On my list of 80-ish events for my Around the World in 80 Sporting Events project I count four World Series among it: They are the Major League Baseball World Series, the Men’s College World Series, the Women’s College World Series, and the Boys’ Little League World Series. And, if you’d like to get clever, you can combine the quadrennial World Baseball Classic and the annual Caribbean Series and, voila, you’d have another World Series.
After another epic road trip with my father, Jerry, I’m delighted to say another World Series has been checked off the list.
Dad and I had previously enjoyed the LLWS (Part 1 & Part 2) in South Williamsport, PA, nearly a year ago and this time we headed west to the banks of the Missouri River at Omaha’s Charles Schwab Field to enjoy some of college baseball’s finest.
Like many of our trips together, the getting there (and back) was at least half the fun and I’ll chronicle much of that at my Middle-Aged Male Musings blog in the near future. What follows here are some reflections on the first day on site at the 2025 Men’s CWS.
A Festival of Fans
When attempting to determine the best time to attend the MCWS, I was interested in being on site when all eight schools who’d advanced to Omaha were still around. I’m not entirely sure why, but I felt like it might be more like attending the opening round of the annual NCAA Basketball Tournament when there’s a menagerie of fans from all schools attending.
I wasn’t wrong.
We had tickets for Games 5, 7, and 8, which meant that we’d be able to see a pair of elimination games as well as one that decided a Bracket 2 Finalist.
Like most NCAA championships these days, there was a free Fan Fest set up nearby. It included a Ferris Wheel, booths featuring corporate sponsors, activities for fans of all ages, DJs, live performances, as well as a cooling pavilion (misters attached to fans under a tent with some televisions allowed fans to beat a bit of the heat).
It was enjoyable to walk through, but there was nothing revelatory about visiting. Unlike my visit earlier this year to the Rose Bowl, there was no trophy to be photographed with or anything like that.
Sites from around the Fan Fest, clockwise from upper left, the back of the Charles Schwab Field scoreboard proudly proclaims it as home to the MCWS; the bracket upon our arrival; Great Clips is a NCAA corporate sponsor and they had stylists coloring hair in team colors; much like the WCWS, the MCWS leans into the “dirty” aspect of the games; the logos of all eight qualifiers adorn banners; the city of Omaha embraces this annual influx of visitors; a wiffle ball home run derby was available for willing participants; this map shows the distance each team needed to travel to arrive in Omaha; the Ferris Wheel had a steady stream of riders throughout the day.
What there was, however, were fans sporting the colors of all eight participants and a good many more colleges. And that was true once we got inside the stadium as well. Nebraska, Creighton, and Iowa colors were common, but I also spotted Minnesota, Michigan, Florida State, Stanford, Kentucky, Texas, and Alabama while walking around. Not to mention a plethora of old MCWS t-shirts that were being sported by returning fans.
What was clear is that there is a core group of attendees at the MCWS who are regulars. It is something families and/or friends do annually, which is both endearing and, if I’m being honest, a bit surprising because Omaha well … you get the picture.
About that Elevator
Our tickets to that afternoon’s game were on the third level so I did what any considerate son of an octogenarian would do: I proceeded to the accessible entrance where an elevator would take us upstairs.
"Sorry, the elevator's out of order," the kindly fella told me.
"Seriously, this is where the elevator is, right?" I replied, not willing to concede he was being truthful.
"Seriously, sir, the elevator is out of order. We hope to have it repaired by tonight's game."
After I realized this was, indeed, accurate, the fella told us we could use the elevator to the suite level where we’d receive an escort over to our section. As it turned out, another son and father were awaiting a golf cart to drive the father around to the suite elevator entrance. My dad hitched a ride on the cart and I walked along with the son who introduced himself as Kevin.
I quickly realized I was walking with MCWS royalty. Kevin’s father, he shared, had attended every College World Series Championship dating back to 1955. He and his dad were part of a feature story about Omahans’ support of the event in the program I held in my hand.
As we chatted a bit more, he learned where our seats were for the next day (outfield for both the afternoon and evening sessions) and promised to see what he could do for us. I passed along my phone number and didn’t think much of it after we reached the elevator.
Upon reaching the suite level – what an air-conditioned paradise that was! – a lovely Schwab Field employee did escort us through the expansive dining and lounging areas to the other side where a door opened that let us back into the inferno that was mid-June in eastern Nebraska. Our escort told us if my father got too hot that he could come back to this door and there’d be a seat inside where he could cool off.
The Game
Clockwise from upper left, the Arizona (left) and Louisville stand for the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner;” the view from the concourse behind homeplate; the view from left field; the view from the last row of stadium; the Cardinals gather as a team one final time prior to the game.
Arizona and Louisville squared off in Game 5. Both lost their openers Friday (Arizona to Coastal Carolina, 7-4, and Louisville to Oregon State, 4-3), so this was a win or head home scenario for the two teams.
Arizona scored a pair of runs in the top of the first, added another in the third, and led 3-1 for the majority of the game. Louisville scratched out a run in the bottom of the seventh to make it 3-2 and buoy hopes of a fantastic finish.
The Wildcats had a pair of 2-out singles in the top of the eighth, but neither runner scored. Louisville opened the home half reaching base on a fielding error, followed by a single. Arizona brought in its All-America stopper, Tony Pluta (14 saves and a 1.25 ERA), to try and shut the door. Four hits and another fielding error (by Pluta) later and the Cardinals had scored six runs to seize a commanding 8-3 lead. That wound up as the final score.
Bringing the Heat
In the Great Lakes Region where dad and I call home, it’d been a fairly mild start to the summer season, so it was – shall we say – a shock to our systems when we the gametime temperature for Game 5 was forecasted to hit 90 degrees.
Wouldn’t you know the weather person was correct.
We roasted under mostly sunny skies in our seats in the third deck of Schwab as the thermometer kept inching upward until it topped that magical (or cursed?) mark of 90.
There were two saving graces in this hotbox:
- As a longtime MCWS volunteer had told me earlier in the day, there is a constant breeze in the upper reaches of the stadium. He wasn’t lying! And while at times it felt like a blast furnace, it was nice to have steady air moving about us.
- Schwab seemed to understand both the guests it would be welcoming and its assignment. With a diverse crowd of attendees from around the country of all ages, this eastern Nebraska venue had multiple water bottle refilling stations available throughout the stadium. Sure, after 20 minutes under the broiling sun, the once cold beverage was more akin to bath water (temperature wise), it was nonetheless wet and provided hydration. (Kudos as well to Schwab for allowing guests to bring in an empty water bottle for refilling purposes.)
