Omaha Exploration

Before Johnny Rosenblatt, there was Vinton Street Park. Despite being gone for more than a decade, the “Diamond on the Hill” still lives on as Omaha’s most beloved.

There had been talk of replacing the ball field at 13th and Vinton following the 1936 fire, but those efforts were delayed by the war. The opportunity finally presented itself in 1945 after voters approved a nearly half-million-dollar bond issue. Locations for the new park included Aksarben at 67th and Center and Fontenelle Park at 42nd and Ames Avenue. Fontenelle Park appeared to be the most likely option given its history of hosting amateur games that drew large crowds and as the host of the American Legion finals after the old park burned to the ground. City officials ultimately decided on a 40-acre site in South Omaha along Deer Park Boulevard between 10th and 13th Streets, just a half mile south of the old ballpark. It cost just $17.

The proposed ballpark would sit atop a hill that overlooked Riverview Park (present-day Henry Doorly Zoo). The original plans for Omaha Municipal Stadium called for a light gray brick facade with large windows above the entrances and seats for 13,483 spectators. The brick was ultimately deemed too expensive, so less expensive concrete was used instead. Before construction was completed, a second bond of $290,000 was needed.

The inaugural event at the stadium in 1948 was a game between an all-star team that included Nebraska native and future Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Richie Ashburn competing against a team composed of players from Storz Brewery. To no one’s surprise, the all-stars dominated on their way to an 11-3 win. It also hosted a pro football exhibition between the New York Giants and Los Angeles Rams.

While the primary purpose of the new stadium was to attract a Minor League Baseball team, then-City Commissioner Johnny Rosenblatt and his partners reached an agreement to relocate the St. Louis Cardinals’ Class-A affiliate to Omaha for the 1949 season.

The group also saw an opportunity for the new stadium to host the College World Series, which had been in search of a permanent home after playing its first three tournaments in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Wichita, Kansas. In a stroke of genius and incredible foresight, they succeeded in landing the college baseball championship, which played its first games in Omaha in 1950.

By the time Zesto first opened its doors south of the stadium, Omaha had replaced Columbus, Ohio as the Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate in 1955. While the city’s affiliation with the Cardinals came to an end after the 1959 season, Omaha Municipal Stadium continued to play host to the CWS. It remained without a professional ball club for two years until the Los Angeles Dodgers relocated their Triple-A team to Omaha for the 1961 and 1962 seasons. After the Dodgers left town, Omaha found itself without a minor league team once again.

It was only after the Omaha native was elected mayor that the stadium earned its identity as the iconic Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium. Born on Christmas Day 1907, Rosenblatt was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, one of six children, and began selling newspapers at the age of seven. He was a star player at Technical High School and went on to play under scholarship at the University of Iowa. Over the course of a 20-year career, he played semi-pro ball under the name Johnny Ross and two seasons of pro ball in the Western League for the Omaha Packers in 1934 and 1935. He played in a 1927 exhibition with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and even faced Satchel Paige, saying, “I never saw a pitch travel so fast in all my life.”

Rosenblatt remained connected to the game while sponsoring youth teams and working as a salesman for Roberts Dairy. Serving as Mayor of Omaha from 1954 to 1961, the city named the stadium in his honor in 1964, recognizing his effort to not only build the stadium but to attract a professional team and the CWS.

Rosenblatt got to witness the CWS’s financial struggles firsthand as it failed to turn a profit for 10 of its first 12 years. Having passed away in 1979, he never got to see the massive hit it would become in Omaha. The stadium found a new co-tenant after the Kansas City Royals were added through Major League Baseball expansion in 1969, with Rosenblatt becoming home to the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate, the Omaha Royals. But as the CWS grew in size and popularity, it created headaches for the Royals. The stadium’s continual expansion made it difficult to fill the cavernous park that ended up as the largest non-MLB stadium in the country with a capacity over 23,000, and it forced the team to make extended road trips each June while the tournament was underway.

As a result, the Royals began exploring the possibility of building a new, smaller stadium to share with Creighton University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha as early as 2003. While that never came to fruition, it seemed inevitable that the Royals and the CWS could no longer co-exist in the same stadium. Even after spending $35 million to refurbish and upgrade Rosenblatt over the years, the NCAA made clear its preference for a new state-of-the-art downtown stadium. For all its history, Rosenblatt had begun to show its age, with drawbacks that included obstructed views, narrow concourses, limited parking, and a lack of nearby restaurants and bars.

Long before the effort picked up steam in the early 2000s, a committee that included Rosenblatt himself was formed in 1963 to review the possibility of a new park downtown. When the time finally came, not even a grassroots effort that included actor and avid college baseball fan Kevin Costner in 2007 could stop it. After five months of deliberation, the city gave in to the NCAA, fearing it would lose the series that generated a $90 million impact to the local economy, not to mention the prestige and advertising that came from having the city featured across ESPN broadcasts to a nationwide audience two weeks every year.

Rosenblatt was on life support in 2009 after Omaha and the NCAA agreed to a new 25-year contract stipulating that the city would build a new downtown stadium and relocate the event by 2011. During its final season, The Blatt served as home to the Omaha Royals, the CWS, and the Omaha Nighthawks of the United Football League, and also served as the site of the league’s championship game that season.

The Omaha Royals relocated to Sarpy County, where they built the smaller, more family-friendly stadium they had long desired, and became the Omaha Storm Chasers. The CWS, meanwhile, moved into the new $140 million Charles Schwab Field at 13th and Cuming Street near the CHI Health Center. Since then, the ballpark has hosted an MLB regular season game between the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers in 2019 and serves as home to the Creighton University Bluejays and the Big Ten Baseball Tournament.

When Rosenblatt was demolished in 2012, the land was purchased by the zoo for $12 million and converted to a parking lot. Henry Doorly Zoo did offer a tip of the cap to its longtime neighbor when it built Johnny Rosenblatt’s Infield at the Zoo, a miniature replica of the ballpark within the parking lot that allows youngsters to run the bases and sit in the stands. Lost, however, was the ability to experience the carnival-like atmosphere that made The Blatt so unique — the beach balls in the bleachers, countless rounds of the wave, and the spectacular fireworks shows visible from the stands. Gone too are Dingerville, the ice cream cones from Zesto on 13th Street, and the homeowners who turned their lawns into makeshift parking lots to make a buck.

In some ways, Rosenblatt was the minor league and college baseball equivalent of Fenway Park or Wrigley Field. While both were older, it’s hard to argue that either has seen more epic games or more celebrated players, including George Brett, Frank White, Will Clark, Barry Bonds, and Bob Gibson.

The new downtown stadium, for all its proximity to restaurants and bars, its luxury suites, open concourse, and views of the Omaha skyline, can’t replace what was lost when Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium came down.

What are some of your memories at Rosenblatt Stadium? I’d like to hear what you have to say so feel free to leave a comment. Until next time, keep exploring!

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Sources

• Omaha World-Herald archives
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Rosenblatt_Stadium
• https://www.nebaseballhistory.com/muni.html
• https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/rosenblatt-college-world-series/
• https://omaha.net/places/rosenblatt-stadium
• https://www.si.com/college/2021/06/29/how-omaha-became-college-world-series-host
• Johnny Rosenblatt | Douglas County Historical Society
• Western League Park – Omaha Magazine
• Louis Rosenblatt (1867-1942) – Find a Grave Memorial
• John Ross “Johnny” Rosenblatt (1907-1979) – Find a Grave Memorial