The Road to Omaha: NCAA Baseball Tournament Thread

For the first time in years, college baseball was discussed at work.

http://masnsports.com/2009/06/zimmerman-gives-back-to-uva.html

College baseball could be a very big hit in these parts since it really seems like everything is being done to try and kill minor league baseball in Richmond. [/redothediamond????]

 

As far as I know it's still there.

 

It's still there last I checked a year ago - I think it used to be called Bluffs Run, but now they've built a big Horseshoe casino around it. Still have Harrah's and Ameristar on the river, too.
I'm not a gambler, so I can't provide any recommendations.
But I do look forward to heading over and taking in a day of CWS action when I'm back in western Iowa next week - and perhaps becoming a Golden Eagle fan for a day.

 

I was told today the schools themselves basically book their own hotels.

Southern Miss looked in Omaha proper but there was talk of 10-day minimums, or something like that, and I think they're even enough of a realist to know their stay figures to be short.

During the Skip Bertman era LSU always used to stay at the Embassy Suites off 72nd Street. All the Tigahs' fans were there. It was enough to make ya puke, the clamhead factor.

 

It was in the fourth, Keyes hit the home run and then posed with his arms out ala Barry Bonds. TCU's third baseman took offense to that and Keyes made a comment when he was heading from third to home.

 

They book their own? The NCAA doesn't block off rooms for them somewhere? I can see some increasingly frustrated assistant AD in Hattiesburg at midnight Sunday feverishly working on Priceline or Hotels.com and uttering some great profanities.

And I love the old joke about LSU fans in Omaha, circa 1990-something. Goes like this...
Two women, one in LSU gear and another in a Florida shirt, are in line at the supermarket in Omaha. The LSU fan goes through the line, has a bill over $100, and pays with a check. Clerk accepts it.
The Florida fan comes through the line, has a bill over $100, and pulls out her checkbook. The clerk stops her and says they can't take a check. The Florida fan gets angry and asks why not. After all, they took a check from the LSU fan in front of her.
The clerk looks at her and says, "We know she'll be back in town."

 

Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ ... even the high-school associations are smart enough to book blocks of rooms ahead of time for state tournament teams and then assigning teams to those blocks as they win their bid to state. Hell, even the NAIA gets that part right.

 

I always thought the NCAA did it ...

But this was what I was told.

Hey, $209, plus tax, in Council Bluffs, what a bargain ...

 

I was trying to think what else in Omaha could draw large crowds. All I could think of was a Berkshire shareholders meeting, which I somehow doubt moves the needle for the Council Bluffs Sleep Inn.

 

Arkansas-Fullerton in the first round is a rematch of the '79 CWS finals. Augie Garrido was coaching the Titans to his first CWS title.

 

Southern Miss must have taken the option of choosing alternate arrangements, because the NCAA indeed books eight team hotels well in advance ... in most cases, renewing with these hotels is all but a formality from one year to the next. Jesus was misled at least partially, because I am holding the 63rd NCAA Men's College World Series 2009 Media Information brochure, printed weeks ago and available at all the super regionals last weekend (before the CWS field was set), and it lists eight team hotels. The Sleep Inn in Council Bluffs is not on the list. I'll ask my USM contact why the team booked there instead of staying at one of the reserved hotels.