Paris Hilton eat your heart out.

Judging by the dirge of media the Cal State Fullerton baseball team has encountered leading up to its arrival in Omaha on Wednesday, the hotel heiress and "celeb"-utante has nothing on the Titans, even with the ever-present paparazzi encamped outside the Twin Towers Jail in downtown Los Angeles.

A day prior to departing for the "Greatest Show on Dirt," Fullerton's Goodwin Field looked more like the red carpet walk outside the Kodak Theater during the Oscar's ^TM with channel's 2, 4, 7, 9 and public television's best KOCE jumping on the bandwagon, setting up outside the home team dugout for "B-Roll" and words of wisdom from Head Coach George Horton.

Phone interviews, meetings in the stands with reporters, and the first of what is to be many cell phone minute-draining calls from ESPN followed (6:54 a.m. to be exact).

The Titans left campus a little before 8 a.m. on Wednesday morning accompanied by a small crowd of well-wishers - including good-luck brownies from Christine Mayfield and her son, Charlie, who missed the beginning of his school day to ensure that Horton promptly received them... shhh... don't tell the truant officer.

In attendance for only the second time in his 17 years at Cal State Fullerton, equipment manager Joe Camacho and his son, Jeremy, who is also missing school to accompany his dad to Omaha... apparently missing school is OK in this day and age.

Sorely missed on the flight up, Associate Athletics Director Mel Franks (whose red Pumas will be hard to fill in this column until his arrival late Friday) and official team picture-taker Matt Brown, who apparently had something better to do. Franks is most-likely lounging on Lake Mojave with an adult beverage in hand while Brown is busy taking pictures of cabinets... or something like that.

Observations and minutae...

A stop in Phoenix to pick up Arizona State offered a stark contrast in dress code. Horton dressed to the nines in suit and tie while Sun Devils' Head Coach Pat Murphy taking a more casual approach decked out in jeans and a t-shirt.

An omen of things to come? When Cal State Fullerton traveled to Omaha in 2004, the Titans picked up the University of Arizona in Tucson en route to their fourth national championship. In 2006, Fullerton was picked up by Saturday's opponent Oregon State, preceeding the Beavers' run to their first national title. We don't want to jinx anything, but I think you see where we're headed.

A "we're not in Kingston" anymore moment. The author of this column is making only his second-ever trip to Omaha, putting his perfect record on the line after his maiden voyage to Rosenblatt Stadium resulted in a national championship back in 2004. He missed the Titans' run last year while spending 10 days on the beach in Jamaica with his new bride by his side and steel drum bands providing musical accompaniment to their honeymoon.

Thank goodness for Gametracker.

Along the same vein, baseball SID Mike Greenlee will be pulling double-duty during the trip scoring games and helping to arrange his own wedding in August.

A special sports information office "thank you" to Jack Plump and the staff at Reprographics on campus for running off 250 copies of Greenlee's voluminous postseason media guide.

One day into the trip and not one person has asked about Kevin Costner. Do we owe thanks to Randy Youngman and his column in Wednesday's Orange County Register for that? Never fear, the count will be kept and displayed on this website when available.