R.I.P. Rosenblatt

Hello All,

Tonight was a special night for all 'Cane fans, although I am sure most don't realize it.

Tonight, South Carolina defeated UCLA in the final College World Series ever played at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha.

Next season, the tournament will be moving to a newer stadium. Thankfully, it will be in the same down home city that has hosted the tournament for over half a decade. Unfortunately, no longer will it be played in the Mecca of college baseball.

As a 'Cane fan, I already know what it is like to lose a sacred stadium. I cried the night the

'Canes played their final game in the Orange Bowl (and not just because of the final score). I had to be asked by security to leave the stadium three separate times. The girl I had been trying to date for YEARS was hanging out with Steve and I that night. I don't think I said three words to her the entire game. I found myself taking it all in, between every play, for the last time. I mentally cataloged every great moment I had ever witnessed on that field. I was in a complete daze.

After the game, Steve, The Girl and I stayed in the stadium once all the fans left. It was just us and the band. The band started to pack up when I yelled out "North Dade". They were so happy to hear something break the din that they took their instruments back out and played our requests for the next half hour. It was the most beautiful music I had ever heard (and that is saying something when you consider it was the University of Miami band playing it...sorry Frank).

When security finally made us leave (and I mean literally picked us up out of our seats and told us we had to go) I went back to my room (without The Girl) and wrote the best article of my entire life. It won an award for the best sports story written by any college student in the state of Florida that year. I honestly cannot even remember what it said. It just flowed. Such was my love for the Orange Bowl.

Rosenblatt is probably the third most important stadium in 'Canes sporting history, behind the Old Girl and Mark Light. Miami won 4 national titles there. They also lost possibly the most heartbreaking College World Series in history there on Warren Fuckin' Morris' walk off home run. No, there will be no hyperlink to that moment, or as I like to call it, the moment a 9 year old Dan learned the world is a cruel, wicked place.

It is not just about baseball. The locals LOVE the kids that come to play there. They support the underdog. They appreciate the old guard. They serve up Zesto's and burgers. Little kids go to the CWS and learn why baseball is the greatest sport in the world. Adults go there and re-learn it. Rosenblatt represents all of that more than anything else.

Rosenblatt represents the seniors that lead their team to the CWS knowing that it is probably the last meaningful baseball they will ever play. It represents LSU having the biggest fan contingent there every year (unless Nebraska or Creighton qualifies once in a blue moon), even when there team isn't in it; they just want to be there. It represents Miami executing the Grand Illusion and knocking off powerhouse Wichita State with "The Happiest Team in the World". It represents college baseball graduating from cult sport to having its postseason covered on the front page of ESPN.com. It represents everything that is good about baseball...even Warren Fuckin' Morris.

And now it too is history.

While it definitely isn't the Orange Bowl, Rosenblatt still hurts to see go.

I would have liked to see a traditional field of Miami, Florida State (they made it, and upheld tradition by NOT winning it...c'mon, you knew I was getting an FSU joke in here), LSU, Stanford, Texas, Fullerton, USC and Louisiana Lafayette. Why ULaLa? Because there is always an underdog that no one saw coming...it's a tradition in and of itself.

While I didn't get my wish, this was still one of the greatest CWS in of all time. It was exciting and unpredictable. Rosenblatt had one more surprise left in store for us, matching up long time underachievers UCLA and South Carolina in the final series. Either would have been crowned, surprisingly, for the first time. And South Carolina won, fittingly, on an extra innings walk off single.

To be honest, I don't think it could have happened any better. The mob scene at home plate is everything that is great about Rosenblatt, and therefore everything that is great about baseball.

I found it poetic.

Rest well Rosenblatt, you will be missed.

And whatever ends up happening, Warren Morris can still Geaux to Hell.