A spur of the moment trip has become so much more.
Growing up I loved baseball. It was my first love. I would make my parents, sister or anyone that put me to bed growing up; read me baseball cards instead of books. I played baseball through high school and had a failed attempt to try to play baseball in college.
Growing up I loved watching college baseball in the 90’s & early 2000’s. When the College World Series (CWS) would air, I loved watching it. I even loved the rain delays because it meant old school college baseball games and highlights. Stanford, LSU, Rice, and any mid-major team were the teams I watched; now I cannot stand LSU. The oversized bats that should have been illegal sure made the game exciting. It always led to conversations about bats on the little league and high school dugouts. The CWS was must watch in the summers.
For those of you who do not know, the CWS takes place in Omaha, Nebraska and I lived in Des Moines, Iowa for most of my adolescence, meaning the CWS was just a few hours from my house. However, I never made it out there to watch a game.
That was until June 21, 2005.
On the morning of June 21, I convinced my friend Zach to go with me to Omaha for the day to watch a game. Zach worked overnights at Target during that summer so I am sure he slept the whole way to Omaha.
After two hours in the car, we began seeing signs for the CWS and Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, home of the CWS from 1950 to 2010. I had no idea what to expect but when we got there, it was as if we had just entered into a huge outdoor party. Now, Nebraska and Arizona State were set to battle, so I thought maybe it is only like this because Nebraska playing, but as the day went on, I started to notice that might not be the case.
There were people everywhere. We eventually found a street to park and started our journey to the park. What we saw were parties everywhere. Tailgate parties at nearly every house, several people invited us to join but we maintained our course to the ballpark. Even waiting in line there were parties everywhere behind the outfield fence. People representing every team in the country it was there and every one of them was holding a party. It was as if we stumbled upon a family reunion and these were all long lost relatives.
Eventually, we made our way into the stadium and found a couple of seats in the left field seats. Left field ended being the best place to be on that sunny day.
Headed to the ninth inning Nebraska trailed by two, Zach and I stuck around because we wanted to see Nebraska eliminated in their home state. It was the Huskers third trip in a handful of years and were 1-5 going into this game. The Huskers cut the lead to 5-4 before a three-run homer to left field, just rows in front of us, put the Huskers up by two. The scene was crazy. Maybe we were not going to see Nebraska eliminated, maybe we just witnessed the biggest homer in Nebraska history. The Sun Devils tied the game in the bottom of the inning, as Jeff Larish hit his third homer of the game. This one to our left, tying the game at seven. It was the first time in CWS history that both teams came back from two runs down in the ninth inning. The game remained tied until the bottom of the 11th when Arizona State knocked off Nebraska.
All the way home, I could not get over how much fun I had just had. By the time we reached Des Moines, I told Zach we needed to go back. I wanted more college baseball; I wanted to make it a yearly pilgrimage.
This past weekend would have been the 16th straight year in Omaha for the CWS and the 15th straight year I would be there for opening weekend. At times, I cannot believe it has been 16 years since a spur of the moment trip became a yearly ritual and yet it seems like yesterday. The first couple of years included a vast group of people but in the last ten years or so it is practically been the same group of friends.
In the beginning, we would make our way to Omaha on Saturday morning after a night of going out Des Moines. Usually, it was five or six of us who would make the trip. One year I think we used Chad’s parent's van. Another year, I rented a minivan when our party ballooned to seven. I fell in love with minivans that year.
For those first few years, we basically did the same thing. We would go to the afternoon game, go to the hotel, shower, eat, start drinking, and find a place to go for the night. I think for years 3-7 or 8, we went to the exact same bar. Things would change when the CWS moved downtown but the pattern was still similar. Ideally, my plan was to go to both games on Saturday and maybe go to the Sunday afternoon game before heading home but that never happened.
In year two, our first overnight trip, after the game, we headed to the hotel and asked the woman at the front desk for a recommendation for a place to go at night that did not have a minimum age of 21, as we were all 19 or 20. She recommended a place her niece went, Club Roxbury. We were not planning to go to a club so we made a run to Target to get a few things, I remember buying a hat but cannot remember what it had on it. Either way, we went back to the hotel, filled the bathtub with ice and booze we got from some 21 year old we knew, and had a few drinks. As we watched the second game of the day from our hotel room, we decided it was time to go out. Well, actually, three of us went out, Chad had a headache and stayed in the hotel. We got to the place, which was in a strip mall by the way, and immediately the bouncers told us we could not wear hats due to gangs. That should have been a sign to leave.
Upon entering, I remember thinking, why did the woman send us here. It was a weird night and I only remember a few things. We learned Jared knew sign language because he met a deaf girl at the club. Todd made out with someone. I attempted to dance in a cage, only to have security drag me out instantly. He expressed the dancing cages were for women only. I remember them promising a foam party but it was so small that I went to the bathroom and missed the whole thing.
The trip still must have been fun overall because we still went back to Omaha the next year.
Things started to come together in year four. After we all turned 21 and had real jobs or were in graduate school, we would all descend in Des Moines on Thursday night. This often meant going out on Thursday to grab a drink, some food, and then sing karaoke. We created a trophy and played a golf “tournament” on Friday morning/afternoon. Friday night would usually involve dinner and then going out. Just like year previous years, we would go to the afternoon game on Saturday, go to the hotel, shower, eat something, have a few drinks, and go out. We would head back to Des Moines on Sunday morning and then go out one last time Sunday night.
There were a few different activities each year but we did not veer too far off the beaten path. Sure, we would go to different restaurants or bars and one year we got to play free laser tag but being adventurous was not our forte. Every fifth year we stayed in Omaha for two nights but other than that, the trips still usually followed the pattern above.
Although we had a similar pattern for each trip one thing became clear, the trip was not what I had intended the trip to be about.
I wanted the trip to be about watching as much baseball as possible but I was the only one. I watched as much as I could leading up to the tourney, watching conference tournaments on TV. Watching the regionals and super regionals before we went to Omaha. I would also watch the games once we got back and the series continued for the next ten days.
So what was the trip really about?
It was about a group of friends growing up and reconnecting with each other every year. Although we stayed in touch throughout the year, we knew that every June we would get back together physically for a reunion. We no longer live by each other so each year we would come from hours away to get back together. Not all of us grew up together in our younger years but during the past 15 years we grew up together in Omaha. The CWS was our adult summer camp. We jammed as much activity as possible in those trips, though we have slowed way down since turning 30.
Yes, each year we leave with new stories and new memories but the greatest moments of the trip are not the stories that we share, even though we have plenty.
Stories like:
Losing Colby in downtown Omaha
Jared wearing jeans with holes all over, not putting on sunblock, and then having his leg look a miss-dyed candy cane.
The night we all walked two miles to the bar only to have Colby forget his ID. Zach and he walked back but somehow got lost and crossed over the interstate.
The time Erik almost got us in a fistfight.
The several bachelor party escapades for Jared, Colby, and I.
The time we bought a rose from a street vendor, snuck it to Colby, while he was dancing with a girl so he could pull it out for her like it was magic.
The time we almost got arrested for buying ice cream cones.
The night ESPN caught us dancing to Tonto Jump On It.
As memorable as those stories are for us, the greatest moments are the conversations on the long car rides, the long walks to and home from the bars in Omaha, on the golf course, in the hotel room, and at the baseball game.
Those moments do not make for funny stories, even though each is filled with laughter, but they are real and more important. We will always have the funny stories to share and remember but they will not have the impact on my life like the conversations and sharing we do on our trips.
In the last 15 years, our group has gone through breakups, marriages, babies, job losses, graduations, new careers, personal issues, a cancer scare, and the death of one of us.
Through it all, we have been there for each other. To talk about our fears and triumphs. To share our joy and pain. To ask for advice and give mostly terrible advice. This is what the trip is really about; the baseball is just the catalyst.
I cannot wait to make our 16th trip to the CWS next year. We will return to Omaha once again and all will be right.
I thought the trip was going to be about baseball and only baseball, I am glad it isn’t.
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