Bob Snyder made one last stop in Omaha before his long drive home to St. Louis.
He'd come to Omaha with his younger son, Nolan, for a youth baseball tournament. Father and son also took in a College World Series game Saturday. Last year, he brought both sons, Nolan and Ryan.
(Catch the names? They're into baseball, the Snyders.)
On Sunday, Ryan told his dad not to leave town without a T-shirt commemorating the last season at Rosenblatt Stadium.
So Snyder stopped along 13th Street, dodging the traffic and the rain — the incessant, game-delaying rain — and ducked into a tent to buy a “Last Bat at Rosenblatt” T-shirt.
Indeed, the College World Series long has been a merchandising mecca for baseball memorabilia, with 13th Street at its heart.
But with the series celebrating its last hurrah at Rosenblatt, a whole new slew of collectibles is on deck.
The bases — er, make that the tents, storefronts and websites — are loaded with merchandise bearing the Rosenblatt name.
Rosenblatt T-shirts, hats and baseball bats. Rosenblatt baseball necklaces and charms. Art that spells out the stadium name. Even plaques and key chains that preserve a bit of the beloved stadium's soil.
And when fans shell out for a blast from the 'Blatt, the City of Omaha will get a cut, thanks to a deal worked out earlier this year that gave the city the Rosenblatt Stadium trademark.
“This year, it has to say Rosenblatt on it,” said Noel Cahoon of Pro Image, which has tents on prime real estate across 13th Street from the stadium and a store at Westroads Mall.
He broke it down. Fans are split about 50-50 between Omahans and folks from out of town who are following their teams. Team fans still are buying school apparel — South Carolina, Arizona State, Oklahoma. (All things TCU are particularly hot, according to another vendor.)
But for Omahans and those buying CWS event T-shirts, he said, “Then it needs to have Rosenblatt on it.”
Darryl Yochem got a little of each: a South Carolina T-shirt for his daughter, a freshman at the university, and a “1 Last Trip to the Blatt” shirt for himself.
“I wanted to get something that had the stadium on it,” Yochem said.
The Raleigh, N.C., businessman has come to the series for five years in a row. He meets friends from Fort Calhoun and Texas. They know each other through the banking industry.
Yochem almost didn't make the trip this year. “I decided at the last minute to make it because it was the last one out here,” he said.
Mickey Beyl, too, bought the usual T-shirts, including one for his wife back home in Canada, near Toronto. But the avid coin collector also bought a bronze coin embedded with a bit of dirt from the Rosenblatt playing field.
“I thought the dirt was pretty cool,” said Beyl, a native of Louisiana who has been coming to the series since 1994 with his dad and other LSU fans.
The dirt reminds him of all the years he watched groundskeeper Jesse Cuevas tend the field.
The coin is among the Rosenblatt memorabilia the Omaha Royals are selling in a tent outside the stadium gate and on their website.
The Royals are the official suppliers, under an agreement with the city, of stadium dirt. The ball club has come up with five ways to sell it: two plaques, the coin, a key chain — and an 8-ounce jar of the sacred soil, which goes for $25.
Jason Kinney, the Royals' director of merchandise, said the dirt comes from excess skimmed off the field each night during the 2010 season. He's even spotted sunflower seeds in the soil.
The Royals also are selling hand-numbered, limited-edition models of the stadium, as well as photographs and Rosenblatt patches, koozies and seat cushions.
The biggest seller Sunday appeared to be the blue rain ponchos. But business has been brisk in general, Kinney said. The ball club had nearly sold out of the limited edition version of the dirt plaque.
“Anything that says Rosenblatt on it, it's going to sell,” he said.
Kathryn Morrissey, executive vice president of College World Series of Omaha Inc., said such souvenirs give fans a way to legitimately take something away from the stadium.
(Officials have warned fans against taking unauthorized souvenirs. The “grand ol' dame,” Morrissey said, will continue to host the Royals and the Omaha Nighthawks football team this year after the series ends.)
Such down-to-earth items are by no means the only options available to stadium souvenir-seekers.
Matt Powell added pieces with the Rosenblatt name to the line of custom baseball-themed jewelry that his Old Market store, Perspective Jewelry Design, has been selling to players' moms, coaches' wives and others for the past three years.
He's noticed a pattern similar to that described by Pro Image's Cahoon. Sales of his baseball-themed items have been strong, and mostly to out-of-towners. But he hasn't sold as many Rosenblatt items — a baseball necklace and a bracelet charm.
Still, he wanted to offer the option. He entered a licensing agreement with the city to use the Rosenblatt name.
“If anybody deserves the money, it's the city,” Powell said.
Even as fans grab up souvenirs, they wonder whether the city can top its diamond on the hill.
Snyder just doesn't know whether the new stadium downtown will have the same feel as Rosenblatt.
“This is a great place for families and fathers and sons,” he said.
Beyl, too, wonders what it will be like downtown. He hopes the parking will be better. But he figures that if the fans are there, it'll be OK.
“As long as the people still come ... .”
Contact the writer:
444-1223, julie.anderson@owh.com
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