Rice baseball team spends time with kids in Omaha

Rice baseball team spends time with kids in Omaha
Rice falls 17 – 5, but shows they’re winners

BY JOHN SULLIVAN
Special to the Rice News

Less than 24 hours before losing to Fresno State in Rice’s opening game of the College World Series June 15 at Rosenblatt Stadium, the Owls spent their Saturday visiting the young patients at Omaha Children’s Hospital. The Rice players signed autographs, had their pictures taken with the youngsters and handed out some baseball memorabilia. The team also met and interacted with the young patients’ families and hospital staff, proving the Owls were winners, regardless of the game’s outcome.

That would have been a busy enough day for a group faced with the task of playing for another possible national championship, but the blue and gray had even more on its agenda for the afternoon. At the invitation of a local Little League, the Owls also stopped off to catch part of a youth game not too far from the team hotel.

The visits happened only a short time from each other during the course of the day, but the Owls clearly saw two very different sides of the childhood experience. At the Omaha Children’s Hospital, the team was given a special tour to lift the spirits of the young patients and their families. At the Little League game, cheers erupted from the families and play on three adjacent fields came to a simultaneous halt when the team’s official CWS bus pulled up at the facility.

In Omaha, the College World Series is the community event of the year. The entire city is fully behind the event to the point where the Omaha citizens treat all of the visiting teams like celebrities or foreign heads of state. As was the case in both visits, it turned out that the Owls were equally uplifted by both experiences.

“If we brightened some of their day a little today that is great, because I know they brightened ours,” said junior pitcher Bobby Bell about the team’s hospital visit. “At first we didn’t quite know what to expect going in (to the hospital), but the kids and the families are so genuinely appreciative that it was special to be here. It makes you think just how fortunate we are to be playing baseball and going to school. We were in different groups on different floors, but we’re all comparing how great a feeling we had interacting with the kids.”

One member of the hospital staff noticed the impact of the Owls’ visit immediately. “Being active is an important part of rehabilitation, and the children were more active than usual,” an on-duty nurse commented during the Owls’ visit. “The kids were really up and out of their rooms today. They had heard the team was here, and they didn’t want to miss them.”

TOMMY LAVERGNE
Aaron Luna (right) and his Rice teammates visited with young patients at Omaha Children’s Hospital.

“These kids are brave and inspirational,” said senior first baseman J.P. Padron. “It was our honor to be here and hang out with them for a little while. Some of the guys were talking about coming back to make another visit while we’re still here in Omaha. This was the best part so far.”

The Little League game may have been in a far different kind of setting, but there was a similar feel in terms of the goodwill and good vibes. The Owls are not exactly rain and lightning, but the blue and gray is apparently a force of nature big enough to stop a couple of games in progress.

Rice had come to the Memorial Little League of Omaha to see, of all things, “the Owls” play one of its games. Where else but Omaha would the local Little Leagues forgo the traditional use of major league nicknames, like Astros, Dodgers, Yankees and Red Sox, for names of the perennial College World Series teams, like Hurricanes, Tar Heels, Tigers and yes … Owls.

At an Omaha civic function two years ago, when Rice was at the 2006 CWS, some of the Little League Owls met and befriended second baseman Jimmy Comerota (then a Rice redshirt freshman) and kept in touch during each of Rice’s next two trips in 2007 and now 2008. The kids asked if it would be possible for the “big Owls” to come to one of their games. The Little League Owls asked politely and waited patiently (for two years). Lo and behold, look who showed up at the Little League complex Saturday.

“Yes, they were persistent about us coming out,” Comerota said with a laugh. “Hey, kids tell you what’s on their mind, and that’s fine. Their enthusiasm comes from a good place. Every one of us on this team was a little leaguer at one point just like they are. We’re not so important or big time that we’ve forgotten that. It actually turned out to be pretty easy to do, and we we’re happy we did it.”

It’s part of the routine in Omaha. The Owls, the “big Owls” that is, took pictures with all the different Little League teams, signed autographs and spread some goodwill.

For full coverage of the 2008 College World Series, visit http://media.rice.edu/media/College_World_Series_2008.asp.