Will miss the confines of Rosenblatt

I spent a few years of my life in Omaha, Nebraska.

The people were wonderful and of course the Midwestern burg was --and still is-- the host city of the College World Series. I played a lot of fastpitch softball in Omaha from 1975 to 1979. I will never forget the first day I rolled into Omaha. My first order of business was to get a hold of someone at the parks and recreation. I walked in, asked a few questions and left with a phone number. I had asked the gal at the desk if she could get me in contact with the best softball team in the city.

She did. I called. I got a tryout. I made the team and spent the next five years or so traveling all over Nebraska and Kansas, competing against some of the best teams in the Midwest. It just so happened Omaha was referred to as "The Capitol of the World for Softball" at the time. There must have been 800 teams competing in the city. I played at two fields the majority of the time -- one was called Boyd Field and the other was called Dill Field.

Great softball town...and still is, as far as I know. But the field I remember most is Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium -- the home of the College World Series since 1950. For sixty years, the elite college teams from across the nation have rolled into Rosenblatt and have battled it out for the NCAA title. Eight teams are there this week, including Arizona State -- the top seed. Unfortunately, this will be it for Rosenblatt. Next year it will be a parking lot, an extension to the Zoo next door.

Oh, the College World Series will still be in Omaha, but beginning in June of 2011, the teams will battle for the title a few miles to the north, in downtown Omaha, at the brand-spanking new Ameritrade Stadium. I spent a lot of summers in the late 1970s at Rosenblatt as I watched my Arizona Wildcats battle for the NCAA title, along with Arizona State and USC, of course. Those were the years when those teams dominated the action. Those were the years when Jerry Kindall (UofA), Jim Brock (ASU) and Rod Dedeaux (USC) were the field generals who sat in the dugout and engineered their respective teams to glory.

I even had the honor of playing an exhibition fastpitch softball game or two between the lines at Rosenblatt. I sat in the same dugouts and awaited my turn at bat, just like the college kids of the past had done. It was an honor. There is not a lot of stadiums like Rosenblatt left...so, I think I'll tune in to ESPN this week and pay close attention to this year's College World Series, and as I watch, I'll reflect on some old memories from the 70s.

In 2011, it just won't be the same.