Stories Inside the Man Cave
Stories Inside the Man Cave
Episode 465: Jell-O Shots and Baseball Glory
Pat McEvoy, manager of Rocco's Pizza and Cantina, joins us to share the incredible story of how he created the CWS Jell-O Shot Challenge that has taken the College World Series by storm and raised over $350,000 for food banks nationwide. Growing up in Omaha with a deep love for college baseball, Pat accidentally turned a simple bar competition into a charitable phenomenon that's now as much a part of the CWS experience as the games themselves.
• Omaha native who grew up attending the College World Series with his father
• Started tracking team-based shot sales in 2012, inspired by a dueling piano bar competition
• Transitioned to pre-packaged Jell-O shots in 2019, making it easier to track and serve
• Competition went viral on social media, growing from 17 Twitter followers to over 50,000
• Now donates $1 from each shot to team food banks, with 50¢ staying in Omaha
• LSU fans set the record with over 70,000 shots consumed during their championship run
• Kentucky fans intentionally stopped at 69,069 shots last year
• Partnered with a new Jell-O shot company with 120,000 shots ready for this year's tournament
• "Rocco's on the Road" initiative has brought the concept to college venues across the country
• Murray State makes their first CWS appearance this year as the ultimate underdog story
Visit Rocco's Pizza and Cantina right across from gate two at Charles Schwab Field during the College World Series to be part of the Jell-O Shot Challenge and help support food banks across the country.
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Speaker 2:Well, if you have not been to Austin, texas, this time of year, it is cool, kind of for Austin Texas standards. But to the point about honest plumbing and air, get the HVAC, your unit, inspected, because triple-digit heat will be here any day and it will not let up until the end of September. So give our guys at Honest Plumbing and Air a call or online at their website. I am Sean Klesch, the host of Stories Inside the man Cave Podcast. So if you have never been to Omaha, nebraska, it is a prideful city community. They embrace the College World Series. This is year number 75. Embrace the college world series. This is year number 75 and we're about to meet a guy who really started a new tradition. Uh, and I I can't believe I admitted this to him that I have not been back as a fan since the last two years of rosenblatt stadium, the old, venerable, leaky, historic girl you know. And this guy, he is a part of charitable work, a manager of a bar and jello shots. You know those shots that we regretted back in college the next day and very colorful. Well, the College World Series and Jell-O Shots go hand in hand. And before we get to that, before we get this rolling. Follow us on each of our social media platforms Facebook, igx, youtube and TikTok. And the best part about subscribing to YouTube it's free. With the way things are going with our economy, we need more things free.
Speaker 2:So, as I have teased, I want to give you a little shot of what I'm talking about the cws jello shot challenge. Look at this rocco's pizza and cantina. Those are not the official jello shots at the right, that's just some generic graphic that I found and those are not in my condo as we speak. But but that board that dry erase board the gentleman you're about to meet here shortly. He fills that out as each team clenches a spot in the College World Series. Well, the field of eight is set. One team who plays in the stadium behind me is not there, but has been there more than anybody. But the CWS Jello Shot Challenge what a beautiful thing. And he will I've given him the go to make fun of me and give me a hard time for not experiencing this.
Speaker 2:The CWS Jell-O Shot Challenge. Let's talk about it. Murray State first ever trip to the promised land of college baseball in Omaha. The Murray State Racers has a stadium that seats about 800 people. It kind of resembles the wall of the old Rosenblatt, kind of falling apart a little bit, but it's beautiful. This is what's beautiful about college baseball and you know, what's also great are sponsors, particularly Honest Plumbing and Air Go. Follow them on their social media and give them a call, including Jim Saxton, state Farm Insurance and Dirty Martin's Place celebrating 99 years. The food's not healthy, but it is absolutely delicious. How about we bring in our guest? It's time to transition to the guy who makes a lot of people smile in Omaha and serves a S-ton of jello shots. Let's ride. Good morning, oh wait, good evening. Whatever time you're watching this, pat McAvoy of Rocco's Pizza and Cantina.
Speaker 3:It's tough to tell I don't sleep this time of year, so it's all the same to me. You know, Morning evening, noon night, I don't know. It's tough to tell I don't sleep this time of year, so it's all the same to me.
Speaker 2:you know, morning, evening, noon night, I don't. It's tough to tell my brother this. We reached out. Uh, I reached out to you on twitter. I should have done it in person. But let's get the criticism out of the way yeah, so you're obviously scared of jello shots.
Speaker 3:I mean, that's the only that's what I know about you for in the, in the little interaction we've had. I mean, I we have talked a little bit now and I just know you're scared to come to Omaha and throw back some jello shots. Hey, once too many, 30 is not enough, and I know that it happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know how it is. If you go back to our college years, you have one bad experience with a certain alcohol-related oh yeah. You never do it again. But then you find the moment that you'll do it again. So I'm thinking next year, 2026, maybe that time.
Speaker 3:Listen, if you don't make it, then I'm going to come down to Austin, we're going to go to Dirty's and we're going to have some food and we're going to have some Jell-O shots there. If that's the case I mean, I heard the food's phenomenal oh my God, daniel Young does it right.
Speaker 2:That's somebody you need to meet, daniel Young, at Dirty's and, while you're at it, meet Jim Saxton. You know, while you're here, because you got to be insured while you're in Austin.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, Well, especially me. I mean, you know, if I'm bringing a bunch of jello somewhere, I got to be insured. That just makes sense.
Speaker 2:Well, tell me a little bit about your story. You're a Nebraska guy through Omaha you grew up going to the College World Series.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so my dad and his best friend, they, they, they went to, I think, 27 championship games in a row. You know, they, they were in Omaha and they, you know they, they went to so many in a row, but every year my dad would, would take me and it was one of those things where, like, you go and you're, you know, you're five, six, seven years old, and you go down there and the spectacle of the thing is massive. Everybody, I mean, the crowds are huge and the fan bases are nuts and everybody's cheering on college baseball and it's impossible to not fall in love with that right. And so you become a college baseball fan immediately when you see that thing. And I'm fortunate enough to be from Omaha and I've gotten to experience it my whole life. So you go and you do the thing, and you do it once, you do it twice, you do it three times. At no point in time Are you thinking, oh, someday I will be a part of the lore. You just say, like this is the coolest thing in the world and I hope it stays in Omaha forever. And then, yeah, so you know, 20, uh, 2010, last year of old Rosenblatt. Um, and then you know, 2010, last year of old Rosenblatt.
Speaker 3:And then you know 2011, they move it to the new stadium and I just happened to work at the bar across the street, accidentally, we'll say. You know, I accidentally got a job across the street and the first year that you know the 2017 year was Florida, south Carolina, and I'm a championship and the Florida fans were down and they wanted Ali shots. So I said, ok, well, you know, my bar at the time was something. And and the Florida fans go, oh, what, what? What are we going to call them? I said, well, you're Florida fans, so we're going to call them F. You know, it was a bit of meth bombs, you know. And so South Carolina fans see that and they're like, oh well, we want our own shots too. If the Florida fans have F-bombs, what do we get? I'm like, well, you're the guys F-bombs are flying all over the bar at this point in time, and so people were buying each other drinks and having a good time, and I realized that it was fun. Everybody loved having their own theme drink or theme, you know, theme show. I don't think anything of it.
Speaker 3:And like, six months later, nebraska and Creighton are playing, uh, basketball and and I'm in a dueling piano bar watching it and the one guy's playing go big red for Nebraska and the other guy's playing let's go jays and whoever has more money in their tip jar. That I mean, that's who. That's who's playing. So these Creighton and Omaha it's controversial because you're a Nebraska football fan but you're a Creighton basketball fan. They call them Jayskers. You know, like people, you know there's some people have real strong opinions on the Jayskers and so people are, you know, tripping over each other to throw hundreds into these guys tip jar. And I was like these guys are geniuses. They just they incentivized being a fan of a sport, like they made it monetary.
Speaker 3:And so, you know, in 2012, when the series rolled around, I was like, hmm, what if I did that? Only, I started keeping track of how many shots we sell and at the time it wasn't jello. At the time I literally just had a 20 ounce storm pour, but each team had their own color and their own like kind of filthy shot name and we just ran it. But there's no social media because it was like Vanderbilt. Yeah, well, in Vanderbilt, the Commodores, they were the salty semen and not everybody wants to do it. You have fun jokes and again, it's a local thing and the people that knew about it knew about it, but we were selling maybe 200, 300, maybe 400 shots. It wasn't crazy.
Speaker 3:2018, good night's closed and Rocco's opened, and so 2019, kevin, the owner, said hey, man, how'd you do this? It's a really cool idea. So I explained it to him and he goes what if we just make them these prepackaged Jell-O shots? That way you don't have to literally pour 20 individual shots or 40 individual shots or however many. You can literally just hand them a bucket of 20 Jell-O shots. And I was like that's genius, bucket of 20 jello shots. And I was like that's genius, because that way I don't have to do that many dishes or throw throw that many shots or you know like. So it's just it, it. It made it a lot easier. And so we that was that was the birth of the the jello shot challenges when Kev was like hey, this, this is going to be way easier.
Speaker 3:I said yeah, I was in fayetteville two weeks ago for the regionals and a guy showed me a video and he said hey, I bet you weren't here for this. And he shows me a video of me pouring the shots and he goes you don't remember, rock goes back in these days. I was like, dude, that's me on your video pouring the shots. And he looked at his video and he looked at me. He goes that's you. I was like, yeah, man, I was the one who was free pouring a hundred shots at a time because you ran us out of jello. That's. That was that. That was there, buddy, don't worry about it.
Speaker 2:So that's, that's I love that story because that's, you know, the birth, how, something, the idea. Because, let's face it, in business, wherever any, we all have ideas. We come together, we make, we evolve and make the idea even better. This right here is from last year. I don't think that's the final totals, that's just.
Speaker 3:That, that is. That's the final total. So that's yeah.
Speaker 3:Tennessee. Yeah, that's the. The Kentucky number is funny, obviously the Kentucky number that a guy literally stopped me and he goes hey, I want to buy 14 shots for Kentucky, but then I want you to cut off Kentucky's number. And I was like no man, we got like three hours left is the last day. I was like that, we got like three hours left, I can't just cut anybody off. He goes, all right, well, you tell me, like you know, when you're going to, when you're going to cut it off. I said, all right, when you see me leave the Jell-O Shop bar, that's going to be the last update. And so he stopped me and he goes hey, man, where's Kentucky at right now? And I was like you guys are at 69,058. And he goes all right, let me buy 11. Then I was like all right. So he specifically wanted to make sure. And even the newspaper in Lexington was like Kentucky ends on nice number for Jell-O shot challenge. Yeah, so those are the finals. It was.
Speaker 3:You know, the Tennessee fans were like, they were flabbergasted. They were like how do we? You know, even if you take out, you know, the LSU year, even if you take out the donors, you had Todd Graves come and buy 6,000. And you know we had. You know, even if you take out the big, big purchases, lsu was still over 50,000.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the Tennessee fans were like I don't get it, like how are we not even close? And I said, well, you know, the game's going on, it's the championship. And I said, well, you know, the game's going on, it's the, it's the championship. And I said, you know, there's 75, 80 of you in the bar right now. I said if LSU was here, there'd be 350 people in the bar right now. They, they, they show up. They don't give a damn about going to the game, they literally just show up for the party. I was like that's the difference. All of you came here, couldn't get tickets, so you're hanging out with me instead. You know the LSU folks will sleep in, they'll sleep on the sidewalk if they have to just be part of the party.
Speaker 2:It's a party wherever they go.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, they, they try. It's like I've never met I mean, the competition is fun I've never met a fan base more competitive about the party Like they. They hold it in high esteem. They try to drink you out of beers or they try to drink you out of jello shots, like they're coming for your throat. As a fan base, they want you as a bar to have to tell them no, like they're looking for that reason and sometimes that happens, I mean, two years ago, we literally we're like me and and JD and Tucker, the who, who were part owners of the bar, we, we all get together and and you know, we kind of look around and we say, all right, it's 9 PM, how many of these people are too drunk to be in public?
Speaker 3:All right, probably only about 20% of them, so we're good to go. And then 10 PMm comes and, all right, we're creeping up on 30 percent now, and now that 11 pm hits and we're like, ah, it's 50, we got to call last call, like once we get toa certain point, we just we know that that those fans and again Tennessee A&M didn't have as many problems because they weren't waking up and hammering a bottle of Everclear at 7 am, like the LSU fans were like that. You know that's so. Every fan base is a little bit different, and but we, you know, we, we try to do it right. We try to make sure that everyone's taken care of, and some days we have to close early because everyone's hammered and someone pulls the fire alarm, and some days we can stay up at all too. It's tough to tell.
Speaker 2:When you look at the field of eight now you've got some traditional. I mean some traditional. I mean, I hate that. The two SEC teams. You've got LSU and Arkansas. They have to face off against each other in one bracket. And then you've got Coastal Carolina great story. They won the championship in 2016,. They're still classified as a mid-major. But then you've got Murray State. You've already heard from them, correct?
Speaker 3:Then you've got Murray State. You've already heard from them, correct? I promise you that Omaha there could be 50 Murray State fans. I mean, the stadium holds 800. If all 800 people that go to a home game come to Omaha, they're not going to touch the Jell-O shot record, but Omaha is going to jump on Murray State's back.
Speaker 1:Omaha loves a good underdog story.
Speaker 3:Omaha will represent Murray State. The little-known fact the CBA, the semi-pro basketball team in Omaha a back that used to play in an old ex-Arbin was the Omaha Racers. So a bunch of people have the old Racers jerseys and everything. You're going to see a lot of old heads like walking around with the racers stuff on, but it's the Omaha racers basketball and not the Murray state racers. So it's going to be. It's going to be like kind of a time time machine for some of those people, but no, it's.
Speaker 3:There's such a good story, man, and, like I said, omaha when, when Coastal did it in 16, you know that was awesome and and and and you know that that was a special story and I know we've talked about this a little bit, but you know that, uh, their pitching coach was in Rocco's three months before and and it was cool to see. You know I, you know, uh, sorry, three years before, and I was like I didn't even know the Chanticleer's logo. I knew he's a coach from somewhere, but I didn't know the Chanticleer's logo. And I got to talking to him and I oh you're, you're going over to the game Creighton's playing baseball in the nineties. No, I'm scouting a kid from Iowa Western oh that's cool, it's cool, but you're not going to go in there.
Speaker 3:And he said, no, I'll never step foot in that stadium until I earned my way into that stadium and I think that that that just shows you how much, how much, how much to everyone in in, in all levels of baseball really. But but definitely and and then he, he earned his way. They've been 16, they beat LSU in the super and then and then Barnstorm their way through the tournament on some, on some great pitching and some clutch hitting and and it was, it was fun, everybody. Again, they only had 50 people in town. It was all the players, parents and family you know family and stuff like that. But that whole stadium was teal because everyone in Omaha was rocking the Chanticleers and I think people will still be on them. But Murray State is such a good story.
Speaker 2:That's a wonderful story. And then I've got to ask you know, because Texas hasn't been now in two or three years, texas hasn't been in.
Speaker 3:Texas has been here recently. You haven't, though I'm just putting that back there. You haven't. Texas has been here recently, you haven't, I'm just yeah.
Speaker 2:That's a good, hey, he's not wrong. But the city of Omaha, you know you go back, you know this. Miami, the Arizona States, Texas, LSU, Cal.
Speaker 3:State Fullerton. Fullerton, yeah, they have embraced it. Texas.
Speaker 2:LSU, alstead, fullerton, fullerton yeah, they have embraced it, but it's something I always know, because have you met Mark Pena with Occupy Left Field? Yeah, okay. So tell me a little bit about that group and what you're going to miss not having that group up.
Speaker 3:It's tough because you know, everyone always asks like what's? You know, what fan base do you want to come, or what fan base? And it's for us, we don't. You know we're not. We want to sell jello to everybody and we want to give to all the food banks. Obviously we, you know that with the donations, so we don't really pick a squad.
Speaker 3:But there are teams that travel better and for me personally, there are fans that are better baseball fans. You know, like some of the people, you know some of the people you meet, especially like there's a lot of Texas fans that are Texas baseball fans. They're not Texas fans, they're not, you know, they're not, they're literally Texas baseball fans. And that's what I love about them is that they'll talk to you about all in 76.
Speaker 3:And we were there and this guy was on the mound and he hung the curve and that loss is like these guys are die hard. And to hear that, hear the stories from before I was born and about their experiences, omaha and and you know, obviously Texas has been there so many times but to hear them and to hear them talk about baseball and you know, obviously Texas has been there so many times but to hear him and to hear him talk about baseball and you know, knowing a guy's, you know wins above replacement in 92 and like all these different squads, and it's really cool to just sit and soak up some of that knowledge. And there is a lot of Longhorns fans that are true-to-life baseball aficionados and I do appreciate that about them.
Speaker 2:I agree with that. It's a well-educated college baseball fan base. You know, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you how do you guys plan to prep for all these jello shots? Because that's a lot of jello shots, because you know, and I hate to, you know, I definitely want to promote people who may be watching to go, because you're right there at the stadium. It was TD Ameritrade, now it's the Charles the Swab.
Speaker 1:You're literally right there.
Speaker 3:Outside of gate two. You walk out and the first thing you see is our patio. So it's, we literally are right across the street and you know the team buses come in on 13th. We're right on 13th is in between us and the street, and you know the team buses come in on 13th. We're right on we're. 13th is in between us and the stadium the team buses come in. I hear I'm not positive this is going to happen or not. I hear LSU is not going to show up in a team bus. They're going to show up on a Mardi Gras float this year. I have no idea if that's true or false.
Speaker 3:I'm getting weird words and I'm like, hey, that's cool with me, but no, we're right there and so that helps. Obviously, the proximity is what's key, because people, you know, the game gets over and there's about a 30-second TV delay, right, and so we have our. You know, if it's nice, we have garage doors and we open those, so it's an indoor-outdoor situation and you hear the stadium go nuts and everybody turns, turns the TV, and it's like Vasquez winds up. What's going on, what's happening? Oh boy, that ball is well hit, you know. And then you see, there's, you hear it before you, before you see it on TV, which is awesome because we're right there, like we literally could throw a baseball into the stadium from our patio. You know, maybe in my younger years I probably couldn't, now I don't know, but yeah, we're right there. So, and then you just see the stream, just an absolute river of human bodies coming out of the stadium, and the first thing you see is Rocco's in. So it's pretty nuts, but it's, it's a lot of fun. So how do you?
Speaker 2:I mean, so there's different the different colors.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so how do you prep all that? Yeah, so we, uh, we do it. We've done it as many ways as we have found feasible thus far. The first couple of years we use a prepackaged Jell company, and then we had, we had some guys that came in and made. They were on site making the jello shots and and making them the the different team colors and doing all that.
Speaker 3:This year we're we're going this is a, this is a brand new shot company. So you know, on Thursday, whoever buys the first jello shot on Thursday and we start selling, that's gonna be the first ever Rocco's branded jello shot. So you know, on Thursday, whoever buys the first Jell-O shot on Thursday and we start selling, that's going to be the first ever Rocco's branded Jell-O shot. So these guys, we got connected with them and they have. We have one hundred and twenty thousand Jell-O shots in Omaha, ready, ready for us. There's four different flavors this year, so they won't necessarily be individual team colors like they have been in the past. We're working towards that in the future. But the team color thing is brutal, because if you don't like your flavor, you know, if you're, if you're North Carolina and you don't like light blue Gatorade, then you're going to. You're going to hate the series because you're going to have to do 50,000 of them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's. You know it's thousand of them. Yeah, so it's, you know it's. It was kind of one of those things where we figured at this point in time, the shots are what you know, the the number on the board is is what matters, the donations to charity are what matters, and so it's. You know, we, we decided we're going to go. These four flavors, we, we taste tested them heavily, don't get me wrong, they're all very good, you do we made sure and, and checked and rechecked and rechecked again.
Speaker 3:But we, yeah, we, we made sure and checked and rechecked and rechecked again, but we, yeah, we made sure they're, they taste good and that they could work with us. They're, they're, they're charitable folks as well and they want us to do a bunch of other events. So, again, we, we have this idea of Rocco's on the road and it's really just my excuse to go and, and you know, to see other baseball stadiums. You know, we went to, we went to Fayetteville, we went to Baumwalker, we were in Baton Rouge last year and got to see three games from the suites there and raised another I think it was about $7,000 while we were down there.
Speaker 3:We partnered with the bar and we raffled off Marucci spins us a bat every year, the Jell-O Shot champion bats, and so we raffled off Repl replica, the LSU bat, down there, and, yeah, another 7,000 for greater Baton Rouge food bank, which is 21,000 meals. You know what I mean With the in-kind donations and stuff. So it's, it's a, it's a cool deal and, and you know, the Rocco's on the road thing is neat, but it's just selfishly me wanting to go places and you know, and raise a little money, but also see baseball and these guys, these job shot guys, they want to take it even bigger. They want to, they want to send us to a lot of other spots and and really up the charitable aspect of it. The competition may be less so, but the charitable aspect of it is is cool and that's what they're really pushing.
Speaker 2:So that's, that's what drew us to them as well. I've got a great idea. I don't know if everything will align, but you guys bring Rockos on the road to Dish Falk Field in Austin. I'll connect you with Britt Peterson Pena, even Chris Del Conte, the AD. Get you a suite, get a food truck however it works inside the stadium, and one organization, unless it's strictly for food banks RBI Austin, it's, it's, it's a oh goodness, it's mentorship and baseball and softball programs for inner city youth. I don't know.
Speaker 3:So we, we, we generally leave it up to up to the. Wherever we go, we leave it up to them. So when we were down in uh in Fayetteville, they, uh, we, we partnered with Foghorns down there and they gave it to. Parker Pack Nasi Charities, which is which is similar.
Speaker 3:It's underprivileged youth baseball mentorship and and programming, and so uh, that's that's who they did, they donated to, and we again, we'll go down there and we'll, we'll rep it and we'll, we'll wear the shirts and the hats and tell all the stories and that's you know, but the bar still has to do it. You know what I mean. So the bar, it's whatever they want to give to. So I mean any any baseball related thing is great. I mean we obviously being in the food, 95 percent of the year we're a restaurant and 5 percent we're a bar, and it will just happen to be the bar that serves the jello. You know so it's. You know so we're. We're big into, uh, into, into getting people fed and food insecurity.
Speaker 3:The owners, kevin and Bonnie, have been given to food bank of the Heartland for for a number of years before. Yeah, when, when it got big, and you know, and, like I said, I, I started it, kevin made it jello. I started the Twitter account and I had 17 followers. On Monday this is the, this is the old miss here and I had 17 followers. I was like no one's going to care about this thing, like it's, like some people were talking about it on Friday at 17,000 and now I have 50,000 or something like that Well, people really care about this.
Speaker 3:And so, you know, once it got big and once we started, you know, like ESPN was talking about us and all these other things, kevin and Bonnie Donors were like we got to, we can't, we got to do something with it. And they sat down and they he literally he's like, he's texting me, like 4 am. I'm like why are you awake, man, Like you're going to? That year Ole Miss and Arkansas were neck and neck. It's a little bit like this year, honestly, with the. They were in the same bracket, which we wish they would have had the championship.
Speaker 3:But you know they should reseed the damn thing.
Speaker 2:I'm all for that, Pat. I really am.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it doesn't make any sense to me, but I get it. It's a bracket, just like in March Madness and yada, yada, yada. But it would be a lot cooler if those two but Arkansas and Ole Miss are going back and forth and whoever won that, it pushed the if-necessary game and Ole Miss won it, and whoever won that game to go to the championship was going to win the jealous shots and they, so they decided all right, we're just going to give. Those two teams have both bought 8,000 plus shots. We're going to donate, you know, two bucks from every shot to those two food banks. Well then, the next year we decided, dollar from every team goes to the food banks and 50 cents stays local. You know, and and to date it's we've given over $350,000 in the last, you know, three, four years, whatever it is, I haven't, to be fair, I haven't. Kevin and Bonnie have.
Speaker 1:They're the ones.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't, yeah, I, I don't. I donate mine to local bartenders when I'm done, I guess.
Speaker 2:That's what I donate my money to. No, I love that you know giving back and it's. It's so fun, it's friendly competition. It's another element which makes that great event even better. I call baseball's promised land Omaha, nebraska. Pat, since you're here, we can't let you go until you take part in stories inside the man Cave tradition. All right, the the man cave story. There have been some legendary ones, some that still comical thinking about them, but is there one story tied to rocco's and you and your love for the College World Series? That's just as amusing today as it was when it happened, I think there's a lot of them.
Speaker 3:Certainly, I've seen a lot of weird things over the years, maybe the greatest mistake I've ever made in my entire life. I started a Snapchat just for the gel. I started the Twitter just for the gel, you know. I started the Twitter, started Instagram, I started a Snapchat and I, like, three days into the series, I checked the Snapchat because I'm not, you know, I'm not not on my phone much because I'm working. And three days in, I check and there's about 40 pictures of boobs on my Snapchat.
Speaker 3:Girls from hey, put you on the board for Ole Miss. And I'm like, oh, my God, I'm an idiot, right. And so I. I I make a post and say, hey, as nice as all these are, I can't put, can't put any shots on the board if you just cause you're sending me these. So I stopped getting them. I'm the dumbest guy in the world. I could have just kept going. Yeah, I know. And I was like, hey, no amount of sultry snaps are going to get you points on the board with me. That was one of the ones where I think about that and every year I just kind of kick myself in the ass. I'm like God, you could have just been.
Speaker 2:You're missing out on areolas.
Speaker 3:I know it was a tough game Every day that and everybody found out and everyone's like was that really happening? I was like, oh, it's still like it's. It's crazy. The owner's wife was like are you serious? She's like you got it. I was like, yeah, she's like hey, good for you. I was like she's like are they nice? It's like, oh, they're great. Yeah, good, miss midwestern boobs, right.
Speaker 2:Oh, they're great yeah they're good Midwestern boobs right.
Speaker 3:Oh, they're all over the country. Like well, I said all over the country and I mean, when you open up my snap map, there's nothing west of Omaha, it's all southeast of Omaha. It's the SEC, a lot of SEC boobs. That's a lot for that squad, and that's again. If there's another conference that has more beautiful women than the SEC, I don't know it. So I was perfectly comfortable with that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Texas to the east. Oh, absolutely Heavily concentrated, Brother. Let's end this thing on some positivity.
Speaker 1:Hey Ben.
Speaker 3:Tell me something good.
Speaker 2:Pat McAvoy. He has graced us with his presence. Another lie I lied to him. I said, man, this is going to take 20 minutes. We've told some good stories, you've told some great stories, but we like to end on positivity. Pat, is there anything you would love to? Well, tell me something good, my brother, about you, omaha College World Series and Rocco's.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think that the heart of the thing is like this is fun for us and I'm not saying that this hasn't been awesome for the business, but the thing that made it cool, the thing that makes this lasting, isn't you know me writing on a whiteboard? It isn't you know, it isn't it isn't you know? Oh, this shot is this color? This shot is this color. It's not that, it's jello. It's a fact that we're given back.
Speaker 3:And the stories you hear, you know, a week, two weeks, three weeks after the series, when you know when someone goes to their, you know, pick up their mail at a food bank and gets a $38,000 check and they're you know that doubles or triples their year intake. You know, and it, and what people don't understand about that too, is that a lot of like, it's not like. Oh, the kids at this university, they can afford their own food. It's the workers, it's the people, you know, in the community, it's all of these different folks that are using these things.
Speaker 3:So the fact that we've been able to to give back and to do that, you know I've already gotten texts from from all these schools already being like, hey, it's been a really rough year. There's been cuts and everything, and so we're we're struggling, we're struggling, we're struggling, we're struggling. We hope you guys have a good year, because you know that means that they'll have a good year too, and I think that's that's what's cool about it, is that we're we're able to do this thing and to have this tradition, but make make use of it in a way that that that does good for people. You know, and that's what makes us happy is is again, I'm not sad about having 400 people jammed in the bar, you know, but, but the thing that makes it worthwhile and all the long hours and the long days and all the other stuff is is the fact that we we know we've made it into something cool that we can do good for.
Speaker 2:And you guys have done amazing things, and it's always good when you give back to your community. There's no better feeling than that, while you're enjoying something that you love. That's, first of all, your mission and your joy of being the GM of Rocko's in Omaha, and you're right there for what I think is one of the top three sporting events in the world the College World Series.
Speaker 3:It's tough to deny that and I've traveled a lot of places. I was in 16. I was in Chicago for the World Series and they're like, oh, pat, pat, you're the college world series guy. I'm like, hey, you know, like we got to, we got to sort of uh, bond over our trauma of working a giant event like that. So you meet other people that have done a super bowl or what done, whatever like, and again, every time I go to a new place, the first place I go is going to be a bar and talk to the bartenders about what I should see. So I, you know I love being that for the people. You know that come in for Omaha as well.
Speaker 2:I love it and he's a man of the people. He has relationships with college baseball fan bases across the country. So when, if you're in Omaha, man, go stop by, introduce yourself to Pat at Rocco's. It's right there. Everything's convenient at that newer stadium. So, brother, I appreciate you. Thanks for making time for us. Absolutely, man. Thank you so much. Hey, whenever you have a chance to talk about Pat McAvoy, rocco's and Omaha, jello shots galore for a great cause and for the love of this great game, college baseball. And whenever you have an opportunity and the subject is about the College, for a great cause and for the love of this great game, college baseball. And whenever you have an opportunity and the subject is about the College World Series you know what?
Speaker 1:It's always good to talk about it.