Tales from Omaha: The Indians and the College World Series

INDIANAPOLIS - Here comes the College World Series, and to find out what that means in the clubhouse of the Indians, we could start with…

Kevin Kramer, and the jar of dirt he cherishes.
 
Or Jerrick Suiter, and the TCU uniform in a frame he will always keep.
 
Adam Frazier and Erich Weiss, with the bittersweet images of what might have been. Or Brandon Waddell, and the memory of one of the best nights of his life.
 
But no, let's start with Nick Kingham, and his shaky hands.
 
This was last Monday. Texas was on the brink of closing out Tennessee Tech and punching its proverbial ticket to the College World Series, with a junior right-hander named Nolan Kingham trying to get the final outs. A thousand miles away, in an Indianapolis clubhouse, an anxious big brother peered at the game that was streaming on his iPhone.
 
"I was holding the phone for a couple of guys, and the phone kept twitching and I couldn't keep my hand straight," Nick would say a few days later. "So, I was definitely nervous."
 
No worries. Little brother made the pitches, and Texas moved on. "It's huge for him and I'm probably just as excited as he is right now," Kingham said. "If I had gone to college that would have been 100 percent my No. 1 goal."
 
So many of his Indians' teammates understand, because so many have been there. When the CWS starts Saturday, they will all flash back to their own college days and the experiences of a lifetime. They do every June.
 
There is Weiss, whose memory is the oldest.
 
He was there with Texas in 2011 - one of 36 Longhorn CWS appearances. Texas went 0-2, knocked out by a 3-0 loss to North Carolina. The big Tar Heels' hit was a two-run single by a future Indian named Jacob Stallings. But Weiss in the CWS is forever part of Texas' long orange line.
 
Weiss: "I grew up watching college baseball probably more than Major League Baseball. I watched the College World Series every year. Just to be able to go there was a dream come true.
 
"What I remember most is probably my first at-bat there. There were a ton of people, and you were getting to play against the best in the nation. I think I lined out or something like that. I think we were two and out, but it was still a pretty cool experience. Just the pride whenever I see Texas go again, it's definitely a surreal moment."
 
There is Kramer, who was in Omaha with UCLA in 2012 and '13. And Frazier, who joined him in 2013 with Mississippi State.
 
The two ended up facing one another in the best-of-three championship series in 2013, when UCLA's pitchers ruled the world. The Bruins allowed four runs in five College World Series games and finished off Mississippi State 3-1 and 8-0. Frazier had five hits in the tournament. Kramer had four, including two in the final decisive win.
 
Frazier: "We made it to the super regional and took care of Virginia at Virginia. We weren't supposed to win that. A lot of teams thought they had achieved something - which they had - just going to Omaha, but we wanted to win the thing. That was our mindset. Playing at Mississippi State, baseball is everything there. I remembered once we made that championship series, I think there were 30,000 fans and most of them were Mississippi State fans.
 
"(UCLA) played to that park. It was a big place. They pitched up in the zone and let you see how far you could hit. Basically, that's what it felt like. We fell short, but it'll be something I never forget."
 
Kramer: "I was lucky to go my freshman year in 2012. We didn't play too well. We had a really good team, but it just wasn't in the cards for us that year. And then in 2013, we got hot going into the playoffs and just rode the wave. I think our experiences in 2012 helped us. We had unbelievable pitching, amazing defense, and in that ballpark, you didn't need too many runs.
 
"Whenever people talk to me about it, the only thing I think about is when we dogpiled (after clinching the title), I remember rolling off and I saw fireworks going off. That picture will always be in my head, it will always be ingrained in me. I remember just standing there, like, is this really happening? Not really sure to celebrate, or if we had another game to play, we had been on that roll for so long. With those teammates, you felt like you didn't want it to end. Obviously, it ended in a perfect way and I'll always cherish it. The grounds crew let us take dirt from the infield, so I have that in a jar back home."
 
With those two now on the same Indians team, might that series ever get discussed?
 
Frazier: "He's never brought it up. Obviously, I haven't brought it up, either."
 
Kramer: "I'm not going to bring it up because I've been in that position, when we lost in '12. And it's not an easy one."
 
There is Suiter, whose TCU team went 1-2 in the 2014 CWS.
 
"The celebration with my teammates to go to Omaha is one of my coolest experiences I've ever had. I had been with a lot of those guys for three years and we had been through a lot together. As cliché as it sounds, the blood, sweat and tears. To have that with your teammates that you sacrificed with for so long is unlike anything else."
 
He was the Horned Frogs' DH and had a big super regional with five hits but cooled to a 2-for-10 in Omaha. One of those two losses was in 15 innings to Virginia.
 
"I remember getting pulled in the ninth and trying to do everything I could ritual-wise to try and get us a run. I think I've got a picture with cups in my ears and my sunglasses upside down. I got turned into a meme on Twitter. I was Internet famous for a week.
 
"I've got my jersey, I know that. My dad put it up in a frame. I think I've still got my backpack from Omaha."
 
By the way, the Virginia pitcher who started that 15-inning game in 2014 and pitched the first seven? Brandon Waddell. "I remember joking with teammates, I threw seven and I didn't even throw half the game," he said.
 
That was the first chapter of a College World Series fairy tale for Waddell. Next, he would throw a complete game at Vanderbilt to keep the Cavaliers alive. Alas, the following night, the Commodores beat Virginia to win the championship.
 
"I can still remember, I was right on the rail. You're standing there, and you feel like you deserve to be out there dogpiling. To stand on the rail watching another team do it when you were that close, it's tough. You want to forget it, but I'll never forget it. I'm just glad I got a chance to rewrite that memory."
 
The rewrite came in 2015. The Cavaliers were back in Omaha, and Waddell was back on the mound. He beat Florida and started another game against Florida that Virginia eventually won. Then came game 3 of the championship series. Winner take all. Loser goes home broken-hearted. And the opponent again was Vanderbilt.
 
"Business as usual," Waddell described his approach. "It's something that was kind of stressed, don't make it bigger than what it is. Obviously, it's a big moment, it's something that you're going to remember forever, no matter what side of it you're on. But when you go out there, you're focused on just getting outs and making pitches, not everything that goes with it."
 
It started badly. Waddell gave up two runs in the first inning. "It's a human response to think last year we were here, a here-we-go-again kind of thing," Waddell said. The key, in his words, was to "turn the page."
 
Which he did. Vanderbilt did not score another run. Virginia rallied to take a 4-2 lead into the ninth, and with the Cavaliers' bullpen taking over, Waddell was back in the dugout in Omaha, just like 2014. But in the sequel, he wasn't leaning forlornly on the rail, waiting for the other team to celebrate.
 
"I'm a big pacer. Once I was out of the game I was pacing up and down the dugout the entire time. Guys were up on the rail and I kind of ducked in. trying to see what's going on."
 
A little later, he was near the bottom of the celebration pile. He's never felt more crushed, or happier. One of the things Waddell still savors - he was named to the all-tournament team in Omaha both years.
 
"If you look at teams that are there - the best of the best - they're playing for such a big moment at the end, and to be able to perform that level, to be able to keep your team in the game as much as possible, to do my job, to be able to do that two years in a row is something that means a lot to me."
 
He'll be watching another College World Series next week, during any spare moments between Indianapolis games. A lot of the Indians will, including a certain big brother. 
"I'm going to try my very best to check in," Nick Kingham said.
This time, he said, his hands probably won't be shaking.