The rain was little more than a mist on the windshield of my dad
Take 5: My Love Letter To The Rosenblatt I Once Knew
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Omaha
Greg, Great story, wonderful memories. And to alleviate the need for future corrections, the word is Poobah from the Mikado. Pupa is an insect stage between the larva and the imago; as I am sure Sister Mary Candlewax taught you in Biology.
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GH: Poobah it is. Thanks for the fix.
MoCrash
I’ve never been to the CWS, but played in an American Legion regional at Rosenblatt. I don’t recall many of the details of the stadium, other than the field was large — even compared to Busch Memorial Stadium (the circular Busch II), where our team had played earlier — it had nice grass (as opposed to both Busch and our home park, which were Astroturf) and a choppy infield (which, as a second baseman, I hated; two of my six errors on the season were there, and the only two “boots,” but we won anyway).
Our first day we went to Zesto’s (I couldn’t recall its name until Greg mentioned it), and found it so unpleasant we didn’t return. It made Ted Drewe’s, a frozen custard stand, seem hospitable.
jojo
long…drawn out…boring story.
Can we please get back to whats really
important?
royals…cheifs…big 12…these original
articles are horrible.
Go back to your old style…this stuff
is way too booooooooring
jojo
Greg…did you go to journalism school somewhere
or did you just pick up this “writing” thing
somewhere?
kcshocks
Nice work, Greg. It’s sad the ‘Blatt is going away, but it’s helped generate memories for thousands of players. It will forever be a part of CWS lore.
Arte
Good stuff Greg. Not being from Omaha, I don’t possess the sentiment for Rosenblatt as you do. But I certainly appreciate its history. So much so, I went there Monday to see a game(Florida-Florida St.)for the final time.
I always imagined if someone didn’t know where the College World Series was held, the last place they’d guess would be Omaha. And I think that’s why it’s been such a special and unique event all these years.
Stevo
Great article GH…really enjoyed it. One question…where did you sleep with fourteen siblings? Great read.
And Jojo…shut the fuck up.
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GH: My parents bought a modest two-story home in 1954 for the princely sum of $10,000. My dad used to say he worried every day for the next 30 years how he was going to pay off that mortgage. This was just before I, the eighth and middle child, was born. We had two bedrooms on the first floor and two upstairs. The basement was very unfinished in that it had a concrete floor with a white-washed brick foundation walls.
My parents had their own first-floor bed room (which was off limits at ALL times and carried a punishment of death to those who dared trespass. I would rather have trespassed on the Holy Ghost and Our Father before I took on my dad). The
Kevin K
Greg – that is a great story and what a family, even though I wish the family pic was bigger. BTW, thanks for including my quote on your last OTC column.
Kevin K
Stevo
^^^that’s not KK is it? Boy if this is the first entry he’s read on here I hope he doesn’t peruse the archives.
Yeah that truly was a great generation Greg…my grandfather was in the Battle of the Bulge as well…he was from Falls City. Probably a good chance he served with your dad.
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GH: One of the reasons those WW2 guys came back and had so many kids is that they knew how lucky they were to come back at all. The first friend I made in college was a kid from Fall City Sacred Heart. I think he ended up becoming a police officer there but it might have been elsewhere. We used to swap stories about HS rivalry football games and he loved to talk up the battles they had in Jug Brown Stadium. I love being from the Midwest and all the small towns where many of us have family, friends and stories residing.
Rainbow Man
Great article! I was at the Blatt last night watching OU and Clemson. There is no place like it. I also have to say one other thing. I had not been to Omaha for fun in probably 15 years. Omaha’s downtown is completely better than ours. It is not even a close contest.
Uncle Dick
Nice story, Mr. Hall. Poor jojo, all that punctuation, correct spelling, and proper syntax got him all flustered.
JS
Talking about simpler times reminded me of when the Chiefs did their training camp at William Jewell College and it was really no big deal. We would just decide at the last minute and go up there and it was very relaxed and friendly atmoshpere. There might be a couple hundred people there at the most. I didn’t realize then how “special” those times were.
Media Observer
Greg:
Like you, I grew up visiting Rosenblatt as a kid watching many big leaguers make their way through Omaha while at the AAA level. My dad and I always sat in the first row of GA up behind first base dugout in the second-to-the-last section. I grew up in Bellevue and I have many fond memories of attending CWS games. Then, when Miami became an NCAA baseball power, they would practice at the diamond in Bellevue near the high school. Therefore, the town became Miami fans for baseball until football season. On the rare and special times when my mom would attend with us, we’d dine at Cascio’s and enjoy a fine Omaha steak before watching Jack McKeon chew out umpires on his way to two league titles.
I’ve lived in KC for 10 years now, but memories of Rosenblatt will last forever.
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GH: I have a number of good friends from Bellevue who I used to play serious flag football with after college in the Omaha city league. When Bellevue High had those powerhouse football teams in the early 70s, I used to kid my dad that he went to watch the Chieftains play more often than he did our HS team. “Well, they’re a helluva lot better than your team,” he would reply. One thing I remember about Bellevue is Stella
Loper
Mr. Hall, Great story. Brings back a lot of fond memories. JoJo is whacked! Wasn’t JoJo the name of that Orangutan in the Riverview Park Zoo.