The CWS field is set. Here's everything you need to know.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It goes without saying, but whenwe're talking about the city of Omaha,
there is one premiere event that Ithink people from all over the country who
follow any sort of news or sportsat all are going to say, yes,
that is synonymous with Omaha, andthat is the College World Series.
And joining us to talk about thisyear's edition, which we now know all
of the teams and we know whatwe can potentially expect. We're joined by

(00:22):
executive director of CWS Omaha. Theyput together this College World Series every single
year make it the event that itis, and her name is Amy Hornocker.
Amy, thanks so much for beinga part of our show once again
today. Hey, thanks for havingme so here we are. I'm sure
your life is a little bit crazythis time of the year, So before
we talk too much about the preparationsof what your team has done to try

(00:45):
to get things ready for these eightteams coming in, you guys rooting for
certain teams here because I know thatit's fun to have underdogs, But you
got eight real big schools with greatfan bases that all made it this year.
Yeah, you know, but theseare you know, some of them
haven't been here for a while,and some of them haven't. Kentucky hasn't

(01:06):
been here ever, so we haven't. We haven't seen our usual LSU or
Mississippi schools, but we do havesome high power programs here and then you
know some people that are are alittle bit new. Yeah, and that's
for sure. It was fun towatch. You know. I moved here
right at the end of the CollegeWorld Series last year. But now that
I was here in living here,and I knew I was going to be

(01:29):
able to go down and enjoy thefestivities and watch some of the games.
I was really interested in the regionalsand the super Regionals. How closely are
you guys watching that and kind ofmapping out exactly how things go based on
the schools that get here, ordo you guys just have a plan and
it's just like school ages here,school b goes here. You don't really
care who it is. I meana little bit, we do. I

(01:49):
mean we have a plan of likehow people are plugged in, but we
obviously pay attention. There are alot of really good super Regional games that
went to lot of innings, andit took us a little while to figure
out if it was going to beGeorgia or NC State, But yeah,
we pay attention and it's exciting towatch them come across the bracket. We're

(02:12):
speaking with Amy Hornocker. She isthe executive director of College World Series of
Omaha Incorporated. They're the people thathelped put this thing together for us every
single year. Anybody who's not beendown there during these games, they're going
to probably be blown away if theygo for the first time, like I
was last year. It's just like, wow, look at this, Like
the whole block is just full oftents and parties and people just enjoying themselves

(02:36):
having fun. You can go shopping, there's merched from all of the schools
that are here, There's merch fromCollege World Series of years past. It
was just a great time. Howmuch of that do you guys think about
and how much of that rolls overon a year to year basis. Yeah,
so a lot of people don't know. We do have a full time
staff that works on this year roundthat's here in Omaha, and we work
alongside the NCAA, but also arecity partners in Mecca. So we're we're

(03:02):
doing like all different pieces of thisthroughout the event so or throughout the year.
So one thing that you'll see.I have to point out that it's
going to be new down here,and it's going to be big and new
is in the in the fan Festthat's presented by Capital One, there is
a ferris wheel, and we're watchingthat kind of get put together right now.

(03:27):
It's almost fully built, so that'sgonna be a big impact. That's
going to be within our fan Festfull print, and it's going to be
free. So everything in fan Festis free. So even if you don't
have a ticket to the game andyou want to come down here, we
definitely invite you to do so.That is incredible. A ferris wheel.
Okay, that's pretty sure. Yeah, can you uh? I mean,

(03:50):
I'm sure. I'll just have tocheck it out myself. But do you
think you'll be able to see likeinto the stadium from the top, Like
how high is this thing going togo? It's actually a lot bigger than
I thought it was going to be. But I I don't have the answer
to that. I haven't been onit yet myself, because I think it's
still I haven't peaked out there ina while, but they're still putting it
together. Okay, yeah, badtime to jump on probably right now.
Yeah, yeah, so the gamestart on Friday. What does the schedule

(04:15):
kind of look like for you guys, because obviously the first weekends crazy because
you have all eight schools here,all eight fan bases are here, The
City of Omahai thing comes out anddroves because of how fun the atmosphere is
throughout the entirety of downtown. Butfor you guys, what kind of happens
from now before Friday afternoon when thefirst game starts. Yeah, so we
actually have one team that is sneakinginto town later today and then the rest

(04:40):
of them will be here tomorrow throughoutthe day, and then Thursday they have
a full day, which that's anotherevent that is free and open to the
public. Starting at about nine ten. North Carolina will be the first team
in the house for the open practiceday, so you can get in the
state and watch the team's practice throughoutthe day. And then we do have

(05:05):
a closed event with the teams tomorrownight, and then of course, yeah,
the games start at one pm onFriday, and that will be Virginia
and North Carolina. We're talking toAmy Hornocker, who is with College World
Series of Omaha. They are thegroup that puts together the CWS for Omaha.
I know that this is probably anoutdated question, but for somebody that's

(05:29):
still I call myself a newbie tothis whole shebang. You know what as
the impact of this stadium being downtown, being so easily accessible, right next
to so many other things that arehappening, versus where it used to exist
out there in Rosenblatt. Yeah,I think you know, the vision to
put it down here was, youknow, obviously it's proximity to the airport

(05:55):
and to our aren and convention center, but also to help develop the North
downtown, and we're seeing that it'sever changing. So we have a lot
of stuff going on over in NoWork Commons and that's kind of popped over
over the last couple of years inaddition to the things that are around here
with you know, the Baseball Villageon the Slowdown and those guys. So

(06:16):
the footprint of this party continues togrow. So it's just been it's really
been fun to watch over the years. Well, it's super fun to take
part in, especially if you've neverdone that before, like me last year.
Now for people who might be thinkingabout going this year, you talked
about the Ferris Wheel, which isgoing to be new to everybody. But
what are some of the other highlightseven if people don't have tickets to the

(06:39):
game that they can enjoy within thisballpark village is I tried to explain it,
but there's so much that is goingon all the time for people to
enjoy. Yeah, we definitely likeour official FanFest that is part of our
partner Capital One, So there's definitelya bunch of different interactives in there besides
the Ferris with and there will besome free sampling and free gifts throughout and

(07:03):
then yeah, all the other otherseparate entities around here that are welcoming our
fans that just played to this atmosphere. I will I'll just point all the
listeners for all the information. NCAdot Com forward slash m c w s
will have all the schedules, allthe you know, we have a bunch

(07:25):
of theme days that will go onthroughout the week, including Kids Run the
Bases which is Monday night, sokids twelve and under can get a chance
to run the bases after the game. And then we also have a couple
other heroes in the Heartland and ateacher appreciation night. So just doing a
few things within the park to recognizesome local people, and then always there's

(07:48):
stuff going on everywhere out here.Yeah, and like you you talked about
the footprint. I the one thingI've noticed when I first got here is
like, I like these electric scootersthat you can around downtown, but I
recognized during College World Series you can'tget really very close with those because they
can put geo fencing up. Isuppose to, you know, like stop

(08:09):
those And then I recognize, Oh, it's because for like a block and
a half in every direction, there'sjust a party going on all the time,
and there's just a ton of foottraffic for for you know, last
thing here for you, Amy,you sit here and you talk about all
year long and you do everything inculmination for the you know, week and

(08:31):
a half that the College World Seriesis going on with Omaha, the mecca
of the sports world in America,while this is going on for you and
part of the pun on the meccathing for you guys out there, do
you get to enjoy any of thebenefits of what you guys you know plan
or is this really just chaotic andcrazy until the last game is over?

(08:52):
You know what? Once I liketo say. And I can't speak for
everyone because we have a ton ofpartners between you know, the stadium and
you know our public safety partners likeOmaha Police and Fire, so I can't
see for everyone about how much theyget to enjoy this. But once we
get rolling a lot of times,like once we get to Monday, we

(09:13):
get to spend a little bit moretime enjoying exactly all the work that we
put in here. So well,I hope you do, because it's an
amazing event and you guys do suchgreat work with it as a college World
series of Omaha Incorporated. Executive DirectorAmy Horknocker, Amy, thank you so
much for this. Hopefully I geta chance to see you when I'm bopping
around out there. Yep, anddefinitely, And on top of that,

(09:35):
thank you to Can you send ourthanks to the entire team over there for
everything that you guys do because thisis just such a great event. We're
so happy that Omaha has this everysingle year. All right, thank you.
I'll pass it along, all right. Thanks Amy, have a great
resk of great YouTube. Bye.You know what important people movers and shakers.
They make things happen, and Idon't think there's an important mover and

(09:56):
shaker in terms of an event inthis higher city and dare I say the
entire Midwest that is an annual eventthat does things quite like the College World
Series. Big big thanks to Amyfor that three seventeen. I can't wait.
I'm super excited. We'll talk alittle bit about what the bracket looks
like and the teams and potential rivalrieswe might see as the tournament wears on,

(10:20):
and maybe make some friendly wagers asto who might come out of this
thing with the big old trophy.We'll do that next on news radio eleven
to ten kfab. You looked atthis old bracket here that starts on Friday
in June and fourteenth at Charles schwabField, Omaha. Well, you were
talking about it yesterday. I haven'tput eyes on it yet, but I'm
pretty familiar with the teams. However, I'm one of those casual fans who

(10:43):
doesn't really pay attention during the regularseason, so yeah, I mean neither.
I did start watching religiously when itcame to the regionals in Super Regional
just because of the curiosity as towho was actually going to make it to
Omaha. Yeah, and first gameone pm, number four North Carolina taking
on number twelve Virginia. The secondgame on Friday is number one Tennessee against

(11:07):
number eight Florida State. Then Saturday, the other four teams play number two
Kentucky. They're made in voyage,Jelma, can you believe that Kentucky's never
been here before? Kind of surprisedby that a little bit. Kentucky taking
on number ten in C State,who beat Georgia in Georgia last night to
get the last spot in Omaha.And that's a one o'clock start time on
Saturday. And then on Saturday nightsix pm. Number three seed Texas A

(11:33):
and M without their star center fielderwho broke his ankle in the Super Regional
first game this past week and sohe's out, which is a bomber as
a top five player. But they'retaking on the Florida Gators, who have
somehow snuck into the College World Seriesdespite having like a five hundred record before
they got into the regional, oneof the last at large bids that made

(11:56):
it into the NCAA tournament. Andthey're the only unseated team, which means
they're the only team that was outsidethe top sixteen that made it here.
Very sneaky, the sneaky Gators.Man, So what do you say?
What do we what are we gonnaput on the line here? Let's we'll
draft. We'll draft four teams eachand whichever one of us has a team

(12:18):
win, the other guy has todo what for the other guy? Oh?
Man? Like, we got tothink up four different things. No,
just one thing, just one thingfor the four There will be four
teams that we're both cheering on essentiallythroughout, and one of us gets first
pick and the other guy gets thesecond and third pick, and then we
alternate. That makes sense? Yeah, all right, So I'm gonna flip

(12:39):
my wallet for first pick. Wallettop wallet? Is you? Bottom of
wallet? Is me? Ready?Okay, it's top of wallet? You
get first pick? Or do youwant the second and third pick? You
know, if that wouldn't have gonemy way, I was gonna say it
was rigged. Of course you wouldhave. Everybody who loses says it's rigged.
Now learn that trick. Yeah,So, uh, do you want

(13:01):
the first pick of the second andthird pick? Do I want the first
pick or the second and third pick? Yeah, I'll take the second and
third pick. Okay, So I'mgonna go ahead and start with the number
one seed Tennessee. Their their lineupis insane, and I know it's boring,
but I'm gonna take them number one. Okay, all right, who
do you got? I'm keeping trackof this. Don't don't you worry.
I need the Okay, So youhave two you have two two picks.

(13:22):
You have two teams? Yeah?Which ones? I need the teams in
front of me. I need towhat are you doing over there? I
was I was editing some audio whileyou were talking. Oh, it was
multitask. He's listening to three thingsat once, expecting to have a legitimate
conversation on a radio station that reachesthe middle of Nebraska. Yes, come
on, son, I will takeI'll take what Just give me the teams

(13:45):
again. I'll take North Carolina,the North Carolina, not North Carolina State.
Yeah, okay, you and Ccool. I'll take UNC and Florida
State. Florida State. That's agood one, yeah, Florida State.
Little ACC love there, Bob littlea c see going back to back ACC
schools. Yeah, all right,Well, I'm going to cheer for a

(14:05):
guy that has local connections and that'sthe head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers,
coach McMullen. He is from Omaha, went to Creighton and has been an
incredibly successful coach. I have areason to cheer for them. Go Virginia
Go. Who's that's my next pick? All right? Your turn? Four
down? Fourida go? Okay,what are the four left? It is

(14:26):
in C State, Kentucky, Floridaand Texas A and M. NC State
Kentucky in Florida, in Texa,A and M, in Texas A and
M. I will take Texas Aand M, A and M. He's
got the A and M even withouttheir best player, a lineup full of
potential professional prospects, third ranked teamin the country. I am going to
follow that up and I am goingto take the plucky n C State Wildcats.

(14:48):
They were fun to watch last night. I am really excited to see
what they do. Hopefully they winand make a deep run. Those guys.
You know why I have a softspot for NC State. They made
it in twenty twenty one and caughtCOVID mid tournament and were forfeited out of
it. Didn't even get a chanceto lose. We're gonna look back on
that time, p him and justbe like, what the heck were we

(15:09):
doing? Well, there was aworldwide pandemic. This was a year after
that. Oh, this was twentytwenty one. This was the NC Double
A just having incredibly strict rules andif you got COVID and the other team
didn't, you forfeit out of thetournament. And that's what happened in NC
State in twenty twenty one, thelast time they made it. So I'm
hoping, you know, there's stillsome guys that are on this team that
were on that team. Not aton of them, but the coach is

(15:30):
the same, and you know,you're just kind of like, come on,
now, come on, I'd loveto see them kind of redeem themselves.
Anyway, Uh, Kentucky or Florida. Last pick. I'm going to
take Florida. I mean, wegot to know them pretty well over the
regional and that means I get firsttime made in voyage Kentucky Wildcats. So
my four Tennessee, Virginia, NCState, and Kentucky. Your four are

(15:52):
U NC, Florida State, TexasA and M and Florida. We both
have two SEC teams and two ACCteams. So no conference affiliation by the
end of this. And on topof that, guess what we still haven't
figured out what we're competing for.Is it too warm for omeal cream pies?
Too warm? It's never too warmfor omeal cream pie? Is throw
in the fridge? Oh I justeat them lukewarm. Sure, you can

(16:17):
do. You can do both.You can do both. You know what
I like to do? Sometimes eatthem with some ice cream, Like rip
it up and put it on anice cream That's good. That's good.
Yeah, I do that. Allright? How about a box of omeal
cream pies? Okay, the guywho wins gets an omeal cream pie box
from the other guy. Okay,all right, is a deal? Deal?
Handshake? Handshake? All right?There we go, your witnesses to
this folks callid World. Series startson Friday. We're excited for it.

(16:41):
Three twenty eight. We'll come back, get back into the news cycle of
the day. A couple of thingsthat we're paying attention to besides the Hunter
Biden trial. We'll get to thatand plenty more next on news radio eleven
Ton kfa B. The reason thatthis is important is because, uh,
he is the did they call himthe first sun in the news report?
Is that a thing like what ifthere's like flick, what if you had

(17:03):
like four sons? Would that wouldthey then the second son be the second
son, and then the third sonand then the fourth son. What if
there was a polygamist Mormon who becomesthe president, could he have second,
third, and fourth wives? BecauseI was pretty sure that the second wife
or the second lady, right,because it's the wife of the president is
the first lady, it's the secondlady is the wife of the vice president

(17:26):
or the second gentleman. I guessnow with a woman being vice president,
So how would they how do theyhow do they decide who the first son
is? That there's multiple sons?Well, and what does that make Stormy
Daniels the first mistress? She can'tbe the no because well, okay,
so let's say Stormy sermony he's gettingit on with with Joey here. I

(17:47):
mean, first of all, it'dbe a secret. Theoretically, they wouldn't
be telling us this. Well Iwas talking about from sixteen to twenty.
But well, I think there's toomany terms to begin with. Oh,
she's not the first mistress because shealready hated and remember they already had that
note non disclosure agreement, but notto say that there hasn't been mistresses before.
I'm sure does everybody need a term? Maybe he's just the son of

(18:07):
the president. Maybe maybe maybe that'swhat is what is the problem. I'm
gonna ask chat GBT what is theproper term for the son of the president.
Hmm. There are a lot ofReddit posts here they're called the first
family, the first family. Iguess that that that means something, right,

(18:32):
they call it the first family.I don't have any record of regular
use of the term first son,however, And if you're if you're wondering,
uh, there was one president whowas not married? Who do you
think that was? Where do yousay, go? Millard Fillmore? Nice?
Try James Buchanan. Though James Buchanannot married, no children. The

(18:52):
niece of James Buchanan, Harriet Lane, served as first Lady and hostess at
White House functions because there wasn't onehe who's Harriet Lane. Harriet Lane was
the first acting First Lady during theadministration of her uncle, lifelong bachelor President
James Buchanan from eighteen fifty seven tosixty one. She's described as the first

(19:15):
of the modern First Ladies, beingnotably charming and diplomatic hostess whose dress styles
were copied and she promoted deserving causes. In her will, she left funds
for a new school on the groundsof the Washington National Cathedral. She already
accomplished way more than James Buchanan didas a president of the United States.
So what does that tell you Ishouldn't talk bad at the dead like this?

(19:37):
No? Okay, So first firstson, Hunter Biden or whatever you
want to call him, the sonof the First family, Eh, eh,
eh, what if he's a stepson? Does that change the way
we talk about him anyway? Ifyou're a juror, would you come out
afterwards and be like, hey,I'll talk to the press now because they
can talk, But would you wantto like out yourself like that so everybody

(19:59):
knows that you were one the peopleare convicted like a notable person. Now,
this guy who did this is sixtyeight years old, so maybe feels
like he doesn't have much to losehere, but he says the case was
heart wrenching. Spoke to Fox Newstoday, but he said there was a
story in this conversation that referenced Huntergoing to a seven eleven to buy coffee,

(20:22):
and the defense had a narrative therethat he was going to seven to
eleven to buy coffee at this conveniencestore and where that put him on certain
days in question, in the middleof October of twenty eighteen, when he
bought this gun, and he sayshe, along with most of the other
people on the jury, seemed tothink that he was looking to buy crack

(20:47):
because of the rest of the testimony, and they didn't buy that. The
defense said he was there to buya cup of coffee. Now, I
don't know, it's interesting to me, of course. Hunter Biden. By
the way, did you did youknow he wrote a book? I just
found this out. Did you didyou know that he had a book out?
Yeah? It's called Beautiful Things.What's it about his life? It's

(21:07):
a memoir. Interested that's so boring. Give me some you know, give
me a new story. What ishe like? Why does he have a
memoir? What has he done?I need a memoir. Nobody would read
that. I wouldn't even read it. I don't know a lot of people
writing a lot of books, youknow, do you think that they're like
like obviously Stormy made it very clearduring her testing when she's got two books

(21:30):
still coming out, so she wantedyou to know that used the Donald Trump
trial as a platform to sell somebooks. But he said in this book
I got I got some of thesebooks here that he explained Seven Elevens were
kind of the type of place thathe would go buy drugs. It's in
the book. And they're like,oh, he was just going there for

(21:52):
coffee. Come on, ridiculous.Yeah, So why why why why do
I care? Why? Why whyshould we care? Well, the reason
I wanted to bring this up isit's interesting to hear the perspective of somebody
on the jury. But the biggerpart of this is would you be so
bold to come out of your hiding? Essentially, and you're anonymous? They

(22:15):
didn't name this person, but theyobviously had pre determined and agreed to meet
with one of these networks and talkabout their experience. And obviously, you
know, I wish this kind ofthing could have happened for the other trial,
the Trump trial, so we couldat least get an insight as to
what they were seeing and what theywere thinking throughout the process. But I
tell you what I don't think Iwould do this. First of all,

(22:37):
Like I told you before, I'dprobably try to just get off the jury.
Does that make me an American thatI don't want to give my civic
duty in if I was called slightlyyou lose a couple of America points.
It's social credit deducted. It iskind of a selfish decision, isn't it
to put like I don't want todo what you do? It kind of
thing, you know? Yeah,I mean, speaking of social security.

(23:00):
Don't think I'm going to see anyof that by the time I get old.
But the like, I don't knowwhat I think of I think of
the ways that they do that process, and I just don't think I'm mentally
like capable of Like I'm just tooplugged in. I don't I don't like
the idea of a threat waiting outsidethe doors if we convict a guy.
So you're gonna try to get offthe jury? Yeah, social credit deducted?

(23:25):
Oh come on, man, Imade that a couple of years ago,
and I've gotten better since then.There was way too many filters on
that. Yeah, it's all right. It had an impact. So you're
telling me you would have served onthis jury if they would have called you,
but either one the Trump or Bidenone. M there's a lot to
weigh. For sure. I certainlywouldn't be running to the news network after

(23:48):
I get done. I'm just liketrying to go to my whole back in
my house and just hope nobody findsout that I was there because I can't
trust people. I don't know.Am I paranoid? It is a pair
annoy a situation that I have toovercome. I don't know. I mean,
there's a lot to way, becauseyou don't. My biggest thing would
be I wouldn't want there to beany any collateral stress on anyone else,

(24:11):
you know, like your family,that that this could potentially create. I
don't, But I don't know.I don't. I don't know what these
jurors lives are like right now thatwe're on the previous jury or the ones
for this one either. You know. I think that, hey, look
they both were guilty and now wecan all just stop being so mad at
each other. That's what I alwayssay. But I don't know if it's

(24:33):
going to happen. Yeah, butthere's there's people on both sides. This
one's a little less political, Ithink, because it's so obvious that this
is something that people would get chargedwith. But I don't know. I
just guess I don't trust people tonot have a visceral and potentially violent reaction.
And maybe not violent in the waythat they're going to come try to
kill me or remembers my family oranything like that, but you know,
like put in bad reviews for theplace that I work, Right, Like,

(24:57):
what if I was just a Whatif my my job was a customer
service agent at like a local store, and people figured out that was me,
and then they go to my employerand start talking about all this stuff,
or they they say that because Iwork there, they're gonna tear apart
some of the store because they don'tlike me, and they want me to

(25:17):
get fired because I convicted the personthey liked. I don't know. That's
the kind of stuff that goes throughmy twisted brain. Probably not healthy.
I'm gonna have to work on that. Three forty eighth's the time. Let's
give away some f's not just forme, but for you know, other
people. That's next on news radioeleven to ten kfab