Tal Anderson Field

All photos of Tal Anderson Field available on Flickr.

Anybody who's followed this blog for awhile might remember all the work trips I had to make to Omaha at my previous job.  I probably went there close to 20 times in a span from 2016-2019.  So I could not help but laugh when I started with a new firm a few years ago that happens to have an Omaha office.  I immediately knew that at some point, I was going to be on a project with that office in some capacity, and my lifetime of visiting The Big O would never end.  Sure enough, a couple years ago I started working on a large college STEM building in nearby Lincoln, and I've been back to Nebraska several more times since.  To this point, due to stupid meetings and general bad timing, it's never worked out where I could see a game while I've been back, but I was finally able to sneak in a University of Nebraska-Omaha game this week while in town for a construction site visit, and in doing so tallied my first new ballpark of 2024.  The UNO campus is in the Aksarben Village neighborhood which is kind of smack-dab in the middle of the enormous swath of land that is Omaha, and I attended a Tuesday evening game at their brand new baseball facility, Tal Anderson Field.

The University of Nebraska-Omaha is a fairly large public university that plays in Division I, but their athletics program has really only exploded in the last decade or so as their campus has grown.  Their major D1 sport for the longest time was hockey and were the first program to build a new facility on campus in 2015 (also built with major financial contribution from alumnus and local business owner Tal Anderson), and their baseball and softball programs followed with their own dedicated fields in 2021.  Before Tal Anderson Field opened, the baseball program was Division II and essentially nomadic, playing at a combination of various high school and city fields around town.  There are certainly a lot of instances where college programs say they "need" a new facility for recruiting or to attract donors or for a litany of financial reasons, but UNO literally just needed a home, and it is a very nice home.  The field is just west of the aforementioned hockey arena, and it actually shares a concourse with Connie Claussen Field, a softball field that was built as part of the project.  This provides a very unique setup where restrooms, concessions, entry point, and even some of the viewing and staff areas on the 2nd level are shared between fields.  I thought this was an ingenious use of land and space and frankly I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.  It still gives each team and field its own distinctive and separate seating bowl and allows for games to be played at the same time, so nothing is compromised in that regard.  You enter both parks from the east and Tal Anderson Field is situated to face northeast, and the softball diamond to face southeast, with the west-east corridor shared cutting across the two.  If you were to take this shared facility concept away, nothing else would really stand out for the stadium, but again I'm sure Omaha is more than happy to just have a nice permanent home.  There are fixed seats from dugout to dugout, with lawn areas down the lines, a perfectly symmetrical outfield wall, and a videoboard in right-center.  As has been the trend just about everywhere at fields of this size, the playing surface is 100% artificial turf including the "dirt" and the mound.  The ballpark holds about 1500 people, and I was pleasantly surprised to be a part of a near-capacity crowd for a weeknight game against intercity rival Creighton University.

Two things I certainly was not prepared for when I walked into the ballpark that night: 1) more than 100 people there on a Tuesday, and 2) to witness one of the longest 9-inning games of my life.  I still distinctly remember a 9-inning Red Sox-Angels affair in Anaheim on the Tour that was in excess of 4 hours, but aside from that, this had to be up near the top for me, clocking in at 3 hours and 47 minutes.  Concession lines were long for most of the game on a $2 Tuesday (which certainly padded that attendance figure) and I would not be shocked if the ballpark ran out of Busch Light at this long of a game.  I had a seat 8 rows directly behind home plate for $12, within the demilitarized zone between Creighton fans to my left and Omaha fans to my right.  The Blue Jays pulled all the way out to a 7-1 lead by the 8th inning and this was when most people left, but the Mavericks made a game of it, tallying 3 in their half of the 8th and 2 in the 9th to nearly complete the comeback, but ultimately falling 7-6.  It was a very sloppily pitched game with a lot of deep counts, mound visits, umpire reviews, and pitching changes, all of which contributed heavily to the long game time.  In total, there were 420 pitches, 16 walks, and 7 hit batsmen, thrown by 14 total pitchers.  Blue Jay leadoff hitter Nolan Sailors was actually plunked 3 times and somehow refrained from charging the mound.  The most impressive hitter of the night for me was Henry Zipay (pronounced ZOO-pay) of the Omaha Mavericks.  He was a shortstop hitting out of the 9-hole so more than likely I just saw a good game from him and not an accurate representation of his talent, but he smoked the ball 3 times, including a hard-hit single through the right side to bring the Mavs within 1 in the 9th.  First baseman Will MacLean of Creighton and LF Drew Lechnir of Omaha each contributed 2 doubles respectively into the spacious power alleys of this ballpark.  The only decent pitcher of the night was a diminutive sidewinder for the Blue Jays named Tommy Lamb.  He struck out all 7 batters he faced in middle relief.

Excluding cities of residence, Omaha is probably in the top 3 of places I've visited most, and it's a city I've grown quite fond of and familiar with.  There are certainly worse places to have work travel, and especially given the fact that I live in the middle of nowhere now, I relish any opportunity to be in any urban area for a couple of days.  I'm hoping I can make it back out for another game in Lincoln or Omaha in the late summer for my project's punchlist.

park rankings and statistics:

aesthetics - 6
views from park - 4
view to field - 9
surrounding area - 3 (UNO athletic facilities)
food variety - 2
nachos - 2 (bag o' chips 'n' cheese)
beer - 8 ($2 but points deducted for Busch)
vendor price - 9
ticket price - 8
atmosphere - 7 (much better than I was expecting)
walk to park - 4
parking price/proximity - 10 (adjacent lot for free)
concourses - 6 (the one shared side was cool)
team shop - n/a

kids area - n/a

best food - hot dog
most unique stadium feature - shared concourse with neighboring softball field
best jumbotron feature - sponsor of the game

best between-inning feature - Quality Brands Maverick Stampede

field dimensions - 330/410/330

starters - Shea Wendt (CRE) v. Carter Navin (UNO)
opponent - Creighton Blue Jays
time of game - 3:47
attendance - 1278
score - 7-6 L

Brewers score that day - 9-5 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 4/12/24:

Brewers 8-3, --; 3 @ Orioles, 3 v. Padres

Twins 4-6, -4.0; 4 @ Tigers, 3 @ Orioles

Orioles 8-4, -1.5; 3 v. Brewers, 3 v. Twins

2024 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 0

Peter - 2