MLB grows relationship with NCAA, will put Royals-Tigers in Omaha
OMAHA, NEB. » Major League Baseball will come to Omaha for a day next year as part of an initiative to take the product to new places, commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday.
As part of the buildup for the 2019 College World Series, the Detroit Tigers will play a regular-season game against the Kansas City Royals at TD Ameritrade Park on June 13. The CWS starts two days later.
“The College World Series in and of itself is a great event with a great tradition,” Manfred said at a news conference. “We hope by playing here we bring even more attention to this game and help strengthen our relationship with the NCAA and college baseball as a whole.”
Manfred said there’s no commitment to play a regular-season game in Omaha beyond next year.
MLB has played regularseason games in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico and also at Fort Bragg, N.C., and in Williamsport in conjunction with the Little League World Series.
“Each of these events has helped focus the attention of the United States and major parts of the world on what we think of as the greatest game of the world,” Manfred said. “The game here in Omaha will be the next step in this important initiative.”
The Royals-Tigers matchup also will serve to acknowledge the ties between the college and professional game. It will be played in the 24,000-seat stadium that opened in 2011.
“This may be the best non-major league facility in North America,” he said.
Of the 641 drafted players on major league Opening Day rosters this year, 61 percent were from four-year colleges. The Royals chose 34 junior-college or four-year players in this year’s draft; the Tigers picked 35, including the overall No. 1, pitcher Casey Mize of Auburn.
General managers Dayton Moore of the Royals and Al Avila of the Tigers started their careers in college baseball. Moore was an assistant coach at George Mason from 1990-94. Avila was an assistant to current LSU coach Paul Mainieri at St. Thomas University in 1988, and head coach there from 1989-92.