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It’s Thanksgiving Day and many across the country are spending this time with their families.
It’s of course always important to be thankful for family, friends and anything else important in your life. But for me and perhaps others, there also are plenty things to be thankful for when it comes to the great sport of college baseball.
Here are ten things to be thankful for in the sport.
• The College World Series — There’s not an event in college athletics as special as the CWS. Sure, the NCAA basketball tournament is absolutely phenomenal, but it’s not played at the same arena as with baseball at Rosenblatt Stadium. The event is first-class all the way around and the format is fantastic. I’m thankful we have a fantastic way to decide the national champion in college baseball.
• Rosenblatt Stadium — There will come a point when I will no longer be excited about the construction of the new downtown stadium in Omaha. That mood will turn somber next summer when I cover my last CWS at Rosenblatt. Rosenblatt Stadium has been home to the CWS for many years and the fact it will be gone in less than two years is disheartening. The stadium sure has had one heck of a run, though. For that, we’re all thankful.
• Omaha, Neb. — So there are plenty of people out there that would love to see the CWS move around to different cities. I’m not one of those people. The City of Omaha has done a phenomenal job of hosting the event and the locals are about the most hospitable people you’ll find anywhere in the country. The CWS never should leave Omaha and it would be tragic for the community and sport if it ever happened. Those of us that only head to Omaha two weeks of the year also are very thankful for The Drover steakhouse and an Italian favorite of mine, Lo Sole Mio.
• Better facilities — I remember a few years ago there were only a select few schools that had premier facilities. Now it seems like everyone is doing something to renovate their facility. Others even have resorted to building new stadiums. Either way, we can all be thankful that college baseball has grown to the extent where state-of-the-art facilities are the norm. It wasn’t too long ago that we thought we’d never be saying that. In Field of Dreams, the voice says “If you build it, he will come”. Well, in this case, if you build it the money and popularity will increase.
• Increased exposure — It wasn’t too long ago that we were only one of three media outlets covering college baseball on the national stage. Now it seems like plenty of other entities are popping up. Competition always brings out the best in people and we’re no exception to the rule. College baseball will never be a big-time sport compared with college basketball and college football if exposure doesn’t increase. The increased exposure that we now enjoy benefits everyone.
• Universal start date — I almost feel like I’m getting a text message from Coach X in California already, but I’m thankful for the universal start date. Remember the days when some California and Arizona schools would start in late January, while others around the country began the season sometime in February? Yeah, we do, too. Those days are over and it’s great news for college baseball. I disagree with plenty of coaches in the north about when the season actually should begin, as I believe the NCAA finally has it right. But the universal start date, it’s a good thing.
• Legendary coaches and personalities — We’re so lucky in college baseball to have a plethora of legendary coaches still roaming baseball fields across the country. Some coaches I always think of include Miami’s Jim Morris, Texas’ Augie Garrido, Wichita State’s Gene Stephenson and Florida State’s Mike Martin. There are others we could add to this list, too. The gentlemen listed above are major reasons why college baseball has become a much bigger deal on the national stage the last two decades. For that, we’re so thankful.
• The passion — LSU coach Paul Mainieri and I had a lengthy conversation a couple days ago. His words on a particular subject always will stick with me. When asked if he’d ever be interested in joining pro baseball in some capacity, he answered that pro ball is about winning, college baseball is about building character and young men. The passion around college baseball will never be emulated by teams at the big league level. It’s a major reason the sport is special to me, and for that I’m thankful.
• The transfer rule — We’re fans of bringing back some sort of transfer policy for players facing specific hardships, but we can thank the NCAA for the transfer rule that was recently put into place. I remember spending most of my summer keeping track of the 120 players that decided to transfer out of their commitment at a particular school. Those days, for the most part, are over. For that I am thankful. Commitment is a strong word and it’s great to see players honoring that today.
• The fans — College baseball still is a young sport in terms of popularity, but it continues to make huge strides because more fans are joining the mix. The SEC is filled with fantastic fan bases at South Carolina, LSU, Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Plenty of other schools around the country also have large fan bases. Without the fans that now are filling stadiums around the country, the sport wouldn’t be making such huge strides. So you, the fans, we’re all thankful for. It’s changing the sport in more ways you could imagine.