June 21, 2007

One too many Cinderellas in Nebraska

FRANK MICKADEIT
Register columnist

The record will show that UC Irvine's Cinderella season ended at 9:07 p.m. Central Daylight Time last night. But it should also show that at 9:57 p.m., a silver bus stopped dead in front of the Eater Nation house across the street from Rosenblatt Stadium.

As traffic backed up, the hundred or so of us standing in the front yard could see that inside the bus a group of shadowy human forms rose out of their seats nearly as one. The bus door opened and out walked California's best baseball team. They came slowly across the street, tentatively, like those ghost players coming out of the cornfield in "Field of Dreams."

The Eater Nation erupted. I'm sure some people damn near cried. The players swung their legs over the low split-rail fence and hugged moms, dads, girlfriends, alumni. I saw Matt Gorgen– the UC Berkeley pitcher who blew off his prestigious summer-league assignment to watch his twin brother, Scott, pitch here for the Anteaters – look for Scott in the crowd. The brothers finally found each other and the one in the Cal cap high-fived the one in the UCI cap.

Taylor Holiday, he of the Jeff Spicoli locks, graciously took compliments from Nebraskans who sought him out. His haircut appointment at an Omaha salon for the day after the CWS ends has been well covered by media. "So when are you going to cut it?" I asked. "In about five minutes, if I could," he said, laughing. But he's leaving town immediately. "Can I have your appointment?" I asked. "Take it!" he said. That was nice of him.

So the real sportswriters will tell the hardcore fans in depth how big a deal this UCI season was. For normal folks like you, I'll just sum it up the way a local columnist did for me. In postseason play, UCI beat Texas, Wichita State, Fullerton and Arizona State, all former national champions. "I don't think there's ever been a run like that," said Tom Shatel of the Omaha World-Herald, for whom, incidentally, I used my connections to procure one of the coveted Fear the Snout shirts. Keep your friends close, your competitors closer.

Did you like how all of a sudden everybody was a citizen of the Eater Nation? George Bush (our president) was on T.V. saying "Go Anteaters!" (Although it was in reference to the men's volleyball champs, a minor technicality when you work in T.V.) Then Don Bren (who needs no introduction) donned a UCI cap at the opening of about the 23rd thing on campus named after him and said, "Go Eaters!" Maybe it's best we ended this little run now, before the world faced the danger of turning on the T.V. and seeing Oprah or Rosie O'Donnell in an 'Eater tee.

I'm guessing the readership overlap between my column and Gary Robbins' science blog ( www.ocregister.com/sciencedude/) is fairly small, so I'll relate to you that Gary took some time away from his usual hijinks like Stump the Bacteriologist to make some comparisons between Oregon State and UCI. Like: UCI discovered that chemicals were destroying the ozone layer (winning a Nobel), while OSU's contribution to science is the creation of the modern maraschino cherry. Our CEO, Chris Anderson, is an OSU alum. I've always wanted Gary's desk by the window.

UCI alum Mike Fay told me that on Monday night, after UCI beat Fullerton to send the Titans home, the Titan players had to walk by the Eater Nation house. As they did, heads no doubt hanging a bit, Eater fans stood and gave each a standing O. A little later, Fullerton alumni director Carlos Leija came over to the Eaters to give them all the food, beer and soft drinks they wouldn't be needing. "Classy," Fay said.

And now how classy would it be for the Eater Nation to turn all of its surplus beer to the one O.C. guy not getting on a plane?

Yes, the Eater Nation flies home today but I won't be with it. I've still got an Omaha mayor to track down and harass and I've got plans to head down to Lincoln to figure out whether USC has anything to worry about when it visits this fall for the first time since 1969. Then I met an old boy who says he's going give me some good dope on Warren Buffett.

And did you think I could come all this way without finding an interesting lawyer? I've got a real-life Atticus Finch, who has a daughter named Harper Lee and practices criminal law while trying to maintain one of the all-time great collections of sports memorabilia – and faces having his "museum" torn down by, yep, the mayor. There's still a snout to fear in Omaha.