Description: An in-depth look at the machinations behind the managing and playing style of college baseball, "The Road to Omaha" offers a series of profiles that examine the people behind and around the College World Series.
Brief description: Ryan McGee has covered motorsports, college baseball and football, MLB, the NFL, the NBA, the PGA, and action sports for ESPN and FOXSports.com. He is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine and has worked as a writer and producer for NASCAR Images. He's won two Sports Emmys with three other nominations, including his work on the film Dale, the only authorized biography of Dale Earnhardt. He lives in North Carolina with his family.
Review Quotes:
"Ryan McGee offers a fascinating look inside one of the best, and most underplayed, tournaments in sports, the College World Series. I learned something about the event on every page. It made me wonder why I've only been to Omaha once." --Tim Kurkjian, ESPN analyst and author of Is This A Great Game or What?
"There is no more enrapturing event in American sports than the College World Series. And no writer has captured the energy and passion and thrill of the Omaha experience better than Ryan McGee. The Road to Omaha doesn't just tell you the story. It puts you in the batters box, a ninety-five-mph fastball coming your way. One warning: You'll sweat while you read." --Jeff Pearlman author of Boys Will Be Boys: The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty "Ryan McGee made me feel like I was there in the sunshine at Rosenblatt Stadium. But by the time I was done, I wondered: Why haven't I been here before? This is great!" --Richard Ben Cramer, author of Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life "The on-field action was gripping--Fresno State became the lowest seed ever to win--but Omaha goes deeper, delivering insights into how the college game is played and why the CWS and Nebraskan culture intertwine." --Sports Illustrated "For less than the price of dinner at one of Omaha's famed steakhouses you can submerge yourself in the festival-like atmosphere of the CWS. . . . Each chapter weaves the history and pomp into a days' action at Rosenblatt Stadium." --BaseballAmerica.com