Well it has been a pretty interesting week around the office of the Omaha Royals.  We had the announcement that the City plans to give the go ahead to building a stadium in North Downtown of Omaha.  This comes after months of speculation over whether or not they were going to build a new one for CWS or renovate Rosenblatt.  It has been a very touchy subject with many people in the community and it will be interesting to see what happens as this new project goes ahead.  Also, our President Alan Stein was in town the last couple of days, attending meetings about the stadium issue, and just yesterday, shooting our commercial that will run before opening day April 3, which is just 34 days away.  WOW!

I believe that the commercial is going to be pretty good and pretty entertaining.  It was my first commercial shoot so I was new to the scene, but I caught on quite quick with the experience of fellow Hollywood actors, Paul Hammes and Adam Kelly. They had a couple of words to share with me before the shoot and I really took them to heart, "don't look at the camera!"  It was fun because I was dressed up in a steak outfit, yep, a big T-bone steak!  My job was to move around and throw peanuts, which was a dangerous weapon at times, and my personal touch to the scene was when I began to sizzle like I was on the grill, YES!!!  The commercial should be up and running in a couple of weeks, and when I get a copy of it, I will for sure put it on here for everyone to see.  Just a quick sipnit, Alan was the main big-wig for the commercial and he was wearing my robe which has become a hot item and I will be selling on Ebay to the highest bidder!  I have some pictures from the shoot which was filmed all over the office.

In other news, I have brought my painting skills, which I honed from the experts at Cobb Construction, to Omaha and the Royals.  Last Saturday, I came into the office and helped our Merchandising Manager Jason Kinney touch up the gift shop in which he runs.  The gift shop was not up to par with respects to color and looks.  With my own spice, we came in and painted the areas in which a difference will be seen.  The place should pop more with the white compared to the tan color that was in there before.  I have to give all my painting skills to my teachers, Bill Cobb Jr. and Mike Elder, without their leadership and constant "teaching" about how to paint properly and efficiency, I could not have been able to do this job. Also I have to give credit to Clint Pierce who was there to pick me up when I slacked behind.  To tell you how good it went, I wore khaki's and didn't even get any paint on them!!

That is a lot of information and I am sorry that I have not been doing a lot of blogs, but I promise that they will pick up even though there is a lot going on.  I am anxiously waiting April 3 when the real work begins and the hard work that we have put in so far will be shown. 

On a lesser note, our basketball team won their game last week halting our opponents to 4 points in the second half.  That was not the less point, that would be when I "challenged" the referee to a call and it did not go my way, and then when the referee challenged me,  the ref won again and the bleachers lost...so basically I don't like playing with ref's because I never did get any experience in High School playing with referee's.  I know those are excuses but if know me, that is the attitude I was born with and that is me, it's a Cobb thing.

Commerical Shoot

Well it is another wonderful frizzing cold day here in Omaha.  Yesterday had to be the coldest for me in a while.  The wind was not even blowing and it still felt like -30.  But what makes warms me up is the fact that Spring Training has started and that only means one thing, baseball is here.  It is that time of year where NBA drags on after the All-Star break, and college basketball is not fun to watch for about another three weeks, especially if your team isn't performing very well (Illinois).  Baseball just makes you think of summer and for anyone in the Midwest, they can appreciate that.  The Royals are looking to have a big year with some new key additions and with the emergence of new coach Trey Hillman.  Things in KC are going to be different, because Hillman is changing the way baseball is played.  He has brought over a Japanese since of style to the Royals and I believe that will pay off for them this year.

As for my Cardinals, I think it will be a tough go of things for them this season.  They haven't gone into a "rebuilding" or "transitional" year like this for a while.  But I believe that they have the right players to make it to the playoffs this year, as long as they can stay close until the all-star break.  We will get Carp back, and all the other injuries should be healed up by then to make a run for it.  It will be an interesting year.

As for things on this front, it was so cold yesterday that they canceled our basketball game.  We play at a public school and they did not have class yesterday so they were not going to open the gym for us.  In some way that is a benefit for us, because we could use the break.  Other than that, the season begins in 42 days which doesn't feel that far away.  Things are beginning to be thwarted towards opening day, making sure all the artwork and designs are in.

So that means I better get to work on the program because it goes out to print soon, as well as that dirty ol' pocket schedule. Later 

Well before I begin with my blog I would like to say that the Royals basketball team is now on a winning streak....of 2.  I could make a joke about the Royals but now that I work for them I will refrain from making that comment.  We came together as a team last Wednesday night, passing and moving as a team.  The opponent decided to run a 2-3 zone defense to confuse us and it did for a while.  We struggled to get some points on the board, but with a timely timeout we composed ourselves and began to pass and move with ease of the Harlem Globetrotters!  The assists were the most for the season, but we still need to work on our finishing.  Thats it for my coaching. 

Now on to a hotter topic around the Omaha area which involves the conflict of whether there should be a new stadium built downtown or to renovate Rosenblatt Stadium.  Now I have only lived in the area for about a month and a half, but I have learned some things about this controversy.  People think that since I work at Rosenblatt, that I have insider news that no one else receives.  We, the Royals, receive the same information that you get on the news and in newspapers.  I feel that I do not deserve to give an opinion on this issue because I have not lived in Omaha, or been to a College World Series game.  I am just taking all this in and learning new things each day, the same news that you get in the newspaper or television.

I like to hear the concerns of the community and I like to see what the proposals are for the new changes.  It doesn't matter what I think on the issue because I will not be making a decision on the matter.  It is just like when Chief Illiniwek was banned from the University of Illinois, many people had many different views on the matter.  It is like living a reality TV program that you are unaware about.  I work at Rosenblatt Stadium and I personally do not know what is going to happen, but I hear from many different sides what might or might not happen, it is a different scenario each day.  Let me know what you think about the issue by commenting on my blog below. 

On a personal note, I am saddened by the shooting on the campus of Northern Illinois University yesterday afternoon.  I come from that area and some of my friends have been to and visited Northern before, but I believe they were not involved. We do not know why people do things that they do, but you have to be ready for anything at any moment.  We do not know what tomorrow will bring and that is why we should cherish the time we have together now.  My thoughts and prayers go out to the students and families which were affected by this tragedy.

Well it has been a couple days since my last blog so I better give you some updates about the happenings in the bullpen and around the front office here at the Omaha Royals.  It has been a week of continous work getting ready for the season opener on April 3.  Each day we get closer so that means that deadlines are starting to creep up on us.  The pocket schedule is an on-going project that is almost completed, with just some little details to update. 

The bullpen did not undergo the major changes that I thought was going to happen.  After all the uproar that I talked about being done, the only things that changed were Nick and James' desks.  They got a little more room, mine was not even touched so there were not that much done.  But the bullpen is doing pretty good, we have had a boost from our coach Jason Kinney.  He has deemed himself "on fire" because he has had a good run with sales and making some good contacts.  I contribute the success to the auora of the interns pressuring him to step up show us how it is done.  I know I am learning some very helpful phone techniques and saying, "let me ask you this?"

Well there was something that happened this week that has never happened to me before, maybe one time but I really can't remember.  We had our weekly basketball game last Wednesday and we were playing one of the weaker teams in the division.  Well we were dominating the game for the first half and starting to slack off towards the second half.  The clock was ticking down with about a minute left and the Royals (us) up by 2.  I preceded to get fouled went to the free throw line to shoot my foul shots....I am going to halt the blog here and tell you that I am boycotting the Illinois Fighting Illini Basketball team this year because my grandma's (Modelle and Treva) could shoot and make more free-throws than the entire Illini team.  Well I made one out of two and we were up three, the other team came down and passed around and shot a desperate three pointer and made it to tie the game.  We got the ball and dribbled down the court where Nick decided to thrrow up a three-pointer which missed...luckily it went out on the other team.  3 seconds to go in the game.  Now I was never in this situation before in junior high or high school, also because the game is reffed by officials it is not good for me because I tend to foul and talk back alot, which I get from my dad and sister. But 3 seconds to go, I call a time-out to set up a play that is common with 3 seconds to go.  James (intern) was going to pass the ball in...well the play did not work and the only player James could pass to was, Nick (intern).  Nick again threw up a desperate shot.....it was an air ball....I (intern)was underneath the basket and saw that it was not going to hit the rim so....I jumped to intercept it in the air....grabbed the ball, hit it off the board and made the shot with the buzzer going off. It was the intern combo play! 

Kevin McNabb, who is our Media Relations guy, told me that it was a flashback to the Houston vs North Carolina St. game in the 80s. We won the game, which was our first of the season.  I believe that with this win, we will have the confidence and skills to compete with the rest of the teams in the league.  I have a staff meeting so I better get going, until next time....lug-nut, fixed it!!!

Well it is the day after the Super Bowl and I think I have gained 10 pounds.  We had a Super Bowl party last night at Jason Kinney's place, and those of you who don't know who that is, it is the bullpen coach and the one in the corn suit a couple blogs down.  We seriously could have fed an army with all the food we had there.  Since I do not have cooking gas yet, I decided to bring some deli rolls with a southwestern spicy touch.  We had homemade pizza, lasagna, fried ravoli, chicken parmesan, buffalo chicken mix and a lot more.  It makes me full just listing all the stuff we had.  The game was not very exciting until the 4th quarter and I was more than pleased to see the Patriots have their perfect season broke up.

Work in the office is steadily getting done with pocket schedules and magazine ads getting completed.  We have our National Anthem tryouts coming up the next two weekends, so if you would like to sing the National Anthem before a Royals home game, then come on out to either the Mall of the Bluffs on the 9th, or Oak View Mall on the 16th.  The weekends are starting to fill up for me with the National Anthem tryouts coming up and this past weekend, the Home Show Trade Expo.  The Home Show was held in the Qwest Center in which companies came in and sold products and gave demonstrations.  We had a great time having kids throw to the speed pitch we had set-up.  In all, the events will generate a lot of support for the Omaha Royals and our 40th season of Fun for Everyone. 

I better get back to work, I thought I might squeeze in a blog on this busy Monday, so until the next time....