-descript rental vehicles.

The city has changed dramatically and rapidly by Midwest standards. The suburbs have extended the town west well beyond Boys Town, which was moved years ago from the inner city to what was then the periphery. Downtown has undergone a remarkable makeover. The retail industry moved out in the late 1970s and early 1980s, blight moved in but has now been replaced by tourist attractions. The Old Market is about five blocks by five blocks with numerous shops and restaurants in historic brick buildings. It's within walking distance of most of the team hotels and now there is a new arena and convention center in the Qwest Center a few blocks to the north. Gone are some of the old railroad facilities and agricultural processing plants that were past their prime and gave an uninviting look to tourists arriving downtown from Eppley Field. That's the Omaha airport located between the Missouri River and Carter Lake, which was left when the river changed its course many years ago.

Another feature to town that wasn't here in 1982 is actually in Iowa. Casinos have arrived, first on riverboats on the Iowa side of the river and now inland in Iowa apparently on Indian land. In 1982 gambling was limited to Ak-Sar-Ben, a thoroughbred racing facility just down the street from the Holiday Inn. The track is now gone, its demise hastened by the nationwide slump in interest in parimutuel betting and the arrival of the casino boats (and, yes, Ak-Sar-Ben is Nebraska spelled backwards).

What hasn't changed since 1982 is the Omaha hospitality. The citizens of the city, the region and the state go out of their ways to make the baseball visitors feel welcomed. Everyone seems happy and well fed. The sponsoring host clubs put on a social event and are available to help with local needs, such as an available dentist or equipment repairman or the like. The CWS queen and court have been replaced by CWS Ambassadors, both male and female local college students.

Tickets have become a hotter and hotter commodity. The locals have bought them for years, passing season tickets down a generation or two. The total attendance in 1982 was 106,144, or only about 18,000 more than the first two days of this year's edition. Last year's total was more than 310,000. In 1982, tickets were sold in advance to the teams only via cash up front at the Yonkers Department store downtown that was in the early stages of closing down. Now each team sends a ticket manager, tickets are held back - 400 per session - and teams are billed. Tickets are printed and handled at Rosenblatt Stadium. It's up to the individual institution how many they wish to make available to players' families - LSU handed them out like Halloween candy in its hotel lobby year after year.

And finally there are the changes to the stadium. Not sure where to start. Maybe with what hasn't changed - that being the multi-colored metal grandstand directly behind home plate and the dugouts. And the crowded corridors under the stands. That's about it. There's a new press box over the grandstands instead of one at the back of the stands plus booths on the roof. New lights and light towers. A stadium club down the right-field line. New permanent stands extending to the foul poles. Permanent bleachers behind a new outfield fence that's been changed a couple of times -- all the colorful advertising panels are long gone -- along with the scoreboard, which is now a totally video operation.

The neighborhood is different. The Henry Doorly Zoo has expanded to its maximum acreage (that's another reason some foresee the ultimate demise of Rosenblatt) and added the giant dome behind the right-field wall. A block of houses on the east side of 13th Street has been replaced by parking lots, since the existing ones have been occupied by sponsor tents and "sports experience" booths. The vacant lot to the south where campers and RVs used to congregate is a welcomed grass-covered park in the middle of the concrete and commerce. Zesto's is surrounded by souvenir stands, which also line the west side of 13th St. among the Titan and 'Eater Nation houses.

What lies ahead? A controversial debate over the future of Rosenblatt or a new downtown stadium and/or the contract between the city and the NCAA to host the College World Series will dominate the headlines for many months. Here's hoping Rosenblatt survives and Omaha welcomes the collegiate baseball world for at least another 25 years. And we hope to be returning once again to take it all in. Until next time...