About Eric Sorenson
After growing up in Omaha, Nebraska and skinning his knees on the concrete walkways of Rosenblatt Stadium, Eric has had college baseball in his veins for as long as he can remember. When the College World Series was going on each June, his parents would drop him and his friends off at the stadium in the morning and pick them up after the last game that night. Poor parenting? Sure. But it also fueled his fever for the sport that much more.
Eschewing the normal journalistic road to sports writing, Eric has been an advertising copywriter for years. He admits that creative background has added to his unconventional approach to sports writing and is a main contributor to his unique style.
Eric’s “addiction” to college baseball writing began back in the late 90s, when he became one of the original national writers for the sport. In the years that followed, he has covered college baseball for such media outlets as USA Today, CSTV, CBS Sportsline, CBS College Sports, College Baseball Insider and his current gig with College Baseball Today.
Living in Southern California with his wife Mandy, Eric sits in one of the hotbeds of college baseball. When he’s not covering a game or writing about the sport, he enjoys surfing, snow skiing, playing hockey and rough-housing with his black lab “T.O.” Eric was also 7th runner-up in “The Most Interesting Man In the World” competition held by Dos Equis in 2009.
Some Summer Lagniappe
The reason for my truancy.
I know. I know. It’s been 20 days since South Carolina dogpiled and I filed my last real bit of writing here on the site. Mea culpa. As I told Easton’s Kyle Horn, when asked about my lack of entries since Omaha, it’s like decompressing from rehab. I have to get used to not chasing the dragon first.
Well not to worry ladies and gents, I’m good now. After starting and stopping a few times the last two weeks, I’m finally ready to finish a daily entry here at College Baseball Today.
And let me start by adding a few more thoughts and short tales from the College World Series that I wasn’t able to add during the 10 days I was there.
Recent Comments:
July 20, 2010 at 4:58 pmHal Incandenza says:
Rice vs. Pittsburgh...one of the best schools in the country vs. one of the wors
July 20, 2010 at 3:33 amGuy says:
Love the "open letter" to Jameson. All Rice fans approve. Wayne Graham says he a
My 10 favorite Rosenblatt moments
Okay, this one’s pretty self-explanatory. The new stadium is on the way and everybody has had their tributes to Rosenblatt over the past week or two. So why not join the hit-parade on that, right? I thought I’d go ahead and add my ten favorite moments that I have experienced first-hand inside the Mecca of College Baseball. So here you go. Enjoy.
The Baldcast from Telluride… part 2
A hateful, repugnant waste of six and a half minutes.
For the last time this season, I brought my bald pate to another Baldcast for you guys. Hope you dug these video ventures during the 2010 season. I tried to make them somewhat palatable, touching on interesting topics when I could, adding a little bit of music for you to check out and also doing them from different locales.
And if you’re wondering about the music bed for this week’s Baldcast. I know it’s a tad on the melancholy side, but it’s Frank Sinatra’s “There used to be a ballpark.” Sort of a little tribute/remembrance of Rosenblatt.
CWS – Final pics from Rosenblatt
Okay, so here’s a sweep-the-kitchen of some pics that I have yet to post from the last 10 days in Omaha and the final College World Series in Omaha. Check ‘em out…
Carolina players with their national title trophy.
South Carolina gets a sprint-off win for the national title
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… and for 2010, it’s South Carolina!
Spurs Up: South Carolina wins its first national championship in the sport of baseball.
So, you breathing again yet?
How about THAT finish?! My-oh-my. It wasn’t a walk-off. Not even a jog-off. When Whit Merrifield sliced that bend-it-like-Beckham line-drive to right field, sending Scott Wingo to home plate with the winning run, this officially became a sprint-off win. The rest of the Carolina team came charging from the dugout en masse and started mobbing their late-game heroes on the field.
And think about this… You just don’t get a jog-off victory in extra innings very often in the national championship game, but what a bitchin’ ending this was to the 2010 season. I s’pose the only way to have topped it would’ve been if it had been in the third game of the championship series, instead of a series sweep in two games. But hell, who here wearing Carolina pinstripes is gonna argue that?
For South Carolina fans, this was the first time for standing on top of the mountain of college baseball. Not to state the obvious here, but a huge “congrats” to them. Gamecock Nation, here is your party.
CWS – Day 9 in pictures
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More images from last night’s first game of the championship series, as South Carolina takes control in their pitch for the first national title in school history.
Gamecocks dig in the first spur. Deep.
For the third straight year in Omaha, the SEC has a team one win away from a national title. But to be honest, none of the two previous teams – Georgia and LSU – have looked as impressive in their opening game of the title round. Carolina got some seeing eye shots throughout the game, slapping 13 singles in their 14 hits, and got some early defensive foul-ups to put UCLA in an early hole, and ended up cruising from there.
So now the Gamecocks are a full 27 outs from winning their first national title in baseball. And if tonight was any indication, 24 hours from the time I’m writing this, they could possibly be the last team ever to dogpile in Rosenblatt Stadium.
But put a heavy emphasis on the word “possibly.” This is a proud Bruin squad that won’t lay down and die.
The Baldcast from Omaha. Plus 10 changes for the new stadium.
Hey guys and dolls, prepare yourself for a hateful, repugnant waste of nine minutes.
Here is my latest Baldcast, shot while in Omaha before the championship series between UCLA and South Carolina. Below that I’ve included 10 very strong suggestions for the new stadium when it opens in downtown Omaha next June. Here you go:
Ahhhh, UCLA-vs-USC for the title… what a great rivalry!
Before this best-of-three starts, can we at least check to make sure Pete Carroll is using eligible players this time?
The quirky Bruin ace was on again, holding TCU to four hits and striking out 13. Yikes.
Okay, okay, enough B.S. aside… it’s good to see the Bruins and Troja… (sorry, habit) Gamecocks will now be set to square off for the national title starting on Monday night.
On a day more befitting of an entry in the owner’s manual of a convection oven, the Bruins and the Gamecocks both survived the heat and earned their way to the championship round with wins over TCU and Clemson respectively. The temps inside of scorching-hot Rosenblatt Stadium was so bad that these two sessions saw their lowest paid attendance for a game since 1991.
So yeah, it’s not as sexy as LSU-Texas or as dynamic as Miami-Fullerton or as turnstyle-reliable as North Carolina-Arizona State, but like it or not marketing moguls, we’ve got the Bruins and the Chickens going claw-to-beak for the big brass ring.
CWS – Day 7 in pictures
Double header elimination games day at Rosenblatt, and strangely there wasn’t much excitement to go along with it…
Coach Schlossnagle (foreground) and the Frogs break out of their huddle
Tim K. says:
News on Tuesday that Kyle Parker will play football this fall for Clemson. Does