Charlie Rocks -- My Kind of Outfielder

A few years back, I wrote a piece about UNC right fielder, Garrett Gore, and his amazing catch against Clemson. I entitled the piece "G" and included in it a description of the Clemson home run he brought back into the park.

Today, I read a news report from 100 years ago, May 26, 1913. I like it just as much as Garrett's catch.

Complicated Week of Scheduling (CWS)

Can there be a sporting event that requires more intricate planning to attend than the College World Series (CWS)?

The event takes place in the middle of nowhere, a.k.a., Omaha, over twelve days in June. Now, I’m not knocking Omaha. I personally think having the CWS there every year is the best decision the NCAA has ever made, though that, my friends, is the lowest of hurdles.

The NCAA makes the U.S. Congress look sane and competent in comparison.

Downtown Omaha is quite lovely, but I’m not sure the city can fill twelve days of between-game calendars with exciting activities. There’s a great zoo and then there’s. . .well. . .

The tournament format is part of the problem. The first part of the tournament, spanning a week, is a pair of double-elimination mini-tournaments that produce two ultimate winners. The final three days of the tournament, which will take place beginning June 24 in 2013, is a best-of-three series.

What’s the problem? Well, let’s start with the assumption that most people are not going to be willing to spend twelve days in Omaha watching a baseball tournament. More importantly, their wives are not going to tolerate it.

I have a couple of retired friends who went to the CWS three years ago. One called home after eight days and his wife asked, “Do you know how long you’ve been out there?”

“I don’t know, four days?” he responded.

As I said, he attended three years ago. He doesn’t seem enthusiastic about his chances of returning soon.

Given that twelve days are out of the question, one must then decide whether to attend the tourney early or late.

Now, the first week of the tournament has been described as a large party with eight teams and their accompanying fans. Restaurants and hotels are overwhelmed, as are flights into Omaha. If you attend early and participate in the bedlam, you will at least be assured of seeing your team play two games. Some teams will immediately lose two games and, for them, the party is over. Your stay in the heartland can be a brief one.

The number of teams dwindles as the week-and-a-half progresses so that by the final three days of the tournament there are only two teams. Of 16 hopeful teams that entered the tournament, 14 have been sent home, along with all their rowdy fans. That frees up a lot of restaurants, flights and hotels, but Omaha takes on a kind of “after Labor Day” feeling.

Still, if you’re set on seeing the finals, that’s a good thing. The next challenge is the best-of-three final series. Sometimes it goes two games, sometimes three. Omaha can be a long haul to see two baseball games and it’s much longer if your team loses both of them.

Return flights are also a quandary. You can book a flight back after two games and take a chance on missing the actual National Championship game, or you can book flights assuming there will be three games. In the latter case, you will twiddle your thumbs in Omaha (the zoo, again) for an extra day if the tourney finishes in two games, unless you can scrounge up a seat on an early flight out, for which a lot of your fellow fans will be competing.

Booking travel for the finals, of course, is a bet that your team will make the finals.

Or you can do what I did last year. Decide that you want to see a National Baseball Championship before you die and plan to go whether your team is there or not.

Last year, I thought I had an ace in the hole. Both my alma mater, the University of Kentucky, and my adopted baseball team, the University of North Carolina, looked like they’d play in the CWS. The odds were, I reasoned, quite good that at least one of them would make it.

Both lost the last game of their respective Super Regional.

I got to watch South Carolina and Arizona play in the finals.

As Robert Burns said, “The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men gang aft agley.”