“This is an unbelievable day,” said Rob Crain, assistant general manager of the Omaha Storm Chasers, while sitting in his now empty office. “I came in the office today beeping the horn – all excited because it’s moving day. We’re really excited. We made a lot of memories here over the past 42 years and we look forward to carrying those over into Werner Park and having a great, long term relationship there.”As the Omaha Storm Chasers’ office staff packed for the move to Werner Park in Sarpy County some 15 miles away, they ran across quite a few surprises.
“Not only did we find a Kevin Appier contract [from 1990] and some player bio information, but that was just one of like 50 in the A’s,” Crain said. “And then there was like 6 boxes tall of all these different player contracts. We haven’t gone through them all because we really just unearthed them. We had no idea that they even existed. It was pretty exciting to find. It was almost like a mini-gold rush in here to see what old artifacts you could find.”
Crain said they plan to move all the old contracts to Werner Park.
“We don’t know exactly what we’re going to do with them yet since we just found them a couple of days ago,” Crain said. “But at our new ballpark we have Rosenblatt Way – which is our first base concourse presented by Alegent Health. And in that we’re going to have some different historical artifacts from Rosenblatt from past Omaha Royals, Omaha Cardinals and Omaha Dodgers teams – and make that the historic area of the ballpark. We anticipate – I have no idea how – using some of those items we found in new ballpark.”
In addition to the player contracts, they also found old reel to reel video tapes that included highlight footage from the 1969 Kansas City Royals and the 1973 All-Star Game, played at Royals Stadium. Those items are boxed up and headed over to Werner Park as well. Don’t be surprised to see some of that footage running during the 2011 season.
Many items were vying for attention on their final day at Rosenblatt Stadium this morning. Championship trophies stood proudly in General Manager Martie Cordaro’s office. A photo of Paul Molitor wearing an Omaha Royals hat was the final item remaining on one desk. A bulletin board containing photos of a few players from the 1979 team, including George Enright (C), Jim Gaudet (C), Clint Hurdle (OF), Mark Ballinger (P) – who is pictured with a handlebar mustache, Gary Christenson (P) and Bob Detherage (OF), was still affixed to one of the walls. The photos will presumably make the journey to Werner Park.
As reported here, Crain confirmed that Steve Rosenblatt – the son of Johnny Rosenblatt, whom Rosenblatt Stadium is named after – will be at Werner Park to throw out the first pitch on Opening Day 2011.
“Steve’s a part of our family,” Crain said. “We wouldn’t have it any other way than for him to be able to throw out the first pitch at new Werner Park. It makes a lot of sense. He took the last cuts at Rosenblatt Stadium and we anticipate him throwing out the first pitch at new Werner Park.”
