Notes from Omaha & 2024 season

[backinky2018]

Omaha:

1. Great trip. Walkable town, lots of restaurants and bars. Not exactly "lively" like a New Orleans or Vegas, but fun in its own way. They embrace the event.
2. Historic, massive opening win was unfortunately the lone highlight. The last two games were real duds.
3. I think UK finished about where we deserve. UT and A&M clearly better. Florida is probably playing better at the moment. UK is right there with FSU, UNC in the next tier.
4. The game atmospheres sucked for the two games I attended, though that's probably b/c UK was a corpse in both games.
5. Very cool the way the games are scheduled (i.e separately) in that every fanbase had a bunch of fans here (except maybe UVA) and all get to see their team en masse while the other 6 teams' fans are out drinking and lounging around town. There are a TON of UT fans and a bunch of Aggie fans. But, I'd say UK and UNC are next in line with the amount of blue in town. Florida has some fans, but less than us.

Season Pros:

1. Fantastic, enjoyable, satisfying. SEC title. Super regional win. First home super. First CWS.
2. 8 sec series wins. The brutal loss to SC cost us the SEC title outright, but such is life on the road.
3. Pooser was an ace.
4. Ryan Nicholson became the kind of bomber that we hadn't had around here in a while.
5. Pitre and Lopez rock solid at the plate.
6. Excellent defense, especially our infield, but the outfield was also excellent (Mccarthy robbing the 3 run homer in Hoover, Waldy with the overhead grab of Pazzana in the super, etc).
7. Much more power this year than what we've become accustomed to, and that was fun. Much more variety.

Season cons:

1. Niman was mostly a disaster. He had a good win against Arkansas, and I think a near complete game against Bama if my memory is correct, but otherwise he just wasn't an SEC starting pitcher.
2. Mason Moore was pretty good, but I expected more out of him in year 2. Too many walks.
3. Devin Burkes at the plate, good god. McCoy at the plate. Good lord. Grant Smith at the plate. Mercy. Waldy decided to join the pity party at the worst possible time as he was 0-fer after the Illinois game.
4. Really really sucks that half of our lineup tanked in the supers and at Omaha. We got away with it in the supers, but it really caught up to us here.
5. We don't have many lefty pitchers, and we have very few pitchers that throw gas. Lots of off speed, which was mostly effective but we really seemed light in the pitching dept.

Overall:

Great season that delivered a real gift to what had been a suffering UK fanbase. I'm grouchy now (and will be grouchier if UT wins the natty), but any reasonable UK fan has to be happy with this season. We lose A LOT, and I'll rely on others (comeback, et al) to fill us in on what next year looks like; but, we lose a bunch of firepower and pitching from a CWS roster. SEC is about to get even tougher with Texas and OU, so I hope the staff is up to restocking this roster.

 

[rolaid]

Omaha:

1. Great trip. Walkable town, lots of restaurants and bars. Not exactly "lively" like a New Orleans or Vegas, but fun in its own way. They embrace the event.
2. Historic, massive opening win was unfortunately the lone highlight. The last two games were real duds.
3. I think UK finished about where we deserve. UT and A&M clearly better. Florida is probably playing better at the moment. UK is right there with FSU, UNC in the next tier.
4. The game atmospheres sucked for the two games I attended, though that's probably b/c UK was a corpse in both games.
5. Very cool the way the games are scheduled (i.e separately) in that every fanbase had a bunch of fans here (except maybe UVA) and all get to see their team en masse while the other 6 teams' fans are out drinking and lounging around town. There are a TON of UT fans and a bunch of Aggie fans. But, I'd say UK and UNC are next in line with the amount of blue in town. Florida has some fans, but less than us.

Season Pros:

1. Fantastic, enjoyable, satisfying. SEC title. Super regional win. First home super. First CWS.
2. 8 sec series wins. The brutal loss to SC cost us the SEC title outright, but such is life on the road.
3. Pooser was an ace.
4. Ryan Nicholson became the kind of bomber that we hadn't had around here in a while.
5. Pitre and Lopez rock solid at the plate.
6. Excellent defense, especially our infield, but the outfield was also excellent (Mccarthy robbing the 3 run homer in Hoover, Waldy with the overhead grab of Pazzana in the super, etc).
7. Much more power this year than what we've become accustomed to, and that was fun. Much more variety.

Season cons:

1. Niman was mostly a disaster. He had a good win against Arkansas, and I think a near complete game against Bama if my memory is correct, but otherwise he just wasn't an SEC starting pitcher.
2. Mason Moore was pretty good, but I expected more out of him in year 2. Too many walks.
3. Devin Burkes at the plate, good god. McCoy at the plate. Good lord. Grant Smith at the plate. Mercy. Waldy decided to join the pity party at the worst possible time as he was 0-fer after the Illinois game.
4. Really really sucks that half of our lineup tanked in the supers and at Omaha. We got away with it in the supers, but it really caught up to us here.
5. We don't have many lefty pitchers, and we have very few pitchers that throw gas. Lots of off speed, which was mostly effective but we really seemed light in the pitching dept.

Overall:

Great season that delivered a real gift to what had been a suffering UK fanbase. I'm grouchy now (and will be grouchier if UT wins the natty), but any reasonable UK fan has to be happy with this season. We lose A LOT, and I'll rely on others (comeback, et al) to fill us in on what next year looks like; but, we lose a bunch of firepower and pitching from a CWS roster. SEC is about to get even tougher with Texas and OU, so I hope the staff is up to restocking this roster.

Great write up & I agree unlike you I was fortunate to only go to the opener - I really liked Omaha - loved the Chow Wagon atmosphere after UK win Saturday
Glad I got to go - bucket list event

 

[backinky2018]

Yea, I wish I had been there for the opener and not the last two, but whatever. Never thought I'd get to go to Omaha to see the cats play, so this was a dream season.

 

[UkMccurdy]

Everything above was well stated.

I got out there on Friday night. Went to the game Saturday and it was just kind of surreal. You could tell Omaha felt new to UK fans. It was almost like we were visiting an alien planet. Everything was so new!

NC st Game was cruising until 7th and then it got very tense once they tied it with that 2 run bomb. Rest of the game felt like it hung on every pitch. The homer by Daley was wild, bc the air seemed to go out after Burkes got caught stealing. UK fans went from excited to bummed to thrilled all in 3 pitches. The post game atmosphere was great. Lots of our fans waited around and cheered the team coming off the field. That was the zenith of the trip.

Rest of the CWS was fine but Cats played very poorly from that point on. Defense wasn’t there. Pitching was a mess. Next to no hitting at all.

Only 6 teams win a game in Omaha. We were one of them. I was excited to go and enjoyed the entire time.

Hope Cats can keep building on this momentum and return soon. If they do, then I will return to make my do and don’t list for Omaha to help others.

Enjoyed the trip but learned some lessons too that will cost save in the future!

 

[backinky2018]

Everything above was well stated.

I got out there on Friday night. Went to the game Saturday and it was just kind of surreal. You could tell Omaha felt new to UK fans. It was almost like we were visiting an alien planet. Everything was so new!

NC st Game was cruising until 7th and then it got very tense once they tied it with that 2 run bomb. Rest of the game felt like it hung on every pitch. The homer by Daley was wild, bc the air seemed to go out after Burkes got caught stealing. UK fans went from excited to bummed to thrilled all in 3 pitches. The post game atmosphere was great. Lots of our fans waited around and cheered the team coming off the field. That was the zenith of the trip.

Rest of the CWS was fine but Cats played very poorly from that point on. Defense wasn’t there. Pitching was a mess. Next to no hitting at all.

Only 6 teams win a game in Omaha. We were one of them. I was excited to go and enjoyed the entire time.

Hope Cats can keep building on this momentum and return soon. If they do, then I will return to make my do and don’t list for Omaha to help others.

Enjoyed the trip but learned some lessons too that will cost save in the future!

Yes, I'm glad you got to see Game 1 (I didn't). So, the baseball I saw was terrible, but it was still cool to be there.

You mentioned cost. I was a bit surprised at how expensive the trip can be, as I imagined it to be a bit more of a throwback trip with Omaha being a small city in the heartland. Not so, as my plane ticket was over $1,000 and average (to poor) hotels were running well over $500 a night. Game ticket prices dipped in the middle rounds (i.e. the loser's bracket day). I've heard game prices and hotel rates for this weekend are insane with loads of Vol and Aggie fans flocking to the city. I don't mind it, but it would definitely be a deterrent for anyone on a tight budget.

 

[UkMccurdy]

Yes, I'm glad you got to see Game 1 (I didn't). So, the baseball I saw was terrible, but it was still cool to be there.

You mentioned cost. I was a bit surprised at how expensive the trip can be, as I imagined it to be a bit more of a throwback trip with Omaha being a small city in the heartland. Not so, as my plane ticket was over $1,000 and average (to poor) hotels were running well over $500 a night. Game ticket prices dipped in the middle rounds (i.e. the loser's bracket day). I've heard game prices and hotel rates for this weekend are insane with loads of Vol and Aggie fans flocking to the city. I don't mind it, but it would definitely be a deterrent for anyone on a tight budget.

It was expensive indeed.
We also drove to save money.

To save some money we stayed about 1hr 45 mins away in St Joseph, Missouri. It was about an 8hr drive from where I live outside Louisville. Wasn’t a bad drive except around St. Louis and KC bc of construction and traffic. We drove out there and stayed until Tuesday. We drove into the ballpark Saturday morning and back that evening when it was clear the weather wasn’t going to be good. Spent Sunday in KC (about 45 mins away from hotel) to see the WW1 museum. It was well worth it! We then drove back to Omaha Monday. The drive from our hotel to Omaha was nothing. Smooth with very little traffic. A couple places you could stop to fill up the tank or your belly.

Parking was easy for us. $20 for a lot 2 blocks away.

What I would have done MUCH differently is buying tickets ahead of time. I simply overspent. I bought our session for Saturday but bought both on Monday bc the forecast was for brutal heat. I also didn’t know if we’d win Saturday and play early Monday or win and get the night game. I bought tix under the over hang so we could be in the shade since I Had my 77 yr old step dad with me. He doesn’t do the heat well at all. I purchased these without ever having been to the park and judged it based on View from Seat pics and what not.

I would have saved a couple hundred had I just waited on the Monday tix. I sold the early session tix that day at a huge loss, and I kept the night game tickets. Furthermore, we ended up standing much of the time at the SRO areas on the 1st and 3rd base side that had the area to sit food/drink. It was right by concourse and in the shade and allowed us to move much more freely.

I’ll know better next time.

 

[vhcat70]

Yes, I'm glad you got to see Game 1 (I didn't). So, the baseball I saw was terrible, but it was still cool to be there.

You mentioned cost. I was a bit surprised at how expensive the trip can be, as I imagined it to be a bit more of a throwback trip with Omaha being a small city in the heartland. Not so, as my plane ticket was over $1,000 and average (to poor) hotels were running well over $500 a night. Game ticket prices dipped in the middle rounds (i.e. the loser's bracket day). I've heard game prices and hotel rates for this weekend are insane with loads of Vol and Aggie fans flocking to the city. I don't mind it, but it would definitely be a deterrent for anyone on a tight budget.

My five days was around $2K with staying out in Lincoln - 55 minutes away. Flights to there were $300 cheaper & hotels around $100 vs. those Omaha prices. Then there was the car & tickets & food. Omaha about halfway between LV & LEX in size.

 

[Tskware]

OP about nailed it, thought the event was great, Saturday was a blast, and Monday was fine, except for one inning. But best two teams made the finals. I left on Tuesday AM, so missed the Florida blowout.

I will definitely go back if we get back in, but two things: Will stay in Omaha, like VHcat70 (who I ran into at a bar before the A&M game), I stayed in Lincoln with relatives, and the driving back and forth sucked. More expensive, yes, but you can't take it with you.

Second, I will NEVER buy tickets from UK again for a bowl game or post season appearance like CWS. Nearly always get stuck up in BF Egypt, I had to buy on Ticketmaster for decent seats, and only was able to sell my A&M tickets I bought from UK.

 

[backinky2018]

OP about nailed it, thought the event was great, Saturday was a blast, and Monday was fine, except for one inning. But best two teams made the finals. I left on Tuesday AM, so missed the Florida blowout.

I will definitely go back if we get back in, but two things: Will stay in Omaha, like VHcat70 (who I ran into at a bar before the A&M game), I stayed in Lincoln with relatives, and the driving back and forth sucked. More expensive, yes, but you can't take it with you.

Second, I will NEVER buy tickets from UK again for a bowl game or post season appearance like CWS. Nearly always get stuck up in BF Egypt, I had to buy on Ticketmaster for decent seats, and only was able to sell my A&M tickets I bought from UK.

Great point on the buying tickets from UK. Some family members did that, and they were in the uppers in left field. I paid a tad more for my tickets, but was right behind home plate for the A&M game and right behind our dugout for the UF game.

 

[KYExtemper]

Hopefully we can build on this season and have more success going forward. I'm thrilled we got to Omaha.

 

[vhcat70]

I think TN wins tonight, but can't pull for the orange sux. So A&M it is for me.

 

[backinky2018]

Brutal watching UT win the CWS. I'm so tired of the SEC, I would have much preferred to see FSU or even UNC win the title than stupid UT.

 

[K86]

Brutal watching UT win the CWS. I'm so tired of the SEC, I would have much preferred to see FSU or even UNC win the title than stupid UT.

One thing we will never know is would there have been a difference if UT had gone to the losers bracket after game one (like they should have).

 

[mrschwump]

One thing we will never know is would there have been a difference if UT had gone to the losers bracket after game one (like they should have).

Yeah, blue kept them in it. And TN fans are being typical. Can't tell you who the TN Cather, SS, CF is but can tell you who the 4th team Punter is. Now they're suddenly college baseball experts.

Question now is....is Tony the Pony headed to Texas?

 

[backinky2018]

One thing we will never know is would there have been a difference if UT had gone to the losers bracket after game one (like they should have).

Agreed. IMO, that won them the tournament. I knew it in my gut the moment it happened, but was hoping that I was wrong. I wasn't.