University of Arizona Advances to Final Five in College World Series

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There are some stories I love to follow in this time of chaos and uncertainty.  One involves my alma mater, The University of Arizona, where long ago I went to play on their baseball and basketball teams.  I was a Wildcat, a jock, and a member of the Delta Beta chapter of Beta Theta Pi national fraternity.

The year before I arrived on campus to start the "fall freshman rush" the Wildcats baseball team won the College World Series and they were the defending kings of college baseball in 1964.  It was a proud program I was invited to join.

Arizona first fielded a team in 1904, and won four national championships in 1956, 1959, 1963, and 2012.  Legendary coach Jerry Kindall was coach when I arrived and he won three of the four national championships.

The Wildcats appeared in the College World Series seven times prior to this year, 1956, 1959, 1963, 1976, 1980, 1986, and 2012.

The Arizona Wildcats ranked 7th all time entering this year games won during the regular season, 2,347 wins.

Yet baseball is not the only talent of this team.  Here is a story about a creative group of Wildcat players who caught the attention of the ESPN network TV people, not for their baseball skills, but for their ability to make entertaining music videos to motivate the team. So impressed was ESPN they allowed the team to shoot a video used in all the promotion for the College World Series.  Here is the story.

Arizona baseball: Sawyer Gieseke produces music video for College World Series

Eric Vander Voort | NCAA.com

Jun 21, 2016 15:58 EDT

OMAHA, Neb. -- Plenty of talent is on display this week at the College World Series. Even some talent off the baseball diamond.

Meet Sawyer Gieseke, a junior utility player for Arizona. He's played 17 games this season at three different positions (third base, second base and catcher), and he's a film and television major.  Geiseke has a YouTube page for his film work, which often features his Wildcat teammates.

With Arizona in Omaha, Geiseke and ESPN teammed up to produce a cover video for "This Town," a song by O.A.R. (Of a Revolution) often used on College World Series broadcasts. This version is by "Bear Down Revolution," with Bear Down being Arizona's mantra. Gieseke and his teammates went around Omaha for the video, which he produced himself. The band features teammates Robby Medel (No. 34), Michael Hoard (No. 31) and Tyler Crawford (No. 30).

This Town Video

Let it Slide Video

Under the name Goo Goo Cats the boys did another music video called Let it Slide.

Omaha Hosts 66th straight College World Series

Every year since 1950 the College World Series is held in Omaha, Nebraska at Ameritrade Stadium, one of the best college stadiums in the nation if not the best.  About 35,000 fans attend every game in the annual series in June.  This brings up my second sense of pride in the CWS.

I worked for three Mayors of Omaha from 1969-1973 when major improvements were made to Rosenblatt Stadium, host site for the CWS, and a decision was made to begin plans for a new stadium to replace the original Rosenblatt Stadium so the series could remain in Omaha and continue to host the annual College World Series.  A story follows about the success of the Omaha project with the NCAA to use a permanent host city for the national championships.

  

College World Series History

It started as a public/private experiment and now, more than 50 years later, Omaha is synonymous with the College World Series. The College World Series was first played in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1947. Kalamazoo hosted it again in 1948. The tournament was then moved the following year to Wichita, Kan and that year former President George Bush Sr. was captain of the Yale baseball team. The College World Series was first played in Omaha in 1950 and total attendance was 17,805. Although the College World Series is now a profitable event, it lost money for 10 of the first 12 years that it was in Omaha 1950-1961. Four Omahans who maintained their faith and interest in the College World Series during those "lean" years are due much of the credit for the tournament's continued presence in Omaha. They are the late Ed Pettis of the Brandeis Stores, the late Morris Jacobs and the late Byron Reed, both of Bozell & Jacobs, and the late Johnny Rosenblatt, Mayor of Omaha and an avid baseball fan. How this community nurtured the College World Series from humble beginnings to its status as a nationally recognized event is quite a story. A story of how the people of Omaha, its business leaders, city officials and volunteers, embraced the Series and teamed up with the NCAA to make it grow.   Today, College World Series of Omaha, Inc., a non-profit organization, is the local organizing committee for the annual NCAA Division I Championship Baseball College World Series. Guiding the activities of the local contributors and the many volunteers involved in the Series is the executive committee of the College World Series of Omaha, Inc. board. This group of dedicated individuals meets each month to develop policies and plans that assure the success and growth of each year's Series. It has been our pleasure to host the CWS for more than 50 years.  The Series is an event in which we take pride. A lot of hard work, dedication and commitment of many volunteers, local business contributors and the city, has built the College World Series from its humble beginnings to the enjoyable event it is today. Continued fan support of the College World Series has made the event a very special place for teams that have had the opportunity to compete for the National Championship. .

Why does the national media refuse to cover stories like this about good cops?

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Police Officer Kerrie Orozco was the first female police officer killed in the line of duty in Omaha.

As a former news reporter for the Omaha World Herald and a former member of the staff for the Mayor of Omaha, there are some stories that are difficult to absorb, especially when they hit so close to home.

On May 22 of this year a 30 year old woman, baseball coach for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Omaha, wife, mother of three, and one who was dedicated to helping her community, was murdered.  She was also a 7 year veteran of the Omaha Police department.

Police Officer Kerrie Orozco was the first female police officer killed in the line of duty in Omaha. She is the 51st Police Officer killed in the line of duty in 2015.  There were 133 officers killed in 2014 and 119 in 2013.

I can remember 45 years ago this year when I was on the staff of Mayor Gene Leahy, and we had a police officer, Larry Minard, murdered by a suitcase bomb planted by the Black Panthers.  This came after years of racial unrest.  Minard, who left behind five children, was buried on the day of his 30th birthday.

Recently the police nationwide have had a lot of bad press as the media chooses to highlight the few bad cop incidents and ignore all the good cop stories.  My old newspaper has tried to focus on the positive when it came to Officer Orozco and I am publishing their coverage in order to honor her, and the work of the vast majority of police protecting our land.

Omaha World Herald
                            
A month ago, Omaha Police Officer Kerrie Orozco was proud of the weight her premature daughter had gained.

“She’s pretty close to 6 lbs!” Orozco wrote on Facebook, underneath photos of her two stepchildren holding baby Olivia Ruth.

Current print subscribers

Orozco had been looking forward to today — the day when she could take Olivia home after three months in the neonatal intensive care unit.

But she didn’t make it.

Orozco, 29, was killed Wednesday, her last day of police duty before taking the rest of her maternity leave to spend with her first-born child.

Gunfire erupted when Orozco and other officers attempted to arrest Marcus D. Wheeler, on a felony warrant for first-degree assault about 1 p.m.

Orozco, who was part of the gang unit, is the first female police officer in the department to die in the line of duty. She is the 25th Omaha officer killed on duty overall and the first since 2003.

Wheeler, 26, also died of injuries from the shooting near 30th Street and Martin Avenue. Wheeler was a convicted felon and a known gang member, police said.

Police are planning a 4:30 p.m. Wednesday press conference to provide more information on the shootings.

In a press conference late Wednesday afternoon, Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said Orozco, who was a seven-​year-veteran, dedicated her life to service.

“This is a somber day for the city of Omaha,” Schmaderer said. “Officer Orozco was a top-notch individual, and the city of Omaha owes her a debt of gratitude, and her family, like no other.”

Schmaderer laid out a basic timeline of events:

At 12:58 p.m., Orozco and other members of the Metro Area Fugitive Task Force were near Martin Avenue and Read Street, looking for Wheeler, when they spotted him about a block away, near 31st Avenue and Vane Street.

Wheeler shot at officers, then ran north through a wooded area toward the backyard of a house at 3057 Martin Ave.

Orozco, another officer and a sergeant confronted Wheeler, and shots were exchanged.

Orozco collapsed.

While officers rendered first aid to Orozco, Wheeler ran east and collapsed in the backyard at 3042 Read St. A semiautomatic handgun with a drum magazine was found near him.

A man living at the Read Street house said he saw Wheeler lean against a downspout and fall to the ground. He said Wheeler was pointing at his chest, where he had been shot.

Officers performed CPR on Orozco and Wheeler, Schmaderer said.

"It was really sad," Valentine said, "really heart-wrenching, watching the officer."

Both Orozco and Wheeler were taken by ambulance to Creighton University Medical Center in extremely critical condition. They were pronounced dead at the hospital.

Angela Valentine, who lives just east of 3057 Martin Ave., was taking a nap Wednesday afternoon when her son walked in and said, "I think I heard shooting." Valentine then heard what she thought were police outside the house say, "Get down! Get down on the ground!" The officers were yelling toward the back of the neighbor's house.

Valentine then heard two shots, then many shots.

She looked outside and saw a female police officer on the ground near the corner of her house. "There was blood on her pants and the upper part of her body," Valentine said. Other officers were trying to keep the officer calm, she said, and were "going into CPR mode."

Following the news of Orozco’s death, condolences began pouring into social media from across the nation. Hundreds of people, including law enforcement officers and police departments, posted comments, many containing the hashtag #SupportBlue.

Crime scene tape remained around 3057 Martin Ave. on Thursday morning. The Omaha Police Department's mobile command center was parked directly in front of the house, and the crime lab van also was parked in front of the command center. Eastbound Martin Avenue was blocked from Vane Street to Read Street.

After looking at a photo of Wheeler on Thursday, a neighbor said, "I've absolutely seen him hanging around, kicking it in the driveway. I've seen him coming and going, but not causing any trouble. Of course, if you're laying low, you wouldn't want to cause any trouble."

He said he recently started seeing people coming and going, mostly at night.

Orozco was the second female law enforcement officer in the state to be killed in the line of duty, according to the Nebraska Law Enforcement Memorial. Amanda Baker, a Scotts Bluff County corrections officer, was strangled in February 2014 by a 15-year-old inmate at the Scotts Bluff County Detention Center.

Schmaderer said he had spoken with Orozco’s family. At the press conference he also offered condolences to Wheeler’s family.

Mayor Jean Stothert, who was out of town for her son’s wedding, said in a statement:

“Officer Orozco will be honored by the entire community for her service and bravery through our prayer and our continued community support for all police officers.”

Stothert ordered flags in the city to be lowered to half staff in Orozco’s honor until dusk on Monday. In addition, the lights on the Heartland of America Fountain and the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge will be blue through Memorial Day.

After the shooting, more than 20 bystanders gathered at the crime scene, which spanned 30th to 33rd Streets and from Read to Whitmore Streets.

Outside 3057 Martin Ave., where gunfire had been exchanged, police were talking to Erica Coppage-Williams. She had recently moved into the house, said her father, Anthony Williams.

Coppage-Williams, 24, appeared distraught as she sat in her front yard. She let out tearful screams and called out to her father while talking to police.

Wheeler and Coppage-Williams had a child in 2009, court records show.

Coppage-Williams was booked by Omaha police Wednesday night on suspicion of obstructing a peace officer, aiding consummation of a felony and disorderly conduct.

Authorities had been searching for Wheeler in connection with the Sept. 5 shooting of Antonio Martin near 60th Street and Curtis Avenue. Wheeler was released from federal prison in February 2014 after being convicted of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.

Schmaderer called Wheeler “a very dangerous individual” and said the community needs brave individuals to apprehend such serious criminals. Orozco and the Metro Area Fugitive Task Force officers go after “the worst of the worst,” he said.

Orozco returned to work shortly after giving birth to Olivia on Feb. 17. With Olivia facing an extended stay in the NICU at the Nebraska Medical Center, Orozco wanted to save her maternity leave for when Olivia left the hospital.

Before she had her own child, Orozco served as a mother and a mentor to other children, coaching baseball and volunteering with numerous community organizations.

She was a stepmother to Natalia, 8, and Santiago, 6, children of her husband, Hector Orozco Lopez. They were married in a civil ceremony in 2011, then had a church wedding in 2012.

The Police Department was collecting food donations for Orozco’s family. By 10 p.m., so much food had been dropped off at precinct stations that the department was suggesting that any additional donations be taken to homeless shelters in memory of the officer.

The Omaha Police Foundation announced Wednesday night that it would give all of its Omaha Gives donations to the Orozco family.

The donation total has topped $75,000, from more than 1,800 donors, the most of any nonprofit in the campaign.

Asked at the press conference whether the shooting would damage police-community relations, Schmaderer rejected the idea. Officers are also a part of the community, he pointed out.

“I think you’ll see the city of Omaha band together ... and certainly support Officer Orozco for her sacrifice,” he said.

“I think Omaha is a tremendous community. I’ve said all along that north Omaha (is a) tremendous community,” he said. “And we’re going to work through this issue with the community side by side.”

Many details about the shooting haven’t been released. A press conference may be held later today, officials said.

“My greatest concern is with my officers and their families and the integrity of this investigation,” Schmaderer said.

By Wednesday night, flowers, candles and other tokens were being left as makeshift memorials at the crime scene and outside Omaha Police Headquarters.

The chief had a message for his officers, who were struggling with the loss of their well-liked colleague.

“Keep your head held high, we’ll do our job professionally, and we’re going to grieve,” Schmaderer said. “We’ll grieve like anybody else.”

World-Herald staff writers Kevin Cole, Christopher Burbach, Bob Glissmann and Emerson Clarridge contributed to this report.

Here is an update from an Omaha TV station. 

OMAHA, Nebraska (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Thousands of community members lined the streets of Omaha, Nebraska Tuesday to pay tribute to a fallen officer.

Hundreds of officers took Kerrie Orozco to her final resting place in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Officer Orozco was killed in a shoot-out earlier this month while trying to arrest a known gang member.

The shift she was working was supposed to be her last before going on maternity leave to take care of her daughter Olivia, who was born prematurely in February.

And Speaking of little Olivia, she's already living out her mother's legacy. On Sunday she was in a onesie that read "Keep Calm and Kerrie On."

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Doug McDermott NCAA player of the year

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Doug McDermott, the basketball machine from the Creighton Bluejays swept all the top national awards for player of the year.  During they past season he averaged 26.7 points, tops in the nation, and 7 rebounds while leading Creighton to a 27-8 record and NCAA tournament invitation.

With 3,150 points and 1,088 rebounds McDermott is one of only three men in history with over 3,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career.  He also is one of only three in NCAA history to be named All American three years.

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The Disaster Master Strikes Again

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The following was released by the National Weather Service yesterday regarding a tornado in Southern Maryland.

DETAILS FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE

...BRIEF EF-0 TORNADO CONFIRMED IN COLTONS POINT MARYLAND...

LOCATION...COLTONS POINT IN ST MARYS COUNTY MARYLAND

DATE...10 JUNE 2013

ESTIMATED TIME...9:01 PM TO 9:01 PM EDT

MAXIMUM EF-SCALE RATING...EF-0

MAXIMUM WIND SPEED...65 MPH

MAXIMUM PATH WIDTH...50 YARDS

LENGTH...0.25 MILES

BEGINNING LAT/LON...38.223N / 76.755W

ENDING LAT/LON...38.226N / 76.753W

* FATALITIES...0

* INJURIES...0

* THE INFORMATION IN THIS STATEMENT IS PRELIMINARY AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE

PENDING FINAL REVIEW OF THE EVENT(S) AND PUBLICATION IN NWS STORM DATA.

...SUMMARY...


A GROUND SURVEY CONDUCTED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE...TOGETHER

WITH RADAR DATA FROM THE ANDREWS AFB TERMINAL DOPPLER WEATHER RADAR

DETERMINED THERE WAS A BRIEF EF-0 TORNADO TOUCHDOWN IN COLTONS POINT

MARYLAND. MINOR TREE AND ROOF DAMAGE AND WAS NOTED IN THE VICINITY

OF THE INTERSECTION OF COLTON POINT RD...RT 242 WITH BAYVIEW RD AND

ALONG BEACH RD BETWEEN CHARLES HALL RD AND POINT BREEZE RD. A FEW

SHINGLES WERE BLOWN OFF SOME STRUCTURES IN THIS AREA. A TREE CAME

DOWN ON WIRES IN THE 38300 BLOCK OF BEACH RD. A TRAMPOLINE NEAR A

RESIDENCE ON COLTON POINT RD NEXT TO THE TOWN POST OFFICE WAS LIFTED

UP AND BECAME LODGED 90 FEET UP IN NEARBY TALL PINE TREE. TWO LARGE

WOODEN PLAY SET WERE BLOWN OVER...ONE WAS DRAGGED ABOUT 15 FEET.


THIS TORNADO WAS LIKELY THE EXTENSION OF A WATERSPOUT THAT CROSSED

THE POTOMAC RIVER JUST BEFORE 9 PM.

 

 

Well I live on the intersection of Charles Hall Road and Beach Road and at exactly 9:01 pm on June 10, about a month ago, I was standing in my yard taking photos of the nasty weather and hoping to get a picture of the tornado the National Weather Service said was between Fredericksburg, Virginia and Coltons Point, Maryland, on the banks of the Potomac River.  It was supposed to be headed right toward us.

 

Nashville

Suddenly the sky turned black and a roar of wind like a Cessna on steroids hit and the sky directly above me started twirling in a massive circle.  It was the second time I watched a tornado go directly overhead here in Maryland and my third experience as I was standing in a Nashville parking lot in 1998 when a large tornado swooped overhead and slammed that city.

 

 

But it gets better.  My homes in Iowa, Nebraska and New Jersey all got hit by tornadoes, one was destroyed.

And since arriving in Southern Maryland three hurricanes have hit.

Good thing I had all that practice growing up in Iowa and Nebraska when we had to fill sandbags to stop the Mississippi or Missouri rivers from flooding.

Or had to survive paralyzing blizzards and 35 below zero cold.

All of a sudden our torrid heat wave doesn't seem all that bad.
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Earth Day Today - 40th Anniversary - Americans Do Care

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It is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day when attention is focused on what needs to be done to protect the environment but we should not lose track of what has been done already even before Earth Day became popular. The reason I say that is much of the environmental progress in America has not come from federal government initiatives but the creative genius of local states, cities and people.



I can remember back about 50 years ago when my high school class in Iowa decided to transform an island overgrown with weeds that had been used as a dump site for decades into our own private beach and boating area. We spent two years cleaning, clearing and moving the tons of debris from the woods and water to make it a place we could go to get away from it all. To this day it remains a centerpiece for the city.



Later in Omaha, Nebraska I worked with the Mayor's Office on nationally recognized programs to Keep Nebraska Beautiful, a riverfront development program that transformed former warehouse districts, contaminated railroad yards, former metal plants and stockyards into nationally recognized projects that helped transform Omaha into a model and vibrant city today where it remains the home of Warren Buffett.



Also in Omaha we worked with Father Flannigan's Home for Boys, the world famous Boy's Town, on creating a farm using only natural products for fertilizer, pest control and land restoration. It was successful in demonstrating that crop yields from natural farming could equal the yields of chemicals.



While in Omaha the mayor and I worked on the riverfront development program and during the 1970's oil crises by OPEC we set up a solar energy company that put solar systems in several hundred homes and small businesses across the country. We were able to get the help of major corporations like Goodyear Tire and Rubber, Pittsburgh Plate Glass, Dow Chemical and Phillips Petroleum to make our patented components. It was highly successful until congress eliminated the solar tax credit when oil prices fell.



While working for the Executive Office of the President and Congress in Washington I helped set up first the Federal Energy Agency, later upgraded to the Department of Energy, and worked on a number of legislative bills to manage energy, promote conservation and reduce oil dependence.

When I worked for Governor Thomas Kean of New Jersey in the 1980's we launched a series of nationally recognized environmental initiatives including the first statewide mandatory recycling program, whose stunning success eliminated the need for 19 massive incinerators in the state to process solid waste.



Working with New York we were able to eliminate offshore ocean dumping and eventually to permanently close down the Fresh kills landfill on Stanton Island, formerly the largest landfill in the world and a major source of beach and water pollution along the New Jersey oceanfront.

We adopted the first state energy master plan, the first in the country to block future nuclear plants until all existing plants had decontamination programs for shutting down old plants and restoring the land and until there was a nuclear waste disposal plan. America is still debating nuclear waste disposal.



The first statewide land use and preservation plan was adopted in New Jersey limiting growth in areas and initiating an aggressive plan to protect up to 20% of all New Jersey land from future development. Since New Jersey is the most densely populated state in America this was a massive and controversial undertaking. At the same time we implemented one of the first farmland preservation programs that bought future development rights to protect thousands of acres of farm land in the Garden State.



The Governor also launched an ambitious program to acquire thousands of acres for parks and recreation including 18,000 acres for the Sterling Forest bordering New York, reclaiming Hudson River waterfront for Freedom and Liberty Parks, reclaiming Delaware River waterfront for parks, and many other initiatives.

We were also one of the first states to sue oil companies and won millions of dollars in court settlements for the state. A company in New Jersey owned the Three Mile Island nuclear plant and we were involved in the clean up process from the 1979 accident, the biggest nuclear disaster in America. We were also one of the first states to implement the new EPA Super Fund program cleaning up toxic sites.



In the mid 1990's, after the 1986 tragedy of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion in the Ukraine (then the Soviet Union), I got to meet the children of Chernobyl in Scotland in one of the most humane programs I have ever witnessed. The kids contaminated with radiation in the disaster, and thousands were contaminated, were still living in the danger zone years later with high rates of cancer and often a short life ahead. It has been suggested that the Chernobyl disaster released as much as 400 times the radioactive contamination of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.



Countries in Europe that were victims of contamination themselves set up programs to bring the Chernobyl children for vacations in Scotland, the UK, Ireland, Germany and other nations. If the kids spent a couple of weeks a year in these countries it actually extended their life expectancy by a year or more. I met a group in Scotland and was amazed at the courage and spirit of the children and the act of compassion by the Scots and others.

Now I find myself in Maryland on the Potomac River not far from the Chesapeake Bay where pollution remains a problem, especially the contamination of the rivers and bay. It has cost the area much of the fishing, crabbing and oyster industries of the watermen while contaminating the waterfront from human and farming waste like fertilizers and pesticides. After converting my home to a green model and putting a nitrogen reduction septic system in I found yet another example of environmental concern.



One day I was called by neighbors because a Bald Eagle was injured. We have about nine Bald Eagles living in our village. When the Eagle was blown off a dock into the Potomac it did not have the strength to swim so into the river I went and grabbed the eagle when water was just about to my neck. After getting it to shore and having it taken to a Bald Eagle rescue center in Delaware I learned it was sick from eating contaminated fish from the river, lead poisoning. It was healed and I got to release it back into the wilds.

My point of all this is in most of the activities I outlined over the years we were not forced to do the things that were undertaken. It was not orders from the federal government that led to the creation of programs to meet our needs but the initiative of local citizens working with schools and professionals because of their personal concern for a clean environment. Never underestimate the value of people discovering and solving some of our major problems because it is the right thing to do. That is the secret strength of Americans and our hope for the future.

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