Shatel: Cuevas unsure about breaking new College World Series ground

The “Greatest Show on Dirt'' comes to town this week. That means Jesse Cuevas is getting ready to apply make-up to the star of the show, Rosenblatt Stadium.

Cuevas, the superintendent of Rosenblatt Stadium since 1987, is in charge of green grass, blue skies and making the College World Series look like heaven on earth.

But for how much longer?

Cuevas recently told his longtime friend, NCAA championships chief Dennis Poppe, that he would not follow the CWS to the downtown stadium in two years.

Poppe immediately told Cuevas to think about it some more, while he tried to make it worth Cuevas' while to move downtown.

Cuevas makes no promises. He has sentimental ties to Rosenblatt and the area; he grew up in the neighborhood and has worked at the ballpark since 1970.

But more than that, Cuevas has done things his own way and isn't sure he wants to work for MECA, which will run the downtown stadium. Also, without a guaranteed tenant other than the CWS, Cuevas wonders what he would do.

“I don't know where I would fit in,'' Cuevas said before Monday's Omaha Royals game at Rosenblatt. “I think I'm arguably one of the top 10 people in this business, and you're going to have me do it for two weeks a year? I don't know.''

Cuevas has other opportunities. Royals President Alan Stein has talked to him about following the Royals to Sarpy County. Cuevas said he also has heard from Notre Dame and two Big Ten schools about coming to manicure their football stadium grass.

“Football is the next frontier for me,'' Cuevas said. “I've always wanted to try that.''

Cuevas is a little torn about leaving Omaha, though. He remembers seeing his mentor, the late Frank Mancuso, repeatedly turn down lucrative offers to run the Astrodome in Houston and Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta.

“I honestly don't know what I'll do yet,'' Cuevas said. “Forty years is a lot for king and country. If the first line of my obituary is I was the last superintendent of Rosenblatt Stadium, I could go into eternity a happy man.''

When the NCAA moves into Rosenblatt Stadium later today, the Omaha Royals will lose half of their offices to the NCAA and can't access those offices during the CWS. That means the Royals can't get to the money in their vault — which is located in the office that will be used by the NCAA's Poppe. Meanwhile, they lose their ticket office and have only one ticket window — up front — for those Royals fans who can get through CWS traffic and security.

And you wonder why the Royals want their own digs in Sarpy County.

Mike Anderson already was having a tough offseason. And then Dave Van Horn made the CWS again.

All is quiet on the UNO hockey coaching front. A little too quiet. If it were Mike Hastings or David Quinn, wouldn't they be dressed in red and black by now? Makes you wonder if Trev Alberts is trying to raise money for a big name, like two-time North Dakota national champ Dean Blais.

As he was cutting his broadcasting teeth doing UNO football and basketball games several years ago, Kevin Kugler was fortunate enough to find himself with Joe Patrick as a radio and travel partner.

Patrick, an Omaha sportscasting legend, died last week in Branson, Mo.

“We spent many hours together, driving from North Dakota and South Dakota,'' said Kugler, the local sport-talk show host and national voice of Westwood One. “He would tell so many great stories, about Husker football and Bob Devaney, many of which you can't tell in public.

“One of my favorite things about Joe was how he considered himself an expert on fast-food places and where the best burger was. He always said the best burger was at Hardee's, and he had a formula, with all the ingredients of all the places, to prove it.''

Contact the writer:

444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com