U-Va. Baseball Coach O'Connor Going Home, Bringing Back Memories at College World Series

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- There will be a moment once the first pitch is thrown in Virginia's first-ever College World Series game on Saturday that will reveal the arc that led Coach Brian O'Connor to this point. In the stands, the beginning. In the opposite dugout, the middle. On the field, the end.

As a child, O'Connor accompanied his father and two brothers through the gates of Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha to watch the College World Series, the event O'Connor considers the greatest in college sports. He played in the ballpark and can recall with vivid detail taking the mound for hometown Creighton University against Wichita State 18 Junes ago. And he once coached at the ballpark as an assistant to Paul Mainieri, his mentor who will coach Louisiana State in the opposing dugout on Saturday.

O'Connor has tried to play down his story -- he wants the spotlight to shine on his players, who have gone further than any other Virginia baseball team. But O'Connor knows his story will not fade away, because he knows it is rare that one's life can come full circle, when the climax serendipitously occurs right where the foundation was laid.

"It's like the perfect storm," O'Connor said.

Virginia defied distance, odds and the right arm of No. 1 draft pick Stephen Strasburg to improbably reach the College World Series. The Cavaliers' bid has caused a stir along Interstate 80, where baseball fans in Omaha and neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa, have awaited the return of the native son who married a Council Bluffs girl and whose father maintains a 402 area code.

"My entire family, my wife's family still lives there," O'Connor said. "All the friends that I went to high school with, all the people I went to college with. I held a number of jobs in the Omaha and Council Bluffs area. You know, all the people I had contacts with. For me, personally, going back there and having the opportunity to coach in Rosenblatt Stadium in the second-to-last year before it's demolished, is really special for me."

O'Connor was born in Omaha and raised just across the Missouri River in Council Bluffs. He lived a 10-minute drive from Rosenblatt Stadium, which will be demolished after next season in favor of a new venue, and started attending college baseball's annual showcase when he was 4 years old, because there is little else a Midwest-bred boy who loves baseball would do on June afternoons.

O'Connor stayed in Omaha to attend Creighton, playing a part in the Blue Jays' ride to the College World Series in 1991. His father, John, is reminded each June when he enters the ballpark of Creighton's 3-2, 12-inning loss to rival Wichita State, a game that is considered among the greatest in College World Series history, and one in which O'Connor pitched the 11th and 12th innings.

Eleven years later, O'Connor again reached the College World Series as a Notre Dame assistant coach under Mainieri, his best friend in the industry. Mainieri had taken a chance on O'Connor as a 23-year-old. He prepared O'Connor so much that Virginia Athletic Director Craig Littlepage offered the job to O'Connor, who did not have any head coaching experience, when he was only 32.

O'Connor could barely sleep on Sunday night, rolling over in bed at the thought of coaching against his mentor. The two will meet for a steak dinner sometime before Saturday's 7 p.m. game. They will shake hands or hug at home plate before the game begins -- O'Connor did not know which -- and they promised not to look at each other through the entire nine innings.

"It's probably going to be the most emotional thing that I've had to go through as a player or a coach -- without question," O'Connor said. "This guy, Paul Mainieri, means everything to me."

O'Connor played at Creighton for Jim Hendry, who is now vice president and general manager of the Chicago Cubs. Hendry recommended O'Connor to Mainieri, who later recommended O'Connor to Littlepage.