Report: Omaha to Host Tigers vs. Royals Ahead of 2019 College World Series

Major League Baseball will have a small role in the 2019 College World Series.

Per the Associated Press, the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals will play a regular-season game at Omaha, Nebraska's TD Ameritrade Park as part of the kickoff week for next year's College World Series.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has a press conference scheduled at TD Ameritrade Park on Thursday at which the game will presumably be announced. 

Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball.com reported in February that MLB has developed a strong relationship with college baseball. 

"I think MLB wants that type of event to be a celebration of baseball, just like it was at the [Little League World Series]," TCU head coach Jim Schlossnagle told Rogers. "They did some different things with college baseball on the MLB Network last year, will again this year, and this would be one of many things they want to do to get further involved with the college game.”

Rogers added, barring some surprise, the MLB draft "will definitely be" held in Omaha at some point in the future. 

The St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates played in the first-ever Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, last year, site of the annual Little League World Series. 

Williamsport will host a contest between the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies on Aug. 19, one week before the world championship game of the 2018 Little League World Series.