Brian O'Connor and the Virginia baseball team were preparing to take the field for their pre-College World Series practice on the Rosenblatt Stadium grass Friday when, uh oh, the clouds opened and the rains fell.
At 11:41 a.m., the tarp came out.
Bad break for O'Connor, who responded with something a little unusual. More on that in a moment.
Tonight at 6, the 38-year-old from Council Bluffs leads underdog Virginia in its first-ever College World Series game. Against his mentor and best friend, LSU coach Paul Mainieri. On the same field he studied the game growing up. On the same ground he pitched in one of the all-time CWS classics.
“It's hard to make this up,” O'Connor said.
Thousands of people count Johnny's ballpark on the hill as a summer home away from home. Coaches young and old bring their players here and almost weep walking down the cramped concourses.
“Never get tired of it,” said North Carolina coach Mike Fox, whose Tar Heels have qualified for Omaha four straight years.
But Brian O'Connor? Shoot, his love affair with Rosenblatt runs deeper than the dirty river he crossed as a kid to get here.
More than 30 years ago, John O'Connor began a tradition of driving his three sons to Rosenblatt from their acreage east of Council Bluffs. Every year.
In those days, the lights of the CWS didn't shine so bright. In those days, hard-hit balls clanged off the business ads decorating the outfield walls.
Brian kept the programs from those games. He's still got a stack at Mom and Dad's house. Arizona State and Texas, he remembers watching.
He went on to St. Albert High School and Creighton and played a key role in the Jays' improbable run to the CWS in 1991. He actually got the loss pitching a winners bracket game against Wichita State.
The 3-2, 12-inning thriller bounced the Shockers' way when a high chopper bounded over O'Connor's head for an infield hit.
He moved on to coaching and assisted Notre Dame in 2002 when the Irish came to Omaha. In 2003, he took the head coaching job at Virginia.
But each year, Brian, his dad and two brothers (one lives in Charlotte, the other in Kansas City) make plans to meet in Omaha in June to watch baseball. They tailgate with old high school buddies. They sweat in the seats.
A friend of O'Connor's told him before this season he had to get a team to Rosenblatt and he had to do it before the stadium got torn down. O'Connor obliged — with one year to spare.
The past three weeks have twisted nerves. Last weekend, during Virginia's CWS-clinching win at Mississippi, Brian's brother, John, was traveling back to Kansas City from Chicago on a train.
He sat on the observation deck watching the Iowa cornfields and rivers go by, receiving text-message reports from Oxford every few seconds. Fly ball! Hit. Strikeout!
“I was just on pins and needles the whole time,” John said.
So were the Cav fans watching the super regional game at Barley's bar in Council Bluffs.
Ken Schreiber, O'Connor's baseball coach at St. Albert, went to that bar last Sunday to attend a graduation party. He ended up in front of the TV, hollering when Virginia recorded the last out.
The tension grows tonight and with it the O'Connor cheering section.
“I have a sneaking suspicion that stadium on Saturday night, about 75 percent of that crowd will be pulling for the Virginia Cavaliers,” O'Connor said.
Maybe that's why O'Connor never sought shelter Friday.
Not when the tarp came out at 11:41 a.m., not when the players cleared the turf and not when the downpour really started.
For 45 minutes, he bounced from one puddle to the next, laughing with Mainieri behind home plate, signing autographs for soggy kids in the front row, shaking hands with old friends who'd come to wish him good luck.
Yes, the raindrops fell harder and harder, but O'Connor never took cover.
It's as if he felt the sun shining on him.
Contact the writer:
679-9899, dirk.chatelain@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
