Nothing He Does Is By Accident

The bus stopped. I opened my eyes expecting a hotel in Ames, Iowa. Instead, there was Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska.

My first thought was, “Did we make a wrong turn at Albuquerque?” (If you don’t get that reference sadly your childhood did not include Looney Tunes)

Everyone got off of the bus, stretching, yawning, and rubbing their eyes.

We walked into the empty stadium and looked around. We didn’t go down to the field. We just stood on the concourse.

Soon, those who had been there and more importantly had played there began to reminisce. Typical athletic memories, not necessarily about yourself but about your teammates, including home runs by Pete Incaviglia, and others.

It wasn’t a long visit and soon we all filed back out and got back on to the bus, continuing our journey to Ames.

This was my first year working with Oklahoma State baseball and even though we were going to play the last series of the regular season I was new, I was the stats guy, and Gary Ward still intimidated me.

OSU made the trip back a month later, the fifth of what would become an NCAA record seven consecutive appearances in the College World Series.

It wasn’t until years later that GW explained that our visit wasn’t by accident, because nothing he does is. He shared that by visiting Rosenblatt it made it real and thus a return to the College World Series became more understandable and attainable.

I was fortunate to return to Omaha with OSU four more times, each time with a different group of players who had achieved the goal together. That never got old.

Here is an article I wrote about a memorable first interaction with Coach Ward:

https://jackcarnefix.substack.com/p/carnefix-youre-killing-my-drill