February 15, 2007

And the People Said, "Let there be Beer!!!"

God I love Omaha.

ONLY in Omaha can the people take a perfectly good spectacle of sporting glory like the College World Series, and take it just too far. Only in Nebraska can people complain about how nobody understands what great fans they are, only to take a perfectly good event and turn it into something it never was. Is it big business? Is it just a sign of the times? Nope.

It’s beer.

Those of you new to this blog might be thinking, “Whoa there blog guy. What the hell could you possibly have against the CWS?!?! It’s the single greatest sporting event on earth and the most fun you’ll ever have just short of being naked with twins in South Padre” (The rest of you are thinking, “Oh shit, here he goes again.”) Despite my now annual rant against the mockery of humanity that is the CWS, the latest actions by the city of Omaha and the NCAA, have FORCED me to come out of my hole once again, and tell you exactly what you need to know about Omaha’s “Premier athletic event”. (Whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean.)

Just to get you up to speed, the NCAA and the City of Omaha are beginning to crack down on the public spectacle that is 13th Street and the Rosenblatt parking lots. I’m not sure if you’ve been to the parking lots around Rosenblatt during the series, but they tend to be filled to the brim with overweight, mini-van driving family guy or preppy, frat-boy-with-hat-turned-around-backward college guy. All of whom have the blood alcohol content of Billy Joel on New Years Eve. Tents line the parking lots hawking everything from bats to keychains to greeting cards. Think of it as baseball-themed Mardi Gras, if it were run by the LSU alumni association, Minot, ND chapter.

It even gets worse for CWS fan. Not only has the city closed the mobile, burbon-soaked refugee camp known as Dingerville, but they’ve also pressured the city to withhold liquor licenses to the many beer gardens in the area. Their goal is to institute a “safe zone” around the stadium, to ensure a more “family friendly” environment for...oh I don't know...families.

In the dog days of February, this of course has been a gold mine for local sports talk radio. 590’s Matt Perrault, (whom I actually enjoy listening to most of the time) has taken literally dozens of calls over the past couple of days, protesting the actions of the NCAA, the City, and CWS Inc for their intrusion into Omaha’s biggest party. Most are angry. Many spit out cliches like, "It's all about money" or "The NCAA only cares about dollars." (No shit? Really?) Some callers are personally devastated Dingerville is gone (Perrault included), and others simply feel the NCAA is sticking their nose in the business of the fan, who's God-given right is to chug Miller Genuine Draft and piss in the trees south of the stadium.

Many of you who have read my work over the years know I am absolutely NO fan of the NCAA. They’re evil. They’re corrupt. They have the Gross Domestic Product bigger than France and they pay zero taxes. They also hide under a cloud of smoke, masking their true greediness under the disguise of “helping student athletes”. They are slimy. They are scum. And I have dealt with them in person for many years. So with all of that, it pains me to actually say this, but here it goes:

You people caused this.

When I was a kid, I enjoyed going to the CWS, because it WAS a family event. It was a great place to hear Lambert Bartak fly through a rendition of “I don’t want her, you can have her, she’s too fat for me” on the grand stadium organ. Funnel Cakes were everywhere. The airspace over the stadium didn't look like O'Hare at 2pm on a Thursday. There may have been 2 or 3 t-shirt stands on the street in front of the stadium. Not a jumbotron was to be found for miles and miles.

But you see, baseball isn’t king anymore. Business is king. And this is where I have a problem with nearly every single whiney ass fan who dials up the phone and calls up a show like Perrault’s to piss and moan. People around Omaha have bragged about what a great "festival" it is…what a social event it is….that they forgot what made the series great in the first place. For some reason, drinking beer in red plastic cups in the parking lot suddenly became more important than enjoying the game. If you disagree, you may say that that sort of feeling still exists; but of course you're probably drunk. Instead, hanging out with a bunch of ZZ-Top look-alikes in a giant mobile home parked in front of Zesto’s has become more important than actually sitting down and watching the game with your dad. Hanging out at Pauli's an puking at 3:30pm on a Tuesday has become more important than the ping of the bat, the roar of the crowd or the hustle of the players.

Hell, when Dingerville started, it was simply a bunch of burnouts hanging out on the street corner because they didn’t want to stand in line for GA. Now they’re some sort of pop-culture icon within the series? Are you serious? These guys?!?! Since when is being from Texas and owning a Winnebago something to envy?

DO NOT get me wrong. I enjoy beer at my sporting event as much as you ever will. I absolutely don’t have any sort of problem whatsoever with alcohol at sporting events…even NCAA sporting events like the Qwest Center or anywhere else. The problem I have is having beer all around the stadium, yet STILL telling people what a great and wholesome FAMILY event the CWS is. It’s not a wholesome family event. It’s a big ass party. Which is fine. However, that’s not what caused that tourney to stick around for 50+ years. The NCAA keeps this thing there two reasons. Number one, the city will do ANYTHING for the NCAA. And number two, because Omaha really was different than all of those other events because it wasn't like what I just described. Somehow, all of that tradition got stuck in traffic, somewhere near 42nd street.

But according to some of you, now it’s supposed to be great because it’s just like an SEC football game with boozing and tailgating? I’d love to go to an SEC football game, and drink with every person I could find before, during and after the game….but if you want to brag what a unique place it is…if you want to brag about how the NCAA should never leave you…then you need to act like a unique and Midwest friendly environment, and not the infield at Talladega. The NCAA would leave Omaha in two seconds if the Lions club of Utica offered enough cash to allow them to fly back and fourth in Dennis Pope’s 747. You see, you can’t have your funnel cake and eat it too.

Oh, and one more thing…to those of you who think NOBODY else would attend CWS games like Omaha residents? Just remember this: The Little League World Series in the middle of nowhere too, and draws MORE fans than the CWS.

And not a beer can be found on gameday.

Just something to think about when Indianapolis holds the press conference in a few years. Hey, at least you'll still have St. Patrick's Day?

AJ

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

huh? and the point of this was?

10:44 PM  
Blogger A J said...

Jeezus, do I have to spell out everything to you?

The point is, people are bitching about how the NCAA is ruining the CWS by taking away beer tents etc. The thing is..the NCAA has ALWAYS cracked down on this stuff...pepole just didn't do it as much.

Bottom Line: The CWS has outgrown what it once was. The NCAA will not let it turn into a hick version of Oktoberfest. Anybody who thinks otherwise is dumb.

It's fucking February 16th..what do you want from me?

8:22 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree for the most part about the points you made about the CWS. All I have heard on A.M. radio is people bitching. The CWS has changed so much in the past ten years, it almost unbelievable. Although, I do have to dispute the attendence between this and the little league world series. There is actually quite a difference. The CWS has drawn an average of 260,098 in the past three years (over 300K last year) while the little league world series drew above average at just over 200,000. I guess just the fact that they are comparable says something though..... Well written blog about this topic though.

10:34 AM  
Blogger Husker Mike said...

If Omaha lets the party overwhelm the baseball, the NCAA will simply take the baseball away.

10:38 AM  
Blogger Rick said...

Let's get a couple of things straight right off the bat:

Moderate use of alcohol is illegal in zero states. It is immoral nowhere.

The NCAA's ban on alcohol is the biggest load of moralistic, hypocritical crap I've ever heard of. Nonetheless, as Mike points out, it's their tournament, and their false values notwithstanding, they'll leave if we don't do what they want

Omaha should not shrink away from the party, it should just move the party down to the 10th Street Bridge in the Old Market and run shuttles to the ballpark.

AJ's attack on all people who tailgate, all people in Omaha, all people everywhere ("hick version of oktoberfest") or whatever is good for drawing readers, but otherwise does not merit a serious response.

1:22 PM  
Blogger A J said...

Rick,

I'm saying that the giant party atmosphere has overrun what made the CWS great in the first place. I'm not anti-tailgating. I'm anti-calling it such a "family" event, while Zestos, Pauli's, Buffalo Joes and all the rest get bigger and bigger and bigger.

Even THEN, I don't mind that it gets bigger. But as it gets bigger, you're going to see corporations move in. You're going to see Dingerville get tossed. You're going to see the NCAA start grubbing for money. That's the way it works.

It's not the same beast as it was 10 years ago. My whole point is, you can't turn it into a giant fun Juntoberfest, and still think you can have this quaint little tourney that will stay that way forever.

It just won't happen.

Sorry if you disagree.

9:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

An interesting and a thought provoking read...consumption of alcohol at leading gaming events is hardly deemed to be illegal so whom do you really blame in the end?...however what's best about your post is the way you concluded it.:)....anyways do take a visit to my humble blog too.

4:16 AM  

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