Cav Rising

When the Virginia Cavaliers beat Ole Miss in a best-of-three series in the Oxford Super-regional last weekend, it marked the first College World Series appearance for the Cavs. But not for UVA Coach Brian O’Connor, who grew up near Omaha and pitched in the CWS for Creighton. Ironically, his first round opponent is LSU, which is coached by Paul Mainieri. Mainieri and O’Connor coached together at Notre Dame several years ago with Mainieri serving as O’Connor’s mentor. Now the two will face each other at Rosenblatt Stadium this weekend in college baseball's biggest showcase. But Virginia’s emergence on the national college baseball scene shouldn’t be a surprise. After making just 3 appearances in the first 49 NCAA tournaments, Washington National Ryan Zimmerman and Arizona Diamondback Mark Reynolds led the Cavs into their successive tournament appearances which now number six, culminating in this trip to Omaha. So now, the student must see if he can defeat the teacher and advance into the winner's bracket. It's a great week in Omaha, one that every college baseball fan should visit someday.

Do You Wieters?

I received tickets to a Baltimore Orioles game for my birthday from my family. As a former season ticket holder who hasn't been back to Orioles Park at Camden Yards since the advent of the Washington Nationals, which is closer to my home and which I know own a mini-plan. But I'd forgotten how much I love Camden Yards and how much I like seeing American League teams such as the Red Sox, the Angels, and the White Sox. We saw a great game, a 6-3 victory by the Detroit Tigers. We saw good pitching, timely hitting, and an atmosphere that reminded me how great an atmposhere someone can experience at Camden Yards. But the thing that really surprised me was a story someone told me in the Orioles Team Store. We saw the second major league game of Matt Wieters, the new O's catcher out of Georgia Tech. He was called up from the Norfolk Tides and started the night before. I saw probably 10 to 15 people wearing tee-shirts with Wieters name and number on the back. My son and I went into the store in the fifth inning and I saw racks of Wieters tee-shirts. I casually mentioned how surprised I was to a clerk, who told me the organization had the shirts ready before he arrived. "We couldn't put them out until yesterday was an official game", she said. "We had to wait for the sixth inning, but when we did put them out, there was a line waiting for them." I thought that was pretty interesting and asked my son if he wanted a Wieters tee-shirt. "No," he said, "I want this one," as he held a Nick Markakis tee-shirt. One less Wieters sale for now, but I if he hits like he did Saturday night (a double and a triple), I bet my son buys a #15 Wieters shirt the next time we go to Camden Yards.