No love for Texas: Most local fans looking to adopt a team won't pick the Texas Longhorns or Texas A&M, said several local media members.
Nebraska fans haven't liked Texas since the BIg 12 was formed. Many say Nebraska bolted for the Big Ten because of the Longhorns. Some Cornhuskers won't root for the Aggies because of director of athletics Bill Byrne who came from Nebraska. A&M grabbed a 9-6 victory over Nebraska in football last year in a game that upset many Huskers because A&M had two penalties for 10 yards and Nebraska had 16 for 145.
*
A higher GPA: South Carolina pitcher Michael Roth earned the NCAA Division I Men's Baseball Championship Elite 88 award recognizing the sport's top student-athlete. Roth, an All-Southeastern Conference first-teamer, has a 3.823 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale in international business.
The left-hander, who is expected to start against A&M on Sunday, is 13-3 with a 1.02 earned run average.
*
Texas fastball: Former President George W. Bush tossed the ceremonial first pitch before the Vanderbilt and North Carolina game. The 43rd president stood at the base of the mound and put some zip on his toss before quickly exiting the field.
"It was a fastball, but a really slow fastball," Bush said.
Tanner Lubach, an all-state catcher from Southwest High School in Lincoln, made the catch.
Bush also threw out the first pitch before the 2001 CWS, when he tossed a strike to Stanford's Ryan Garko before the Cardinal played Tulane.
*
Name that tune: The new stadium features a new organist, Jerry Pawlak.
Pawlak, of Lincoln, replaces Lambert Bartak, who retired after six decades of playing at Rosenblatt Stadium.
Pawlak won out over four others who auditioned for the CWS job. His resume includes a gig as a substitute organist for the Chicago White Sox.
*
A few kinks: TD Ameritrade Park Omaha, the 24,000-seat, $131-million facility that is hosting the CWS for the first time got great reviews, but there were a few hiccups. The elevators shut down for a few minutes during the North Carolina-Vanderbilt game and the media was without wireless for about an hour.
-- staff and wire reports
Notice about comments:
Theeagle.com is pleased to offer readers the ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. theeagle.com cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not theeagle.com. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "report abuse" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our website. Full terms and conditions can be read here.
Aggiesports.com is proud to offer our users enhanced commenting features. You can now build user-to-user connections, follow friends’ recent posts, add an avatar that fits your personality and more. If you have posted here before you’ll need to sign up again, and if you’ve never posted start now by signing up! If you've already registered for the new comments on www.theeagle.com then just use your Eagle username to log in and start commenting.
