Anyone going this June to the Triple Crown Slumpbuster Tournament in Omaha?
Anyone ever been before? I have heard that the event usually sells out. (?)

I haven't heard of the Slumpbuster Tournament!! I do know that many different organizations hold tournaments around the same time frame as the College World Series in Omaha.

Many are called the "Trip to Omaha Tourney" or the "Trip to Rosenblatt Tourney" etc.

Not much help, I know!!

Hey Mom, my son's team will be there the week of 6/17-22. We went last year and it's awesome.

Ask me some questions, I'll try to fill you in.

My son went 3 or 4 years ago. It was great. The tournament was well run (some games in Council Bluffs, Iowa in a really nice and fairly new complex) and taking the kids to a game was a great bonus. Pretty good competition too.

This is a Triple Crown tournament. We went in 2006 for the first time and thought it was very well run. They told us not to expect nice fields but we were very happy with them.

Most games were actually in Council Bluffs, IA but that's right across the river. In fact, you can see Rosenblatt from the park. One game was in Lincoln which was another hours drive to the West.

Great competition. You can see the list of teams on the Triple Crown website.

Got to go to a CWS game while we were there, that was awesome, Omaha Zoo is very nice, Omaha is very easy to get around.

We played teams from all over the country, CA, TX and FL were well represented. East Cobb was there and is coming again this year...that speaks well from what I understand reading this site.

this year we're told they'll take an "Elite 16" division and play the championship on ESPN2. That should be cool.

I guess I can say I'd recommend this tourney to anyone interested in playing a serious national tourney.

I heard some of the games are as far away as 45 miles from Omaha at some small high school fields. Not terrible but still quite a distance.

Biggerpapi --- any idea where the 14's will be playing. Our team has a hotel in Lincoln.
any personal info on the Chase Suites would be appreciated. A week is a long time to stay in a dump.

I can tell you where we stayed but we had to set up our housing through the tournament so we didn't have much of a choice.

2006 we stayed at Comfort Suites in Omaha. It was west of most of our games but it's very easy to get around. Avg 20 minute ride.

2007 they set us up at a Holiday Inn Express in Bellevue which looks to be the same distance away but to the south.

Remember, we didn't have a choice. We were very happy with last year's hotel and expect the same this year.

As for game locations, this is our experience from last year. Omaha and Council Bluffs are basically the same city, at least for traveling purposes. We played most of our games in Council Bluffs in the shadow of Rosenblatt Stadium. It was a nice park. We played a couple of games on the north side of Omaha and we played one game in Lincoln.

Lincoln was an hour drive. Since we only had to do it once, it wasn't a big deal. Of course, we drive at least an hour to get to our regular season weekday games so we don't mind the drive.

One other thing, the tournament made a point to tell us that we should not expect great fields. We were coming for the outstanding competition not MLB quality fields.

However, we were very happy with the fields. They were all dirt infields but other than that, we didn't complain about any of them.

Hope this helps.

Last year as 13u our team played on three days. The first two days were in or near Omaha. The third day was in Lincoln.

I just noticed on the Triple Crown website that Steve Garvey will be speaking. My son has played against his son several times. Everytime I saw Garvey at a game he was very accommadating to the boys excited to meet him. At one tournament hosted by a local rec league they were holding a raffle. When Garvey found out he showed up the next day with Dodger programs, signed bats and balls which he donated to the raffle. I know there are lots of stories about Garvey but my experience on several occasions has been very positive.

We've been there 3x. Awesome trip. If you're planning on going to the World Series I would suggest reserved seats. We were there when Nebraska was in it and you couldn't get in unless you had reserved seats. I did and we got to see ASU vs. Nebraska. Everyone else was so upset. The vendors outside Rosenblatt are a lot of fun to just browse but bring money because I'm sure you'll buy something.

That's a good point, we did use the standing room only tickets that were provided with our tournament entry but that wasn't a good way to go.

I can say at least that we were there but I'd rather pony up the extra cash for real seats.

I live and work in Bellevue NE, about 6 miles from rosenblatt and less than a mile from the Holiday Inn that biggerpapi will be at. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or post them here, I will get back to you as soon as I can.

The fields in Council Bluffs are quite nice, they are close to the river though, so expect a stiff breeeze. As far as tickets to the games are concerned, I would also strongly recommend reserved seats. If the Huskers make it you will have to wait forever at the "chance" of getting in. I had a friend that waited 27 hours 2 years ago. Overall though, I hope NE is in it for your sake, it is an unreal experience when you see the sea of red for the 1st time. I am a transplant to NE, so not a husker fan, but I respect them a lot, it goes God, family, Huskers in this part of the world.

My sons team was there last year and is returning this year. I thought it was a well run tournament.
Last year we had one day of rain. The field we were scheduled to play on had washed out. The tournament organizers reschedule a lot of games and still got everything done on time. We stayed in Omaha and had a great time

Hey Ump, what team is your son on? We'll look you up this year?

biggerpapi you have a pm

I'm taking notes!....HSBBWer's its been good to hear from those of you who are going and or who have already been there. Please keep filling in the blanks. Really appreciate it! I figure the more we know, the better we can prepare.
Thx!!!

We had an interesting experience on our last day of the tournament last year. We went to play in Lincoln at a new facility. We were scheduled to play at 8am so the boys got up early to travel from Council Bluffs. When we got there we had a "nice" surprise. Someone had broken into the maintainance shed and flooded the field we were scheduled to play on. Then we learned that just outside the right field fence a meth lab in a shed had been busted during the night so the two north fields of the complex had to be evacuated while the hazmat team blew up some of the contents. I think we got to play around 11. Our opponents had stayed that night in Lincoln and returned to their motel. We had nowhere to go and due to the park being new there was basically no shade. (very hot day) Turned out to be our worst performance of the tournament but definitely a different memory for everyone.

P.S. The idiots that flooded the field and had the meth lab were one and the same and did get caught.

Meth lab next to a baseball field,.... geesh,..lovely.
( EEEK!!!!)