Feb. 3, 2006
Tickets for the Notre Dame baseball team’s 2006 Opening Night Dinner – featuring Irish football coach Charlie Weis and former Notre Dame baseball All-American Aaron Heilman (now one of the top pitchers on the New York Mets) – are sold out, marking the second straight advanced sellout (1,700-plus) for the popular event, to be held Monday, Feb. 6, in the Joyce Center Fieldhouse.
For the first time in the history of the five-year event, Fighting Irish All-Access subscribers will be able to view the program live on www.und.com. The live audio/video streaming will begin at approximately 7:00 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 9. The entire event will be live on www.und.com, including the team introductions, several special guests and the two keynote speakers. Selected comments and speeches from Monday’s event will be made available on Notre Dame’s Podcast page on ITunes within 24 hours of the program’s conclusion. See the multimedia link at the top gold bar on und.com for information on how to become an All-Access subscriber, with benefits including internet audio broadcasts of the Irish baseball games and other Notre Dame sports (subscribers also may access audio and video clips that already are archived on the und.com site).
The five-year history of the event has produced an average attendance of nearly 1,400, with the previous keynote speakers including baseball Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda, Chicago Cubs GM Jim Hendry, bestselling author and avid baseball fan John Grisham, and seven-time Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Roger Clemens. Former Notre Dame standouts Steve Stanley (at the 2003 event) and Brad Lidge (at the ’04 event, alongside his Houston Astros teaammate Clemens) also have served as guest speakers at the recent Opening Night events.