MCWS 2023 - LSU fans have brought Mardi Gras to Omaha - ESPN

OMAHA, Neb. — The package was a mystery, mailed to Louie M's Burger Lust the week of the Men's College World Series. It was a wooden box, taped shut, with written instructions to hang on to it for LSU fans. Louie Marcuzzo, owner of the south Omaha café famous for its Bloody Marys and, well, burgers, placed the package on a back counter, where it sat for three or four days.

This was around 2000, when the Tigers were making regular trips to Omaha and Louie's was flush with patrons in purple and gold. When the first LSU horde arrived that week, Marcuzzo mentioned the package, and somebody claimed it. Curious, he asked what was in the box. «Ashes,» the fan said.

«A guy passed away and wanted his ashes spread around home plate at the CWS ...» Marcuzzo said. «Well, I divested myself of the responsibility because I don't know what kind of trouble they could get themselves into. But as far as I know, those ashes were spread on the field someplace.

»I thought it was weird at the time. But it's LSU fans, so of course it's weird."

Marcuzzo means that in a good way. Like many bar and restaurant proprietors, he follows the NCAA regionals and super regionals with great interest every year, silently — and not so silently — rooting for LSU to make it to Omaha. The Tigers are good for business, as evidenced by the latest tally for Jello shots at Rocco's Pizza and Cantina.

No fan base follows its team to Omaha more than LSU, said Marcuzzo's son Jack, Burger Lust's general manager. When LSU won its super regional last week and was headed to Omaha for the first time since 2017, the Marcuzzos doubled their liquor order and added more staff for the week.

«It seems like the consumption goes up when LSU is here,» Louie Marcuzzo said. «They eat