The '13 College World Series "drew a total of 341,483 fans, making this year’s championship event the most attended CWS in history," according to the OMAHA WORLD-HERALD. The attendance of 27,127 fans for Tuesday's UCLA-Mississippi State series-deciding game is the "largest crowd for a CWS championship game final, and also marked the largest single-game crowd in TD Ameritrade Park history." The Series average crowd was 24,392 fans per game -- 2,610 "more than the 2012 series" (OMAHA WORLD-HERALD, 6/27).
MISSING THE PING? The AP's Eric Olson reported despite the "lack of offense, most notably home runs" during the '13 CWS, "no immediate changes are planned in an attempt [to] bring up the numbers." Some have suggested that the fences at TD Ameritrade Park "should be moved in." NCAA Dir for Football & Baseball Damani Leech said of that notion, "All of that costs money, and we would do that why? So there would be a few more home runs? Is it worth it? We've only had three home runs, yet we've had the highest average attendance in the history of the College World Series." Leech "officially takes over as lead administrator for the CWS on July 1, replacing the retiring Dennis Poppe." The fences at the park "are 335 feet down the lines, 375 in the power alleys and 408 to center field." Those are "identical to the dimensions at the old Rosenblatt Stadium." Not only have the bats "changed since the CWS was played at Rosenblatt, so has the field orientation." Batters "faced the northeast at Rosenblatt and were able to launch flies into the prevailing south wind most days," but they "face the southeast at TD Ameritrade, meaning they usually hit into the wind" (AP, 6/26). In Omaha, Steven Pivovar writes of decreasing the field's dimensions, "Talking with NCAA officials during the series, I see that as only a last-resort move." A switch to a professional model of baseball could "help solve some of the problems, but that wouldn’t come until 2015 at the earliest" (OMAHA WORLD-HERALD, 6/27).
