Hello friends and Hivians! I hope all is well and everyone is enjoying the holiday season. Today, I take part in the weekly #POBPhotoContest hosted by @friendlymoose. His theme of week is to post a photo of anything metal. It's not too late to participate and you can do so by checking and following the rules in his post by clicking here.
I have decided to submit this photo of a bronze sculpture located at the entrance of Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska. The sculpture itself weighs in at 1500 lbs. The sculpture is the work of a local Omaha native, John Lajba. It was first placed at Rosenblatt Stadium(about 4 miles away)in 1999 to mark 50 years of College World Series (CWS) baseball action in Omaha. It was brought to its current location in 2010, but the field was named TD Ameritrade Park at the time. The sculpture is titled "The Road to Omaha."
The sculpture is viewable for everyone entering the stadium via the main gate to the stadium. It's an iconic sculpture to the city and to college baseball. In college baseball, Omaha is every team's goal to play here. The term, "Road to Omaha" has been a saying long before the sculpture. The sculpture gets plenty of pictures by fans and players. During the CWS, there is quite the que to get selfies with it. Today, it was easy to get a clear photo of it on a cold, windy December day. I was fornate enough to see it at both locations.
The sculpture represents four players. The one with baseball helmet, according to the sculpturer, just hit a game winning home run. The other players are teammates celebrating. It represents the glory of competition! The artist got inspiration from a dance team from the Unversity of Nebraska of Omaha. He asked them to act out the scenero and he ended up sculpturing their poses.
A little bit more on history and some extra metal. The old stadium got tore down. There were a lot of mixed feelings when this all came to a head. The previous stadium was home of the CWS for around 60 years. So a lot of people were upset to let this part of history go within the community. The stadium was located near one of the better zoos in America and was located near a housing area. People who lived in the area made some good coin offering thier yards and lawns for parking. I'll admit I was one of them against the move.
At the time, NCAA was opening and taking bids for CWS location again. The city decided to pour money into a new stadium located just outside of downtown Omaha. The new location offered a much better layout. In addition to a new stadium, the area has plenty of hotels, restaurants, sports bars and the beautiful scenery of the downtown area refferred to as the Old Market. In the end it paid off and I think if it remained at its previous location it would have been moved to another city. Now, they have the CWS locked up until 2035. This venue brings a butt load of income to the city and local businesses.
They did salvage some things from the old stadium and were able to keep a small area where the old stadium sat. Now it's a small little baseball themed recreational park. They kept the old foul ball poles, some stadium seats, metal dug out benches, old rafters and old signs. There's also a few plaques telling the history of the place. It's a neat little area to enjoy and a lot of people use it for a picnic area in the summer.
I have come to an end of this blog. I hope you enjoyed this little bit of history of a place I live very near to. Of course, the big thing is the sculpture moved to the new stadium 😃 Take care, stay safe and enjoy the rest of the week. Until next time.
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