Best of the Midwest: College World Series vs. United States Olympic Trials

Best of the Midwest: College World Series vs. United States Olympic Trials

When you think of Omaha, you usually think of a few things: Peyton Manning, corn, and the equivalent of a candy store for Ron Swanson. Yet, every four years (or five, thanks to a pandemic), this Midwestern city becomes a marquee sports locale when the Olympic Trials and the NCAA College World Series come to town, usually overlapping with each other.

As an avid fan of both baseball and swimming, it’s a huge few weeks for me as I often find myself watching one event on TV and the other on my laptop to avoid missing a single moment of action for either sport. So, with the Olympic team set and the Mississippi State Bulldogs now tasked with rebuilding a national championship-winning team, what better way to honor two of my favorite sporting events than by comparing the two?

Quality of Play

The Trials slightly out-touches the World Series (no pun intended) when it comes to the talent level. Meaning, a pretty solid portion of the people to make it to Wave II could have a chance at a professional career. On the other hand, there’s a fairly low chance that many players in the College World Series, and of the ones who do it are sometimes not the ones you expect. Shane Bieber, anyone?

With these sports, there’s also the fact that the ultimate goals are completely different. With swimming, the Olympics features the best from around the world. On the other hand, with baseball, because you can’t play in the Games if you’re currently signed to an MLB organization and because Major League Baseball is generally seen as the highest level of organized baseball in the world, winning the World Series is almost the ultimate thing a player can accomplish outside of any individual honors like the Hall of Fame, MVP, etc.

Celebrations

Before I wrote this, I had the CWS all but certain as my winner. Who doesn’t like watching a good dogpile? Then came the 2021 Olympic Trials and all of the dramatic finishes that came with it. From Annie Lazor punching her ticket to her first Olympics mere weeks after the passing of her father to Michael Andrew silencing his doubters, to all of the young guns making it to the Olympics before actually making it to college, the 2021 Trials had more drama than an elementary school play.

With that being said, I have to give this one to the Greatest Show on Dirt simply because of the fact that you can’t exactly dogpile at the Olympic Trials. If somebody were to get rushed by their teammates and coaches after making their first Olympic Team, pushed to the ground, and then have said people pile on top of them, it would likely result in at least a concussion – if not worse. That, and of all the strange things that I’ve seen at swim meets – this includes a swimmer/coach launching herself into a pool, sweats and all, to stop a kid who had false started. This would likely take the cake.

Storylines

This was another close one because of how diverse the events can be, yet similar in many ways. A major storyline at Trials was Ryan Lochte’s chase of a fifth Olympic bid in the 200 individual medley. Likewise, LSU’s run to the Super Regionals received a ton of focus due to the impending retirement of Head Coach Paul Mainieri, who led LSU to five appearances at the College World Series, with one ending in a title and another as runnerup.

Likewise, for all their faults in covering the NCAA playoffs (Karl “Texas Tech Longhorns” Ravech, I’m looking at you), ESPN does a great job of highlighting those who likely will not be making the jump to the big leagues. As Florida State faced elimination late in a game against the aforementioned Red Raiders in 2019, the announcers actually took the time to talk about a banking job that a senior who was currently batting would be taking following the conclusion of the World Series.

Both sporting events also involve a lot of “versus” types of storylines. The up-and-comer vs. the veteran, the underdog vs. the blue blood, and the biker-approaching-the-horizon looking for that one last hurrah were all some of the great stories we saw in both events. Besides the aforementioned Mainieri story, 2019 saw longtime Florida State head coach Mike Martin make one last trip to Omaha in his 39^th and final season, with that run being the last of a stellar 17 appearances at the College World Series.

The Spectacle

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

This was another close one just because of how big both events are. No matter if you know someone competing or not, the Trials are a huge spectator event, and tickets sell out months in advance. Likewise, the College World Series is a destination event for college baseball fans, and many will attend the event no matter whether their team is in or not. From travel teams to families, neutral fans, to people who once played in Omaha themselves, it’s an event that almost anyone can enjoy.

To just make either event is a huge accomplishment in its own right. Both take years of hard work, and in the case of the CWS, making it through a gauntlet of almost 60 regular-season games, followed by a postseason where all you can do is hope that your team stays hot, healthy, and makes it through.

The Final Score

Because this is a swimming site, and because the Olympic Trials had much less negative drama than the College World Series (*cough* NCAA *cough* N.C. State), I’m going to give this to the Trials. Sure, the margin of victory isn’t as big as that of Katie Ledecky in most freestyle races. It’s probably more like the finish of that 100 breast final between Michael Andrew, Andrew Wilson, and (almost maintaining that last name/first name thing we had going) Will Licon.

What’s your choice?

All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.

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