HinesSight

Oregon State and WSU score legal victory against Pac-12 departers

Usually I like to root for the underdog in sports. It's just more satisfying to watch a team that's expected to lose defy the odds and beat the supposedly more powerful team.

That's one reason I was hoping Oregon State and Washington State would score a legal victory against the eight members of the Pac-12 who have announced that they're leaving the conference for other leagues after a media rights negotiation gone bad left the Pac-12 with less TV money than the departing members wanted.

USC and UCLA had already announced they were heading to the Big 10, which means currently the Pac-12 is really the Pac-2: Oregon State and Washington State.

At least, that's how OSU and WSU see the situation. That's why they went to court to prevent the ten departing members of the Pac-12 from being able to divvy up the financial and other resources of the league, possibly as soon as a league board meeting scheduled for next Wednesday.

Today a judge ruled in favor of OSU and WSU. Here's excerpts from the Oregonian story. 

Washington State and Oregon State scored a major victory in court on Monday when a Whitman County (Wash.) judge agreed to their request for a temporary restraining order preventing the Pac-12′s presidents and chancellors from meeting until the court determines the makeup of the board of directors.

“That makes everybody equal,” Superior Court Judge Gary Libey said in issuing his ruling a few minutes after 12 p.m.

A preliminary injunction hearing to determine which schools have voting rights -- all 12, or only the Beavers and Cougars -- is expected to be scheduled in the next few weeks.

“I am pleased with today’s decision,” Oregon State president Jayathi Murthy said on social media. “As the two remaining Pac-12 members, Oregon State and Washington State must be able to chart a path forward for the Pac-12 -- not the members that have chosen to leave it.”

...The Pac-12 bylaws state that if a school gives notice of withdrawal prior to Aug. 1, 2024, then its “representative to the Pac-12 Board of Directors shall automatically cease to be a member of the Pac-12 Board of Directors and shall cease to have the right to vote on any matter.”

What defines a notice of withdrawal?

The bylaws don’t specify. None of the outgoing schools have delivered written notice, according to a source. But WSU and OSU believe the public statements by executives from the 10 schools — and the “welcome” announcements blasted on social media by their new leagues — constitute notice, thereby rendering their presidents ineligible for the board.

Major strategic and financial issues require super-majority approval (75 percent). If the court determines the 10 outgoing schools retain board-of-directors status, they could do as they please. One option: Vote to dissolve the conference as of next summer, which would result in all assets being split among the 12 schools.

But if the Cougars and Beavers are deemed the sole board members, they would control the assets and potentially use tens of millions of dollars in Pac-12 funds to rebuild the conference and offset the loss of revenue resulting from the collapse.

I sure hope that Oregon State and Washington State can rebuild the Pac-12 by bringing in new members. The most viable option to do this seems to be folding in all or most of the members of the Mountain West Conference into the Pac-12, assuming OSU and WSU succeed in gaining legal control of the league.

Sure, it would be a whole different Pac-12 with the Mountain West Conference members: Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, San Jose State, UNLV, Utah State, and Wyoming.

But the Pac-12 has a lot more visibility and prestige than the Mountain West Conference. Seemingly that would be a selling point if OSU and WSU make a pitch to the MWC to merge the two leagues under the Pac-12 banner. 

After all, the MWC has "west" in its name, which goes well with "Pac" or "Pacific." I sort of understand why Stanford and California are heading to the ACC - Atlantic Coast Conference. It just seems bizarre that two universities located so close to the Pacific Ocean would be part of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Oregon beats Texas Tech, thanks to a fourth quarter

I'm glad I don't have a heart problem, because even without one, I was feeling palpitations in my chest for most of today's Oregon - Texas Tech football game in hot Lubbock.

It was a familiar feeling, given past occasions when Oregon unexpectedly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

I get excited about being able to watch the Ducks play, since we rely on DirecTV for television watching, and DirecTV still doesn't carry the Pac 12 Networks, which is where the Oregon - Portland State blowout game in favor of the Ducks was last week.

(Of course, now that Oregon is headed to the Big Ten, and the Pac 12 is down to the Pac 2 (Oregon State and Washington State), likely the Pac 12 Networks won't exist after this school year.)

So I got our DVR recording the Oregon - Texas Tech game, which was on Fox, thankfully. I'd noted that Oregon was favored to win by several touchdowns. After all, the Ducks are ranked #13 in the country and Texas Tech lost to Wyoming in its first game.

That made the first three quarters tough to watch. 

I started all optimistic. Then reality set in. Oregon was playing in an uninspired fashion. Lots of penalties. Lots of dropped passes. Offensive play calling that seemed drearily predictable. Not only weren't there any creative trick plays, the standard plays often weren't having much success.

Still, at halftime Oregon was ahead 18-13. I hoped that Oregon would pull away in the second half, but the opposite happened. In the third quarter Oregon didn't score and trailed Texas Tech 18-27. 

Visions of any chance the Ducks had of making the national playoff being flushed down the football toilet danced through my head.

Until the fourth quarter happened. Once again, quarterback Bo Nix came up with clutch plays, as did the  Oregon defense. A couple of interceptions sealed the deal. Final score: 38-30.

Whew! My heart felt way better after Oregon put up 20 points in the final quarter while Texas Tech managed only three.

Hopefully this bodes well for the rest of the Ducks' season. They've got the makings of a great team. I do have to admit, though, that the Texas Tech Masked Rider has a flair that the Ducks' mascot lacks.

US women's soccer shootout loss shows power of smallness

Understandably, most of us believe that in order to accomplish something great, you need to do great things. Meaning, large important things.

There's a certain logic to this, but it doesn't fit with reality. 

In the real world -- as contrasted with the ideal world constructed in human minds -- important outcomes often hinge on insignificant details.

For example, and as a progressive it's painful for me to think about this, if Hillary Clinton hadn't decided to set up a private email server as Secretary of State instead of relying on her government account, there's good reason to consider that she'd have been elected president in 2016 rather than Donald Trump. 

There's a saying, "for want of a nail the kingdom was lost."

Something of great importance may depend on an apparently trivial detail. The saying comes from a longer proverb about a battle during which the loss of a nail in a horseshoe leads to the loss of a horse, which leads to the loss of the rider, which leads to the loss of the battle, which in turn leads to the loss of a whole kingdom.

This relates to chaos theory, a subject I find fascinating.

Basically it involves the sensitivity of large scale systems to minute changes in initial conditions that then multiply over time. Frequently this is referred to as the butterfly effect: a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, which creates a tiny atmospheric instability that eventually becomes a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.

Today the United States women's soccer team lost to Sweden in a penalty shootout after the teams ended up scoreless after regular play and two extra time periods. A shootout is used to decide a winner.

One by one, players from each team alternate at trying to score from the penalty spot in front of the goal. It's tough for the goalkeeper to stop a shot at such short range, so there's a battle of wits between the player taking the shot and the goalkeeper trying to guess which way to lunge to try to stop the shot.

You can see the United States-Sweden penalty shootout in this 7:39 long YouTube video.

After a strong start by the US and Sweden, there were misses-by-a-mile by players from both teams. But what really struck my eye was the shot by a US player that bounced off a crossbar and the even more amazing failure of the US goalkeeper to prevent a goal that she seemed to have stopped, but which technology revealed just barely crossed the goal line.

Here's a screenshot from the video:

The ball crossed the goal line by the narrowest of margins before the US goalkeeper swatted it away on a second try after it rebounded following her first attempt to block it.

And that decided the match. Which ended the US women's team competition in the World Cup at the earliest stage ever and dashed their chance to win three World Cup championships in a row.

Such is life. Large outcomes often are determined by very small influences. Sure, the US team would have won if several players hadn't kicked the ball well over the net in the shootout. Those were big mistakes.

But I suspect that the image which will haunt the US team is the one above. How the soccer ball ended up in precisely the right location to give Sweden the victory after taking an unlucky (for the US) or lucky (for Sweden) bounce off of the goalkeeper's hands.

Oregon leaving Pac-12 for Big Ten is a disaster for Oregon State

Today the University of Oregon and University of Washington announced that they were leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten conference, which now will have 18 teams. 

With the departure of Oregon, Washington, USC, UCLA, Colorado, and apparently also Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah to either the Big Ten or Big 12 conferences, this leaves Oregon State, Washington State, California, and Stanford in a pitiful Pac-4 conference after the upcoming academic year.

The Oregon State athletic director isn't happy.

While UO leaders celebrated its move, Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes decried it.

“The great history and tradition of this conference has been severely damaged,” Barnes said. “The best interest of the student-athlete hasn’t been served. Traveling to the Eastern seaboard multiple times a year is not in the best interest of student-athletes. I’m furious because it puts this university in harm’s way and our student-athletes in harm’s way. There’s some damage done that we’re going to have to mitigate.”

This is a shocking end to the Pac-12. It happened really rapidly.

Just a few days ago ace sports columnist John Canzano, who used to work for the Oregonian and now has a substack publication that I subscribe to, wrote about how the Pac-12 powers-that-be were expected to approve a media deal with Apple TV.

Except, they didn't, because the deal wasn't going to provide some of the schools with as much money as they wanted. So that led to the Big Ten inviting Oregon and Washington to jump the Pac-12 ship, which the university presidents bought off on today.

Without consulting their fans. Without consulting their students. Without consulting their athletes. So far as I know. This is the power of money in sports these days. It is all-powerful, tradition be damned.

There's lots of good commentary on what happened today. Canzano has written a couple of excellent pieces, here and here, which may or may not be available to those who don't subscribe to him.

Bill Oram of the Oregonian has written a great piece, "Oregon Ducks survived this round of realignment roulette. But what did it really cost them?"

Couldn't agree more with what Oram says:

Expect rain on Nov. 24.

The football gods will need to pour one out over Autzen Stadium when the Oregon State Beavers and Oregon Ducks play for the final time as conference rivals.

Let it pour.

To hide our tears and wash away our sins.

Greed, that evil temptress. She gets us every time.

Oregon is on its way to the Big Ten, pulled from boiling seas to the safety of a cornfield.

The Ducks survived this round of realignment roulette.

But in order to do so they had to sacrifice their rivals and kill their conference. A soulless, boardroom form of Squid Game. Play or get played.

The Pac-12 is dead. Oregon State is reeling.

But Oregon is safe and the university’s only responsibility was to itself.

It was spectacularly inept conference leadership that left the Ducks with little choice, and no choice for the other universities that jumped to safety.

Someday there will be excitement from this corner on what a new life in the Big Ten means for the University of Oregon and its teams. Football games at Camp Randall, the Big House and the Horseshoe. Hoops in Assembly Hall and Tom Izzo in Eugene.

Never could have imagined it.

But at the moment that is inadequate salve for what has been lost.

A once-proud conference, cocksure about its survival just days ago, has been scattered near and far, like dandelion fluff caught in the wind, done in by the influence of television dollars and executives who have moved universities around like pieces on a game board.

Risk? More like Reward.

The Pac-12 sold itself off for parts.

When it was founded with the stroke of a pen in a downtown Portland hotel 108 years ago, it was called the Pacific Coast Conference and then the Athletic Association of Western Universities. Later it morphed from the Pac-8 to the Pac-10 to the Pac-12.

Now?

Pac-It-In.

It’s time to go home.

Commissioner George Kliavkoff is but one of many to be blamed, but the conference died at his feet. His legacy in this job is complete.

Kliavkoff was the one who could not negotiate a palatable media deal or control the conference’s narrative. Who could not reel schools back in as they started to riggle away.

He seemed oblivious to the threats around him and was immune to backstabbing.

He got burned by the so-called alliance with Big Ten and ACC, blindsided by USC and UCLA’s escape acts and bamboozled by Colorado.

And he still seemed confident that he could hold the Conference of Champions together with a firm handshake and a twinkle in his eye.

What good is a mistake if you can’t learn from it?

Oregon and Washington were pushed to the Big Ten.

If there were a conference worth staying for, they would have remained in the Pac-12. The clearer path to the College Football Playoff would have been too enticing to pass up for schools that now enter a prestige conference as freshmen.

But as potential emergency hatches go, this was a great one. The Ducks were fearful of getting left behind when the L.A. schools left a year ago, and Kliavkoff’s failures ended up opening doors for the Ducks that would have likely remained closed.

If all that matters is the result, then the Ducks are doing cartwheels.

But it’s not that simple. This is a bitter pill for many and not just Beaver fans. Oregon now joins a host of schools around the country that have abandoned many of the ideals of intercollegiate athletics for security and financial bounty.

The move will be seen through the lens of football, and indeed, that is what drives decisions and makes network executives salivate. But beyond big-stage Saturdays when Oregon plays at Michigan, or Ohio State comes to Autzen, athletes in all of Oregon’s 20 Division I sports will travel as far as Rutgers and the University of Maryland for conference matchups.

Hasn’t the beach volleyball team suffered enough?

It’s a move that shatters much of our established identity as Oregonians.

Rob Mullens, the Oregon AD, said Friday that he hopes the Ducks can still schedule Oregon State in all sports. And he should be applauded for wanting to continue the rivalry.

He also knows he would have been defenestrated if he said anything else.

So good job on the Day 1 PR. Let’s see what happens.

Even if Oregon and Oregon State continue their home and home football rivalry, the highlight of the state’s sports calendar, it won’t be the same. There won’t be the same stakes. Once Oregon reaps the benefits of Big Ten recruiting and funding, its hard to imagine it can ever be a fair fight.

No, it will never be the same.

It was only the dreamers and fools who ever believed it could be.

Let it pour.

Hoping for some Oregon State magic in NCAA baseball playoffs

Once again, I've become an Oregon State baseball fan now that the NCAA playoffs have begun. I would have started my fandom earlier, but DirecTV still doesn't carry the Pac12 Networks, so I've got no way to watch most the games in the regular season.

Well, I've also become an Oregon baseball fan, since they too are in the playoffs.

And at the moment, faring better than Oregon State -- which lost to LSU today, so that means Oregon State has to beat Sam Houston tonight (score is 3-1 in OSU's favor at the moment), then beat LSU twice tomorrow to make it to the super regionals.

Oregon just has to beat Xavier to be in the super regionals. With the score 10-1 in the 7th inning, things are looking good for Oregon.

But I'm not counting Oregon State out. Back in 2018 OSU lost the first game in the College World Series, which put it in the loser's bracket. But as I wrote about in "Watching the Oregon State baseball team is better than watching a thriller," they won four games in a row to make it into the World Series final.

This year, Oregon State won its first game in the regional series, so all OSU has to do, as noted above, is win three games in a row over about 24 hours to get into a super regional matchup. Tough to accomplish, but not impossible.

I quickly discovered that most of the playoff games featuring Oregon State and Oregon are only being shown on ESPN+. Because I'm not a huge sports fan, most of the sports I want to watch is shown on channels I get on DirecTV, aside from the Pac12 Networks.

Because I wanted to follow Oregon State and Oregon in the baseball playoffs, I finally paid attention to ESPN+, which I always thought was another free channel in the ESPN lineup. Nope. It costs, even if you already have a subscription to ESPN.

I didn't feel like forking over $99 a year just for ESPN+. Then I remembered that we have Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions. Disney owns ESPN and offers a package deal for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+.

After a bit of difficulty figuring out how to sign up for that package, I was able to log into my Hulu account and change it to the Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ package. I kept our ad-free subscriptions to Disney+ and Hulu. ESPN+ only comes with ads.

It turned out that after our annual subscription to Disney+ was factored in, I'll be paying $9 a month for the package. That's less than what it cost just for ad-free Hulu, so I'm getting ESPN+ for free. Or actually less than free.

Even so, as soon as I started watching the first Oregon State playoff game, Sam Houston scored two runs in the top of the first inning, briefly making me wonder if Oregon State was going to get blown out. Pleasingly, the opposite happened, with Oregon State scoring the next 18 runs, winning 18-2.

Tonight Oregon State is still leading 3-1 in the bottom of the 7th. Hopefully their lead will hold up, as I'd like to see them beat LSU at least once tomorrow. Twice would be amazing.

2023 Super Bowl made me feel pleasingly united

Most seasons I watch one NFL game: the Super Bowl.

That was the case this year also. I enjoy football a lot, but the college game always has appealed more to me, probably because then I get to root for Oregon teams, and Oregon doesn't have a NFL team.

However, I do consider it my non-sacred duty to watch the Super Bowl. It's an American tradition. And because it's the most important NFL game of the year, I get excited watching it.

Partly that's because even though I don't have any favorite team during the regular season, I read enough on the sports pages to end up wanting one of the Super Bowl teams to win. In 2023 it was the Kansas City Chiefs.

For a couple of reasons. I follow an Oregon political guy on Twitter who is a massive fan of Patrick Mahomes, the quarterback of the Chiefs. During the past several years I've been exposed to tweets that make it sound like Mahomes is, if not a superhero quarterback, the closest thing to it. 

I also was aware that Mahomes played on a bad ankle in the division championship that got the Chiefs to the Super Bowl, gutting out a victory. So while Mahomes was the NFL most valuable player, I decided I wanted Kansas City to win because they seemed like underdogs given Mahomes's injury.

And I typically root for the underdog in the Super Bowl.

My biggest fear, of course, wasn't that the Chiefs would lose, but that either the Chiefs or the Philadelphia Eagles would run away with the game, making it one of those boring Super Bowl blowouts of 45-7 or whatever.

That fear sure didn't come to pass. The game was close throughout. Mostly I had the impression that the Eagles looked like the better team. However, the Chiefs answered whenever the Eagles scored and the game was tied with about five minutes remaining.

Mahomes then showed why he's the NFL MVP. He worked his magic down the field, even running for a good gain on one play where he looked to be in quite a bit of pain. 

It was kind of surprising to see the Chiefs doing their best not to score when they got close to the Eagles goal line with several minutes left on the clock. I understood the desire to not leave the Eagles with much time after a Chiefs score. 

Still it seemed risky when a Chiefs running back slid on the one yard line to avoid scoring. What if there was a fumble on a succeeding play? Then the decision not to score when the Chiefs had the chance would have looked like an all-time Super Bowl dumb move.

But the Chiefs kicker easily made a short field goal with eight seconds remaining. That made the final score 38-35 with Mahomes and company earning a well-deserved win.

I then watched my recording of today's Meet the Press show.

During the Data Download segment, Chuck Todd presented a couple of slides about the Super Bowl. The first made me feel good about being part of an American sports ritual that, unlike other sports, appeals equally to both Democrats and Republicans. 

I guess I'm included in the Democrats 44%, even though my NFL fandom usually consists of one game a year, the Super Bowl. Todd noted that it's only the NFL that attracts Democrats and Republicans equally, since other sports have a bias toward one political party or the other.

Good for the NFL. We need more things in the United States that bring us together, given how divided we are in many respects. 

This slide also was interesting, along with being a bit disturbing.

Wow, 29 of 30 most viewed television broadcasts in U.S. history are Super Bowls. Not a moon landing. Not a presidential debate. Super Bowls. The exception among the top 30 was the finale of M*A*S*H in 1983. 

Oh, well. Whatever brings us together is a good thing. Even if it is Super Bowls and the finale of a long-running TV show.

Oregon pulls out a nail-biter over North Carolina in Holiday Bowl

After Oregon lost to Oregon State in the last game of the regular season, dooming Oregon's chance to play USC for the Pac-12 championship and potentially earn a Rose Bowl berth, going to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego struck me as a crappy consolation prize.

And for most of today's game against North Carolina in the Holiday Bowl, that assessment seemed right-on. I was totally prepared for Oregon to lose, end up 9-4 on the season, and look forward to better times next year, since this season would have ended in a disappointing fashion.

Then the fourth quarter happened. Bo Nix, Oregon's quarterback, played great, even though he didn't appear to be 100% after suffering a leg injury near the end of the regular season. Oregon scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, knotting the score at 27-27 with less than 30 seconds remaining.

The extra point seemed anticlimactic. But Camden Lewis pulled his kick to the left, hitting the upright with an audible "clunk," momentarily causing gasps from Oregon fans like me. Which turned to sighs of relief when the ball bounced off the upright and through the goal posts.

Whew: 28-27 Oregon. Drake Maye, the talented North Carolina quarterback, still had 19 seconds left to pull out a win. Thankfully, his pass into the end zone with one second left was knocked down by Oregon players.

It turned out that the Holiday Bowl was highly entertaining. That would have been the case no matter which team won. I'm just glad that it was Oregon. And that Bo Nix has decided to return for another year of being the Oregon quarterback. 

Oregon State football, thanks for a great season

It felt wonderful to watch Oregon State play Florida in today's Las Vegas Bowl and have the most worrisome part of the game be whether the Beavers would hold the Gators scoreless, thereby ending Florida's NCAA-record 435 game scoring streak.

I was rooting for this to happen, but Florida kicked a 40 yard field goal with 37 seconds left. Oh, well, that was about the only thing that didn't go right in Oregon State's 30-3 victory. A missed extra point was no big deal.

I've got to admit that early in this year's football season I was more of an Oregon fan. But with every Oregon State game that I watched, I came away increasingly impressed with the character and style of the team.

Sure, Oregon has snazzier uniforms, and when playing well, a more exciting style. Oregon State, though, gradually won me over with its solid blue collar approach to the game of football. Not super flashy. Just tough hard-nosed play with fewer mistakes than the more mercurial Ducks.

Jonathan Smith is an impressive coach of the Beavers. I wondered what was up when Tristan Gebbia replaced Ben Gulbranson at quarterback early on in the game when the score was only 7-0. But an Oregonian story explained this move.

Gulbranson has become a culture setter in Corvallis, and I’m not sure what is more important to the Beavers program than culture.

Don’t forget that on Saturday, Smith pulled Gulbranson for the Beavers’ third and fourth series, with his team leading only 7-0, to give senior Tristan Gebbia a meaningful opportunity to play before his career ended.

Two years ago, Gebbia was the Beavers’ starter. He shredded his hamstring on the goal line against Oregon, then spent the next two years working back from injury. His teammates voted him captain three consecutive years, despite the injury.

“It was more than a tip-of-the-cap,” Smith said. “If he wasn’t close to Ben, we wouldn’t have put him out there. We’re trying to win the game.”

But that’s the kind of program Smith is running.

I don’t know how many other coaches are pulling their starting quarterback after he had just executed a 65-yard touchdown drive, as Gulbranson did in the first quarter, just to take a look at a backup who had barely played in 24 months.

“I look at his influence of being a captain on this team,” Smith said, “guys really rallying around him. The way he continued to support Ben.”

Smith rewards players who are about the right things. Who buy into the program and are selfless.

Really refreshing. Smith is a class act as a coach, as are his players. His team's 10-3 record this year is testament to his steady approach to building a quality program.

I recall that Gebbia entered the game on the last play, a quarterback knee-down as time expired. The post-game video showed Gebbia trying to hand the game ball to Gulbranson, who was named the Most Valuable Player of the game.

Gulbranson shook his head and left the ball with Gebbia. That image will stick in my mind. It personified the selflessness mentioned in the Oregonian story. In this age of big egos among many athletes. the Oregon State football team is a welcome exception thanks to the example of their coach.

Oregon's football loss to Oregon State hurt a lot

In sports, as in other aspects of life, there are losses that sting more than others. When a team you want to have win loses, the pain of that loss depends on various factors.

For me, it has much to do with the familiar adage, "They left everything on the field." Meaning, the team did all that it could to win. Maximum effort. Minimum mistakes. Playing hard. Playing smart.

If both teams leave everything on the field, I view that as a great game, one that neither side deserved to lose, but one team had to (unless the game is soccer, which sometimes ends in a tie).

But yesterday the University of Oregon football team lost to Oregon State in a fashion that left a lingering bad taste in my fan-mouth. They did leave something on the field: energy, wise decisions, good coaching, a will to win.

ESPN describes the ugly (if you're an Oregon fan) conclusion of the game.

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- — Isaiah Newell ran for the go-ahead touchdown with 8:11 remaining, and No. 22 Oregon State took advantage of critical mistakes in the fourth quarter by No. 10 Oregon to rally for a 38-34 victory Saturday.

The Beavers (9-3, 6-3 Pac-12, No 21 CFP) trailed 31-10 late in the third quarter and 34-17 early in the fourth, but the Ducks (9-3, 7-2, No. 9 CFP) gave their rivals a short field on three consecutive possessions. Oregon State converted all three drives into touchdowns without attempting a single pass.

"I felt like we won the Super Bowl," Oregon State receiver Tyjon Lindsey said.

Oregon missed out on a spot in the Pac-12 championship game when No. 12 Washington beat Washington State later Saturday. No. 14 Utah won a tiebreaker and will face No. 5 Southern California on Friday for the league title.

I started watching the game in a balanced frame of mind. I'm a fan of both the Oregon Ducks and the Oregon State Beavers. At first I had the attitude that I'd be equally happy no matter which team won. 

But as the game went on, I realized that emotionally I was more attached to an Oregon win. After all, that way Oregon would play in the Pac-12 championship game against USC. Oregon State narrowly lost to USC in the regular season. I wanted to see how Oregon would fare against the Trojans.

And even if Oregon lost to USC in the championship game, there was a good chance USC would be in the national playoff top four teams. This meant Oregon could play in the Rose Bowl on January 2, which would be way cool.

So I found myself hoping that Oregon would manage to eke out a win against Oregon State even as the Beavers were mounting a furious comeback that I found inspiring.

The blame for the loss falls on a lot of Oregon shoulders. However, sports writer John Canzano singled out Coach Lanning for some special blame, and athletic director Rob Mullens for some extra-special blame.

Oregon did a lot wrong on the way to losing this game. The Ducks had a punt blocked, they botched a second punt attempt, and Lanning decided in the fourth quarter that going for it on fourth down and 1 from his own 29-yard-line was a good idea.

It was a lousy idea.

Especially when you consider Lanning made a similar error from his side of the field, just two weeks earlier in losing to Washington. This time, he wasn’t doing it against a porous defense. He was trying it against the Pac-12’s best run defense, while holding a three-point lead, and with his quarterback hobbling.

Bo Nix was tossed for a one-yard loss.

The play foreshadowed another bad loss — the game itself.

...I’m still trying to wrap my head around what we saw at Reser Stadium. Oregon State deserves big-time credit. I wrote about the Beavers unthinkable path to victory in my post-game column.

Smith’s team demonstrated exceptional resilience. It overcame terrible officiating and three turnovers. It endured a horrendous start to the second half and walked off winners. But the focus now is on the hand-wringing currently going on at Oregon.

The Beavers overcame that massive second-half deficit against the youngest coaching staff in major college football. They did so with only 60 passing yards. Blame Dan Lanning for some of it? Sure. He was reckless. But the big-dollar donors at Oregon did not. Instead, they turned their post-game ire toward the athletic director who hired him — Rob Mullens.

It wasn’t just a lost football game on Saturday. The Ducks let a potential Rose Bowl slip through their fingers. They saw millions in revenue evaporate. They lost recruiting advantages, took a brand hit, and were embarrassed on television.

The donors don’t really blame Lanning. They expected growing pains. It’s not his fault he was put in charge. One of them compared the Oregon football operation to a $200,000 Bentley, handed to an inexperienced driver. Do you blame the young driver for dinging up the car? Or the person who gave him the keys?

“It was fraught with risk,” said one booster.

The donors are instead focused on Mullens, the AD, for hiring a coaching staff that looked in over its head on Saturday. They blame him.

Said a second long-time UO donor: “I’m not even mad about the game. I’m mad that it was predictable and the person in charge allowed it to be.”

Well, both Oregon and Oregon State have one more bowl game to play. One projection has Oregon in the December 28 Holiday Bowl against North Carolina, and Oregon State in the December 30 Sun Bowl against Louisville. 

Not bad. But for Oregon, way worse than what would have been if they'd left everything on the field yesterday.

Yesterday Oregon's Bo Nix inspired everyone hobbled by a problem

My wife doesn't like watching sports. I've tried to explain to her that what makes a game especially interesting to me isn't what's happening on the field, but what's going on in the lives of certain key players.

So a football game, say, isn't just a bunch of guys running around bashing each other. It can also be a drama of sorts if you follow the teams closely enough to understand the main characters.

Yesterday's game between Oregon and Utah was a great example of this. Sure, I was pleased that Oregon pulled out a 20-17 victory. But it was how the win came about that made it so compelling and satisfying for me.

The hero of the drama was Oregon quarterback Bo Nix. He'd gotten injured the week before in a disappointing loss to Washington. Details of the injury were lacking. Something to do with his leg or foot.

It was unclear whether Nix would be able to play in the Utah game -- an important game, since the winner would have a clear path toward playing in the Pac 12 championship, which likely would mean a Rose Bowl berth.

As soon as I stared watching the game it was clear that while Nix was the starting Oregon quarterback, he wasn't his usual self. Unable to run at all well, Nix was limited to either handing the ball off or standing almost stationary as he looked for a receiver on a pass play.

The announcers said that Nix looked like he was at about 50%. He couldn't plant himself on his injured right foot, which made it tough to pass with his usual accuracy. Still, Nix led the Ducks on several scoring drives and they ended the first half leading 17-3.

I recall the announcers saying that if Oregon ended up winning the game, Nix's gritty performance while injured would go down as one of the best of any quarterback this season, maybe even deserving Heisman Trophy consideration. 

Watching Nix hobble around on a cold night in Eugene, keeping Oregon ahead as Utah staged a strong second half comeback, I found myself rooting for him to tough out a win in part because he was showing how someone can have an injury, or health problem (physical or mental), and perform their duties well in the face of that adversity.

Sports writer John Canzano said it well in a post-game column emailed to his readers, of whom I'm one. Some excerpts:

I don’t know if you saw Bo Nix play football on Saturday night. The University of Oregon quarterback wasn’t his typical, mobile self. He rushed for -3 yards, in fact.

On one play, UO offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham sent Nix in motion out of the backfield.

I watched.

The Autzen Stadium crowd watched.

Nix was a decoy. The plan was to snap the ball to a running back. But as the quarterback with an injured foot trotted in motion toward the sideline, Utah’s defenders didn’t move. They turned their heads and watched like the rest of us.

Nix looked like guy making his way across an icy crosswalk on a cold winter night. I half expected a Boy Scout might run on the field and help him across the formation.

It was Oregon 20, Utah 17 on Saturday night. Nix was gutsy, playing with one bad wheel. He threw for 287 yards, a touchdown and one interception.

...We’ve seen a lot of great things from quarterbacks over the years at the University of Oregon.

Justin Herbert, throwing missiles.

Marcus Mariota, slipping linebackers.

What we hadn’t ever seen was Ducks’ quarterback pretty much stand stationary for four quarters, throwing darts around the field. Then, late in the fourth quarter, needing to ice the game, Nix faked a hand off, ran, and dove two yards for a first down.

Said Lanning: “We asked Bo right before that play if we could run the play knowing that the two options were to hand it off or for him to keep it and he said ‘absolutely.’ That guy’s got heart.”

...We’re all in a struggle against our limitations. That’s life, isn’t it? The Ducks were resilient on Saturday. We watched Oregon stumble around the field, exploring the edges of those limits. Nix’s performance wasn’t smooth and easy. It was gritty and authentic. It was essentially a wince. I suppose that’s why I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

Beautifully said. Being 74, with several annoying health problems that limit me somewhat, I resonate with what Canzano said: We’re all in a struggle against our limitations. That’s life, isn’t it?

For sure.

After being able to easily run around a track, sometimes we reach a point where diving two yards is all we can do. But then we can get up, maybe with the help of a friend, and dive two more yards. Metaphorically speaking, I mean.

Thus when we see someone like Nix do so well in his own struggle, that encourages the rest of us. Yesterday I felt like I wasn't watching just a football game. I was watching life play out on a football field.

Deep thoughts about OSU's last minute win over Stanford

My wife, Laurel, like lots of non-sports fans, can't understand the appeal of watching football games.

Or any games, for that matter, aside from the Puppy Bowl that's held every Super Bowl day for those who are more interested in watching young dogs run around on a playing field than grown men.

What I try to convey to Laurel, with decidedly mixed success, is that sports becomes as fascinating as a engrossing novel, movie, or TV show if you follow a team closely enough to know what a game means, and who the main characters in the drama are.

Drama is precisely the right word to describe yesterday's Oregon State University vs. Stanford football game held in Palo Alto. OSU was favored, but looked out of sorts for most of the game, while Stanford was playing great.

When the score was 24-10 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, I figured that the only reason I should keep watching was to see how bad the final score would be. However, OSU made a good comeback, trailing only 27-22 with 58 seconds left. 

So now I thought that I'd watch OSU come up just short, which would have felt worse to me than losing badly. I was tempted to stop watching the game and turn to the evening Portland news, but decided to stick it out until the very end.

Good decision. Because this happened. (The highlights video starts with the crucial pass play.)

An Oregonian story describes the amazing catch by Tre’Shaun Harrison. 

With the Beavers down by five points with just seconds remaining, quarterback Ben Gulbranson fired a pass toward the right sideline, looking for receiver Tre’Shaun Harrison.

As Harrison tried to haul in the pass, he snared it off of Cardinal defender Ethan Bonner’s helmet. Bonner and Stanford safety Patrick Fields, who was also covering on the play, seemed momentarily stunned that Harrison had made the catch, and by the time they started after him, Harrison was racing to the end zone for a 56-yard touchdown.

Here's a blurry screenshot from the video of the catch. Harrison is way up there in the air, grabbing the football off of the helmet of #13 Stanford defender Bonner.

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post that mentioned sports writer John Canzano saying that Oregon State snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in their disappointing game against USC. 

And yesterday OSU snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Same team. Way different outcome. In each case, all because of a single play. 

I felt amazingly good as soon as Harrison ran untouched into the end zone. Moments like this one are what make sports a great reflection of life, which obviously isn't all that surprising, since sports are part of life.

A back-up quarterback, Ben Gulbranson, was playing for OSU. The ESPN announcers said when he took over with 58 seconds to go that this was Gulbranson's chance to go down in Oregon State history as staging one of the great all-time comebacks for the football team.

When I heard that, I thought, yeah, right, not much chance of that happening. 

Yet it did. Which goes to show that just when things are darkest, it's possible that light will dawn. But the flip side is that just when things are brightest, it's possible that darkness will fall. In other words, we just can't tell what the future will bring. 

For most of the game, ESPN showed shots of really happy Stanford fans. After Harrison's touchdown, their demeanor changed markedly.

I felt sorry for them. A little bit. Mostly I felt joy that the team I wanted to have win, did, in such an astounding fashion with 13 seconds left to go in the game.

But there's always another game. Next time us OSU fans could be the ones with sad faces. That's the attraction of watching sports for me. You just never know. Just like life.

"Pushing the pile" rule doomed Oregon State against USC

While yesterday's Oregon vs. Washington State football game had an emotional arc for Ducks fans like me that went pre-game optimism - most of second half despair -- last few minutes elation (amazing comeback by Oregon), the Oregon State vs. USC game was pretty much the opposite.

John Canzano, the Oregonian sports columnist who now opines in a freelance manner, shared an email with his followers titled "Oregon State snatches defeat from the jaws of victory." Canzano singled out four interceptions thrown by OSU quarterback Chance Nolan as a key reason for this.

But what grabbed my attention as the almost-end-of-game reason for Oregon State's defeat was USC getting a fourth down conversion when six yards were needed on a quarterback run after Caleb Williams was pressured on a passing play and had to scramble for a first down.

Two screenshots of game highlights on a You Tube video tell the pushing the pile tale.

Oregon State leads USC by four with 2:45 left to go in the game. If they stop USC on 4th & 6 there's an excellent chance Oregon State wins the game, garnering national attention by beating the #7 team in the country and setting themselves up as a top competitor in the PAC 12.

At this point in the play two Oregon State defensive players have the USC ball carrier wrapped up short of the first down line shown in yellow. It looks like they're about to bring him down. But...

A few seconds later, a mass of USC players have pushed the ball carrier forward across the first down line. Now two USC players are (correctly) signaling first down. Not long after, a long pass play gives USC a touchdown, putting them ahead 17-14, which was the final score after another interception of a Nolan pass snuffed out Oregon State's last gasp attempt at a field goal or touchdown.

Talking with a friend today about this pushing the pile play that saved USC from a likely defeat, I noted that while I hadn't thought about the fairness of this practice before, my irritation at Oregon State's loss made me wonder how it is that a ball carrier being tackled by defenders can gain additional yards not by their own effort, but by being propelled forward by teammates.

Just seems more like rugby than American football.

Some Googling this evening revealed that according to Wikipedia's "Helping the runner" article: 

The official NCAA rule book in 1950 stated, "The runner shall not grasp, or be pulled by, any teammate, nor shall any teammate push the runner or lift him from the ground while the ball is in play. Penalty for 'helping the runner' is 15 yards from the spot of the foul."

...The penalty in college and high school was later reduced to 10 yards, and finally 5 yards. The NFL and CFL continued with the foul as 10 yards. In 2005, the National Football League made the penalty only for pulling and carrying, removing the flag in cases of pushing. The NCAA followed in 2013. Pushing still remains illegal in high school games.

So if the Oregon State - USC game had been played in 2012, USC would have been penalized for pushing the pile. Small comfort for us Oregon State fans, since this is 2022, not 2012. 

It still seems like allowing pile pushing could lead to some bizarre consequences. My Googling revealed how one person thought back in 2015 that pushing the pile could be used in a strange way.

Until Saturday, I hadn't realized they changed the rule so that it is now okay to push a ball carrier forward. This seems like something that a big team could use often, and maybe even build an offense around.

Most running schemes try to find a gap and run through it. Usually, the running back gets tackled, not stood up. When they do get stood up, they sometimes push forward with success. KSU did this to us several times.

But what if your goal was to get stood up every play, then push forward in a coordinated effort, kind of like a tug of war? You'd line up with five beefy OLs and two TEs, all shoulder to shoulder, with a RB under center surrounded on 3 sides by O Linemen. Snap to the running back, and have everyone muscle forward slowly, in a tight bunch. The RB has 7 linemen in front of him and 3 behind him, all pushing forward. Like in a tug of war, the surges could be timed, with the guy in the back yelling "push... push... push... push".

On some plays you could push straight forward, on others at an angle to the left or right. You could even push one way for a predetermined number of times, then switch to another direction. The defense would be resisting at the wrong angle, which would be a huge edge to the offense.

When I first thought of this, I thought it was stupid. But the more I think about it, the more I think it could actually work -- assuming you are bigger and stronger than they are.

Can you tell I don't like this rule change?

I should sue Oregon football after second loss to Utah

Is there such a thing as a breach of contract to a sports fan?

Sadly, this is a dubious legal concept. But if it existed, the Oregon football team would owe me big time after their hugely disappointing 38-10 loss to Utah tonight in the Pac-12 championship game.

So disappointing, even the Oregon mascot looked like they couldn't wait until the final sad minutes ticked away.

But at least snapping this photo of my TV screen gave me something to do other than curse my bad luck for having more than three hours of my remaining life span wasted by watching one of the worst Oregon football games in my memory.

Oh, except for the Oregon-Utah game two weeks ago that was just as bad: a 38-7 loss for the Ducks.

The reason I feel like I'm entitled to win a breach of contract complaint against the team is that: (1) the advance stories in Oregonian and Statesman Journal sports sections had copious quotes from Oregon players and coaches about how the 38-7 loss to Utah was an aberration and wouldn't be repeated, and (2) all of the predictions I saw for the result of the Pac-12 championship game showed a very tight final score, typically no more than a three point difference between Oregon and Utah. Maybe seven, at most.

Yet... (according to tonight's Oregonian story)

LAS VEGAS — With a chance at a redemption on the biggest stage the Pac-12 offers in the regular season, Oregon had déjà vu against Utah and the only question that matters in both the short and long term is whether Mario Cristobal is staying in Eugene or leaving for Miami.

Just as was the case 13 days ago in Salt Lake City, the No. 10 Ducks didn’t establish their run game early, allowed game-breaking plays by Utah’s tight ends, committed a bevy of self-inflicted mistakes, couldn’t get off the field on third down, missed a field goal and were poor covering kicks in a 38-10 blowout loss to the No. 17 Utes in the Pac-12 championship game Friday night at Allegiant Stadium.

It was a season-low in yards (221) for the Ducks (10-3), who are likely bound for the Alamo Bowl after spending much of the season in the top 5 and among the contenders to reach the College Football Playoff.

Once again, Oregon lost to Utah, and for the very same reasons. Even though tonight's game was played on a neutral field, Utah had more energy, made fewer mistakes, competed harder for all 60 minutes, and looked better coached.

Aside from that, there were a few bright spots for Oregon. They're just really hard to identify. I guess the Oregonian story did that for me.

Travis Dye carried 15 times for 82 yards and a touchdown and caught four passes for 27 yards. Noah Sewell had 12 tackles and an interception.

The dark spots are much easier for me to remember, since there were so many of them.

A couple of my "favorites," if that's the right word, was Oregon quarterback Anthony Brown inexplicably attempting a pass near the end of the first half while falling out of bounds, which was intercepted and gifted Utah a field goal.

And the Oregon center hiking the ball just as a player in motion went behind him. The ball then eluded Brown and almost led to a touchback. It definitely put a crimp in Oregon's attempt for a second half comeback. Not than anything was going to make that possible given how crappy the Ducks played.

Oregon's loss to Stanford threw me into temporary depression

There's nothing worse than watching a favorite football team lose a game that they had well in hand, before they make a bunch of dumb-ass mistakes that snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.

That's what happened to the Oregon Ducks this afternoon. 

Sure, their play sucked in much of the first half. But Oregon had a 24-17 lead at 1:59 left in the fourth quarter with Stanford on its own 4-yard line.

There should have been even less time left on the clock if Oregon hadn't inexplicably gone for a pass on its last possession instead of running the ball, as the Ducks had been doing successfully.

So that was a bad coaching mistake.

Then Kayvon Thibodeaux gets hit with a targeting penalty -- helmet to helmet contact -- that gives Stanford fifteen penalty yards. Really dumb move on the part of Thibodeaux. 

Which was followed up by Brandon Dorlus getting a roughing the passer penalty, giving Stanford another fifteen penalty yards. 

Thus Oregon gifts Stanford 30 of the 96 yards they needed, plus about 40 seconds extra time because of the absurd coaching decision to attempt a pass when Oregon had been doing a great job using up the clock near the end of the game.

And this was after Stanford's starting quarterback had to leave the game with an injury. His backup made some great plays, including a two yard pass that tied the game after a pass interference penalty on the Ducks gave Stanford one more play with no time left on the clock.

Stanford scores a touchdown in overtime. Oregon does nothing. Game over for the 3rd ranked Ducks. 

I've experienced a lot of heartbreak watching Oregon games during the 50 years I've lived in this state. This one depressed me more than any I can recall. But maybe I'm blocking out a previous traumatic game akin to this one.

It just seemed like a broken promise of sorts.

I'd arranged my afternoon around watching the game. It was a nice day. I could have done some chores that beckoned on our ten acres. However, nothing seemed more important than watching Oregon take another step toward what hopefully would be a place in the college football playoff for a national championship.

Turns out the Ducks did take a big step. Backward. 

Again, it was the way Oregon lost that was so disturbing. Like, maybe, just maybe, the coaching staff should have drummed into the defensive player's brains in the last two minutes, "No stupid penalties!" I wouldn't have minded Stanford beating Oregon. Instead, Oregon beat itself.

The 30 yards of totally unnecessary penalties was the difference in the game, along with the failure to take more time off the clock by running instead of passing on the Duck's last possession in regulation.

I rely on John Canzano of the Oregonian to put a game like this in perspective. Reading his post-game piece made me feel a bit better to know that my negative take on how Oregon performed fit with the view of a top sports columnist. 

Oregon worked hard to lose on Saturday. It was without center Alex Forsyth. Play caller Joe Moorhead was out sick. The Ducks called passes when they should have rushed and UO had two players ejected for targeting. Oregon also blew a line of assignments, missed a bunch of tackles, and mismanaged the clock.

...Up by seven with two minutes to go? The No. 3 team in America? All those four and five-star players? Oregon blew the lead and left with a 4-1 record while a bunch of giddy Stanford engineering and computer science majors jumped the railing and hopped around on the field in front of them.

Put this 2021 Stanford game on the very top of the pile of a bunch of painful defeats to the Cardinal. Right up there with the losses in 2001, 2009, 2012 and 2013. Saturday, in fact, marked the fifth time in the last 20 years that the Cardinal beat a Ducks team ranked in the Top 10.

...Blame the Pac-12 refs?

I can’t go there today, folks.

Not while quarterback Anthony Brown Jr. was so shaky with his reads. Not with the defense wilting down the stretch. Not with so many points left on the field and so many questions unanswered. Credit to Stanford for the win, but let’s be real -- they’re just OK, aren’t they?

Oregon was a terrible, sloppy, uneven mess against that act.

...The Ducks players are going to get sick when they watch the film and observe all the ways in which they gave away what should have easily been a road win.

Along with me, Oregon football team has #4 ranking

It was tough, but I did it!

Last Saturday I pulled out a win against Ohio State, defying the odds and 100,000 crazed red-clad fans who desperately wanted me to lose so their team could maintain or improve on it's #3 in the nation ranking.

Oh, guess I also need to give some credit to the University of Oregon football team. They were the ones who took the field against Ohio State. 

But the way I felt after the game, I was right there with them -- a 72 year old guy who didn't even play football in high school, yet shared in the Ducks' glory. 

Such is the magic of tribalism, a word I usually use in connection with political affiliations, as in "I'm a proud member of the progressive tribe."
After watching the Oregon-Ohio State game, going through the usual stages of football-viewing "death" when the team you want to win is engaged in a back-and-forth battle that came down to a few key plays -- worry, hope, excitement, despair, impending doom, relief, ecstasy -- I felt absolutely amazing. 

It was as if I'd won the game. I floated through the rest of my day on a cloud of exultation. I'd identified so strongly with the Oregon football team that their amazing victory was my amazing victory.

I replayed in my mind the plays that sealed the win. An interception. A quarterback sack. As I was going to sleep that night, those images appeared in my psyche as fond memories of what the Ducks and I had been able to accomplish.

Sure, the Oregon players were the ones in the Ohio State stadium, while I was the one sitting on my butt in a comfortable chair, watching the game with a remote in my hand. However, the power of football tribalism is so strong, I felt like part of the team.

Which means I'm now #4 in the country, according to a couple of polls. Pretty damn good, but now I'd like to be #1. Just need to get that pesky Alabama out of the way.

Naturally there's a downside to my identification with the Oregon Ducks. If the team goes into a tailspin, my current ecstasy will turn into agony.

I have a clue as to what that would feel like: the oh-so-sad faces of the Ohio State fans as the final seconds ticked off.

These Tokyo Olympic moments surprised me

I'm so old, it feels like I've been watching the Olympics ever since those ancient Greeks wrestled in the nude, foreshadowing gay pride for athletic muscular dudes.

Thus I was prepared to be underwhelmed by the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics, which were supposed to be the 2020 Olympics if Covid hadn't thrown a pandemic wrench into the gears of the games.

The opening ceremony bored me.

I figured that Japan would put on something to surpass the ceremony in China some years ago, which was a mesmerizing spectacle. But no, I had to watch pieces of wood being shuffled around because lumber is important in Japan, or something like that.

How about a few hundred Taiko drummers doing their thing? Or samurai slicing up pumpkins with their swords? (I'm available to direct the next opening ceremony, Olympic committee.)

Then I began to wonder if the Olympics were even worth watching in this summer of Covid. With the Delta variant destroying so many lives in this country and around the world, watching athletes run, jump, swim, and such almost struck me as irrelevant. 

Almost. 

I wasn't sure, so I dutifully set our DirecTV DVR to record the prime time NBC Olympics program. Somehow, though, the DVR also has been recording the 5 am program, along with random other programs that I never bothered to figure out how to turn off.

Which I'm thankful for. Because I'd fast forward through the non-prime time Olympics programming and find an event that blew me away in a surprising fashion. Here's three examples.

As I was about to go to bed around midnight one day, I decided to watch the men's triathlon for a while. I tuned in to the concluding running portion of the event. The leaders were a Norwegian and two other men who looked to be both considerably younger than him and much smoother runners than him.

The announcers were critiquing the Norwegian's form. "He moves his arms so much, he isn't getting as much forward motion from his stride as he should." "The other leaders are biding their time and will pass him as the finish nears."

Didn't happen.

The gangly Norwegian with the horrible running style took off and ended up running at a 4:40 mile pace at the end of the triathlon, which also features swimming and bicycling. He was so far ahead of the two other guys as he approached the finish, he kept looking back in amazement. 

A Reuters story says:

Norway's Kristian Blummenfelt backed his endurance to take the sting out of two young hotshot rivals as he delivered a devastating late surge to break clear on a sweltering run leg and take gold in a thrilling men's Olympic triathlon on Monday.

Blummenfelt was part of a huge group of almost 40 that came off the 40km bike leg together but looked anything but favourite among some young speedsters.

However, he dug deep to keep driving at the front as the group was whittled down to three, before surging clear in the final kilometre to finish in one hour, 45 minutes and 04 seconds to take Norway's first medal in the sport.

...Realising he could not be caught he virtually danced his way down the finishing straight, before collapsing, utterly spent.

This was my favorite Olympic moment so far. (Just noticed in the story that Blummenfelt is only 27 years old; he looked quite a bit older.)

Other Olympic moments that unexpectedly delighted me were women's rugby and men's archery. 

I'm basically clueless about rugby rules. There's something called a scrum, right? And it appears that you score seven points for doing something and five points for doing something else. Whatever.

What mattered was how entertaining watching two women's teams go at it was.

Those women (I'm tempted to say "gals," but I'm afraid a female rugby player would kick my butt for doing that) are damn tough. It actually was better that I didn't know what was going on, because I could get absorbed in the sheer artistry of women tackling, pushing, scrumming, and such up and down the field until seven points or five points or whatever was scored when someone clawed their way across a goal line.

Not that I've ever come close to being in a bar fight, but if I ever was, I'd want a female rugby player to be by my side. Or better, in front of me, while I ran for the door. 

Then there was the men's archery competition. Kind of like yin to the rugby yang. Very calm, cool, and collected. Because it's pretty clear that when you're trying to shoot an arrow with a very complicated-looking bow at a tiny target a long ways off, it isn't good to get all worked up about it. 

Today I watched this Turkish guy, Mete Gazoz, win the gold medal.

I loved the care with which he and the silver medal winner drew the arrow back, paused a few seconds with the bow string seemingly touching their nose, or very close to it. and then releasing the arrow with great delicacy. If I could meditate like that, I'd be enlightened.

It's like the archers have to try really hard to hit the bullseye, yet while trying not to try. (That's the title of a great book, by the way, "Trying Not to Try." It's on my Taoist book shelf, not that I'm very capable of doing this.)

Baseball as metaphor for politics: why OSU's loss bothers me

Today the Oregon State baseball team failed to win a regional series in the NCAA tournament.

After leading 5-0 in the deciding game against Dallas Baptist, Dallas Baptist scored eight unanswered runs and won 8-5.

After watching the loss on ESPN, I found myself more disturbed than seemed reasonable. After all, it was just a baseball game.

But sometimes I find deep philosophical meanings in sports events, as evidenced by "Deep thoughts about Arkansas' missed pop-up that cost a World Series championship."

In this case, it was the first pitch thrown by OSU reliever Joey Mundt in the seventh inning that cost the Beavers a trip to the NCAA Super Regionals, one step closer to the College World Series.

That pitch came with the bases loaded. Dallas Baptist's Andrew Benefield hit a grand slam home run. Since Dallas Baptist had scored two runs in the previous inning, that changed a 5-2 OSU lead into a 6-5 deficit.

And that, as the saying goes, was the ball game. One misplaced pitch. One good swing. Game over for Oregon State, since they didn't score again while Dallas Baptist added on another two runs.

On a post-game walk around our neighborhood I had a thought about why the OSU loss bothered me so much. It wasn't so much the failure to win, but what led up to the loss. 

The parallels with the troubles Democrats are having in Congress leapt out at me as I walked along.

Oregon State lost its first tournament game. After Trump was elected, Democrats were powerless in Washington D.C. until they took back the House in 2018.

Oregon State then won three games in a row in the regional tournament. In 2020 Democrats won the presidency, narrowly held onto the House, and eked out a 50-50 tie in the Senate after two surprising wins in Georgia Senate races that went to a run-off election.

It looked like Oregon States was going to win after taking a 5-0 lead into the sixth inning. Progressives like me were looking forward to Democrats passing important voting rights, infrastructure, climate change, and other legislation with their 51-50 lead in the Senate (Vice-President Harris breaks 50-50 tie votes.)

All Oregon State had to do was preserve its lead and they'd make it into the Super Regional. All Senate Democrats had to do was eliminate the filibuster on a 51-50 vote and they'd be able to pass groundbreaking legislation that would markedly help the country and world.

Oregon State's hopes were dashed by one grand slam home run swing. Last weekend Joe Manchin (D, West Virginia) dashed most of Democrats' legislative hopes when he said he'd never vote to abolish or weaken the filibuster and opposed the For the People voting rights act.

To build on these parallels, it looked to me like the Oregon State pitchers failed to be aggressive and confident as they tried to to preserve the OSU lead. 

Walks were common, as was getting behind in pitch counts. The game was there for Oregon State to win, but Dallas Baptist kept taking advantage of OSU mistakes until the grand slam put them ahead for good.

Likewise, Republicans are going all out to pass voter suppression laws in states they control, while Democrats are frittering away what likely is their only opportunity to get major legislation through Congress before the GOP likely takes back control of the House, and perhaps the Senate also, in 2022.

It wasn't so much that Oregon State lost that bothered me so much. It was the fact that the game was so winnable, yet OSU failed to win it.

As one of the commentators said, coaches don't get upset when their pitcher allows a batter to get a hit. That's going to happen. What drives them crazy is when walks put batters on base without needing to get a hit.

In the same vein, I don't expect Democrats to win every vote in Congress. What irks me is Democrats like Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema essentially giving Republicans wins by balking at doing away with the filibuster that requires 60 votes to pass a bill in a 50-50 Senate.

There's no way ten Republicans are going to support a voting rights act, immigration reform, climate change legislation, or an infrastructure bill paid for by raising taxes on giant corporations. 

So Democrats are akin to a pitcher walking batter after batter until runs are scored without the other team having to get a hit. (This benefitted Oregon State today, but not enough to win the game.)

Nonetheless, both baseball and politics are unpredictable. That's part of what makes them so fun to watch. Just when you think you know what is going to happen, it doesn't. Something else happens.

Democrats may surprise me and succeed in passing major legislation in Biden's first term.

And given the excellent overall play of the Oregon State baseball team this year, I won't be surprised if they make a strong run in the 2022 College World Series tournament. 

Just not this year.

Watching Oregon State basketball is my happy drug

It's a natural high -- watching the Oregon State men's basketball team pull out six unlikely victories,  starting with the PAC-12 tournament.

UCLA. Oregon. Colorado. Those underdog wins produced a PAC-12 tournament championship, the only way Oregon State was going to make it into the NCAA March Madness.

Unable to see Oregon State play during the regular season because I'm stuck with DirecTV, which refuses to carry the PAC-12 Network, I became a big admirer of how the team was able to covert their underdog role into top dog wins.

Then came the NCAA tournament.

Tennessee. Oklahoma State. Loyola Chicago -- today's victory. Once again, Oregon State wasn't favored to win any of those games.

They won all three, propelling them into the Elite Eight round, one Monday win away from becoming the only March Madness 12th seed to make it into the Final Four.

I've become a calmer Oregon State fan.

During the PAC-12 tournament I'd get really nervous near the end of a game, because I couldn't believe the team was going to pull off the upset, though I really wanted them to.

Today I watched Oregon State's slow start, glacial really, in a fairly relaxed fashion. Oregonian sports writer John Canzano put it nicely in his column today.

If you closely followed Oregon State’s dismal start to this season, you probably recognized Saturday’s game as a perfect metaphor. Slow start, encouraging middle, and lethal finish. The Beavers couldn’t get easy shots early. They could barely get the ball in bounds, really. But just like this season, something shifted midway through, and Tinkle’s team took control.

Ethan Thompson, a senior guard, deserves much of the credit for the win over Loyola Chicago. Whenever he had the ball, my nervousness ratcheted down a notch. 

Thompson makes very few mistakes. He's cool, calm, collected. When he's fouled, he hardly ever misses a free throw, looking even at the end of a close game like he's playing for fun in his back yard.

Jarod Lucas, a sophomore guard, is more erratic. Lucas usually plays solidly, but at times he gets a bit frantic, especially in comparison to Thompson's steadiness.

Today Lucas hit a three near the end of the game that, as the cliche goes, put a dagger into Loyola Chicago's comeback hope. He's a confident shooter, as befits his record as the third leading scorer in California high school history.

Then there's forward Warith Alatishe.

He's a highly entertaining player. Alatishe's jumping ability is amazing. He's a terrific rebounder and makes scoring over opposing players look easy, because he's shooting from such an impressive jump-shot height.

Center Roman Silva is the jumping antithesis to Alatishe. I don't recall ever seeing Silva leave the ground. Of course, when you're 7' 1" you don't need to do a lot of jumping to score or rebound. 

Silva is an appealing throwback to an earlier basketball time -- when centers played with their back to the basket and used guile to score rather than athleticism. He's a solid defender and contributes a lot to the Oregon State team, though Silva isn't a flashy highlight reel player.

Like all great teams, Oregon State is much more than the sum of its parts, the individual players. The team has excellent chemistry, buttressed by fine coaching. 

I love watching them play. After each win, I feel really good. Not just because Oregon State won, but how they won.

With teamwork. With determination. With energetic defense. With clutch offense. With solid free throw shooting. 

Monday they play either Syracuse or University of Houston for a trip to the Final Four.

Win or lose, Oregon State has become the Cinderella team of the NCAA tournament, a huge accomplishment given the preseason prediction that they'd end up at the bottom of the PAC-12 standings.

Oregon State men's basketball team is heart-stopping fun to watch

Whew!

My heart rate has slowed down enough to enable me to share some praise of the Oregon State basketball team that just beat Oklahoma State -- getting Oregon State into the Sweet 16 round of NCAA's March Madness.

Their first win in the tournament over Tennessee was wonderfully satisfying.

Tonight's win was even better, in part because Oklahoma State has Cade Cunningham, a great player who might be the #1 pick in the NBA draft.

Oregon State is a delight to watch.

The team has great chemistry. When a starter is faltering, or in foul trouble as Ethan Thompson was in the first half against Oklahoma State, a reserve steps up big time.

After Oklahoma State made two three-pointers in quick succession, one after a turnover, it seemed like this might be a close, but not quite game for Oregon State. 

But even after a 18-point lead dwindled to just three points near the end of the game, Oregon State pulled things together and ended up with a 80-70 victory.

Ethan Thompson was supremely solid in the final minutes. He made free throw after free throw as Oklahoma State fouled in a desperate attempt to make a comeback. 

Thompson also handled the ball really well when Oregon State needed a steady hand against the Oklahoma State press. 

It was a great day all around for Oregon State. I watched the women's basketball team win their NCAA tournament opener against Florida State by a score of 83-59.

And the University of Oregon men's and women's teams play tomorrow. Almost certainly an Oregon team will lose eventually, but right now our state is looking good in the NCAA tournaments.

Pac-12 championship game shows how sports imitates life

Yesterday the Oregon football team defeated USC 31-24 in the Pac-12 championship game. The win was satisfying for me in many regards, some of them philosophical.

Not that philosophy was on my mind as I watched the game with rapt attention. I got so nervous in the fourth quarter I was shivering with excitement and worry, so had to put on a sweater to make it through the final minutes.

There's something about a well-played close football game like this one that resonates for reasons well beyond the obvious.

Sure, Oregon was the underdog, a 3-2 team that was in the championship game only because Washington, who came out on top in the Pac-12 North, wasn't able to play because of their Covid cases.

So that produced a pleasing plot line. Oregon backs into the championship game in a surprising fashion, encountering big bad USC with a 5-0 record, an excellent quarterback, and a top-notch receiving corps.

Those were some of the big themes that laid the foundation for an intriguing football game. But as I was recollecting high points from the game after it was over, I kept thinking of the small things the game turned on.

Which reflects my philosophical interest in chaos. I delved into chaos theory when I was writing my first book in the mid-1990s, a study of how the new physics related to ancient mysticism. 

I learned that chaotic systems aren't random. They're deterministic. However, the determinism is non-linear, since a small change can have a big effect.

The "butterfly effect" is often cited as an example of chaos, where theoretically the flapping of a butterfly wing in one part of the world can lead, through atmospheric causes and effects, weeks later to a hurricane happening in another part of the world. 

Of course, those small changes are so difficult to discern, most of us look upon our life as being the result of Big Things, not small things.

We ascribe the general course of our life to our personality, our education, our upbringing, our genetics, and such -- not, say, to an overheard conversation in a college cafeteria (I've told that story on one of my other blogs).

Likewise, the outcome of the Oregon-USC game looked like it was going to be determined by whether USC could pull off another win in the fourth quarter after trailing for the entire game, which they'd done several times before this season. Their talented quarterback, Kedon Slovis, appeared to be on the way to doing that with about four minutes left. 

I recall an announcer saying that Slovis was trying to throw the ball away to avoid a sack. Or maybe it was just a really bad throw. Regardless, at first it looked like Oregon defensive back Jamal Hill wasn't able to intercept the pass while staying in bounds. 

Then instant replay showed that Hill did manage to pull off he interception in an amazing fashion. Behold...

That changed the course of the game. Oregon went on to win. Now the sports talk is whether Oregon deserved the victory that gave them the Pac-12 championship. Some say no. Some say yes. 

All that talk rests on some small things. Hill juggling the ball and being able to control it at the last moment as he fell out of bounds. One of Hill's feet being inbounds by an inch or two. Slovis throwing the ball in just the right way to allow Hill to barely intercept it.

Without each of those small things happening, the Big Deal of Oregon becoming Pac-12 champions could have been erased. 

Such is life. The proverb "for want of a nail," says Wikipedia, is a reminder that "seemingly unimportant acts or omissions can have grave and unforeseen consequences."

In this case it was grave from USC's point of view, fortuitous from Oregon's point of view. Last night's game showed that victory or defeat, joy or sorrow, success or failure, and so much else, often hinges on factors that appear to be insignificant in the grand scheme of things, yet make a big difference. 

Bottom line: life is marvelously unpredictable. And, really, who would want it any other way? A game of inches is much more interesting than a game of yards.

Oregon Ducks football team throws my psyche in a tailspin...again

I've got a friend who doesn't watch college football games live, only recorded, because he gets so emotionally involved with wanting a team to win, his psychological health suffers. So when he knows the final score, he can watch the game with equanimity. 

After being raised to a height of happiness during the first part of yesterday's Oregon - Stanford game, with Oregon leading 24-7 at halftime, bit by bit, mistake by mistake, the Ducks football team chipped away at my emotional high until I felt like shit when Stanford scored a touchdown in overtime and Oregon whiffed on four straight passes into the end zone, losing 38-31.

The scoresheet tells the sorrowful tale. Playing at home, with a Heisman Trophy candidate, Justin Herbert, at quarterback, who completed 25 of 27 passes for 331 yards at the end of regulation, somehow Oregon let Stanford outscore them 31-7 after halftime.

This isn't the first time I've felt hugely let down by the Ducks football team. I can't remember details of those other games, which probably is why my brain allowed me to watch yesterday's game with such a hopeful mood. Until the third quarter.

There the Ducks were, poised to extend their lead to 31-7 with the ball on the one-yard line and four chances to put it in the end zone. But a recovered fumble put them on the 10-yard line, and the next play featured a bad snap from center that was picked up by a Stanford player, who ran 80 yards for a touchdown.

After that, things went from bad to worse. But I was still feeling pretty damn hopeful when the Ducks had the ball at midfield with under a minute to play, leading 31-28. I'll let Oregonian sports columnist John Canzano describe the outcome in his bluntly honest post-game column, "Oregon Ducks loss to Stanford was a collapse."

Afterward, Cristobal was pressed by media on why he didn't have Herbert take a knee a couple of times with under a minute to play facing that second down and 2 situation from midfield. Stanford had only one time out left. Oregon instead handed the ball to freshman running back CJ Verdell, who fought for a few yards and ultimately, coughed up the ball.

"We were trying to get one more first down... two hands on the ball," Cristobal said. "First down, game's over."

Why didn't Oregon take a knee? Why didn't it force Stanford to take its final timeout? Was Verdell the right ball carrier? What exactly is wrong with maybe having to punt in the final seconds? Why didn't it feel comfortable bleeding out Cristobal's first Pac 12 Conference victory? Why hand the ball off there with Stanford's defenders desperately grabbing and pawing at it? 

"You could do a lot of things looking back on it," Cristobal said.

Cristobal is right. Dead. Solid. Right.

The Ducks could have done anything there but turn the ball over, then, allow Stanford to race down the field for its second scoring drive in three minutes. Herbert could have taken a knee. They could have done it twice and punted. They could have taken a safety. Heck, Herbert could have raced backward 15 yards, humming the school fight song, performed a pirouette, and thrown the ball to David Shaw on the Stanford sideline and the outcome would have been better. In the simplest scenario, Verdell could have just held onto the ball.

Exactly. This loss obviously was a team effort. There were screwups by numerous players.

But the coaching staff was responsible for what happened in the last minute, when a freshman running back was given the ball and, from what I could tell from a replay, was holding it with one arm after his run ended up in a mass of Stanford players desperate to strip him of it.

I feel bad about the Ducks' loss. I'm sure CJ Verdell feels much worse. And Head Coach Cristobal should feel way worse than that, because it was his decision to run the ball instead of doing any of the other things Canzano laid out that cost the Ducks a much-needed win. 

This story, "Oregon was 2 QB kneels away from a win but somehow lost instead," also puts it nicely. And painfully.

Any time you blow a 17-point lead and lose, it's going to hurt. But Oregon's 38-31 defeat at the hands of Stanford is going to burn for a long time for one big reason: the Ducks were a couple of quarterback kneels away from winning but decided to do something more complicated instead — and it ended up costing them the game.

Here was the situation with 51 seconds left in the game: Oregon, up 31-28, was facing 2nd and 3 from the Stanford 40. The Cardinal had one timeout in their pocket. Kneeling it out would have left Oregon punting the ball away from somewhere around the Stanford 45 with 19 seconds left to play. Even if the punt is shanked, that's a long way to go with no timeouts to get into field goal range.

But instead of kneeling, Oregon kept running its offense. Justin Herbert handed it off to CJ Verdell, Stanford cornerback Noah Williams forced a fumble, and his Cardinal teammate Sean Barton recovered.

Here's another similar take on the screw-up by Oregon.

I'm no football expert. I've watched a lot of Oregon football games, though. My general impression is that, especially in recent years, the Ducks have suffered from an excess of what I'll call "cuteness," for lack of a better term. 

For example, I recall that not long ago the Ducks coaching staff was enamored of going for two points after a touchdown, rather than kicking a virtually guaranteed extra point. That occasionally paid off for them, until one game where, I painfully recall, Oregon would have won if the coach had gone for a single extra point, rather than repeatedly failing at going for two.

Too much cuteness.

And I can't remember exactly what happened after the "touched pylon" touchdown yesterday was nullified by a video review, and the ball placed at the one yard line. I just recall the announcers talking about a curious substitution move by the Oregon coaching staff that may have impacted the fumble on the next play.

Again, too cute.  Geez. You've got a first down on the one-yard line. Let your most experienced players run the ball in for a touchdown and put a dagger into Stanford's (metaphorical) back. 

But no, that didn't happen. Along with other errors by both Oregon players and coaches, this got the Ducks a win... of sorts: USA Today ranked the Oregon-Stanford game #1 on their Misery Index. Yeah, sounds absolutely right to me.

There is no difference in the standings between losing a game and giving one away. Supposedly, they all count the same.

But everyone knows that’s not really true. Some losses count more than others, and for Oregon, the win they let slip away Saturday night was as bad as it gets.

Stanford 38, Oregon 31 in overtime is the kind of result that could linger over the program and coach Mario Cristobal for a while, particularly because the Ducks were twice on the doorstep of a triumph that would have instantly solidified their credibility as a Pac 12 force. 

Instead, the Ducks collapsed after leading 24-7. They watched a game they fully controlled late into the third quarter flip entirely in the span of just a few minutes thanks to two fumbles within the shadow of the goal line, the second of which Stanford returned for an 80-yard touchdown.

Then, when they had seemingly done enough to hold on, they were undone by an inexplicably poor coaching decision.

Cristobal’s refusal to put the Ducks in victory formation in the closing 90 seconds and instead get one more first down not only was a poor risk-reward assessment but also bad math. Is it more likely your running back will fumble trying to get a first down or that you’ll have a punt blocked and returned for a touchdown with no time left on the clock?

Those were the only two ways Oregon could lose. And they did, which puts the Ducks on top of the Misery Index, a weekly measurement of knee-jerk reactions based on what each fan base just watched.

Deep thoughts about Arkansas' missed pop-up that cost a World Series championship

OK, I've put my philosophical reputation on the line with the title of this blog post.

So I'll buy some time for my mind to come up with the promised deep thoughts by bringing readers of this post up to speed on the thoroughly mind-boggling play that cost the Arkansas baseball team the College World Series championship. 

I live in Oregon, not far from Corvallis, the home of the Oregon State University (OSU) Beavers baseball team. So last Wednesday I was rooting for the Beavers to win the second game in the best out of three championship series with the Arkansas Razorbacks. 

OSU had lost the first game in the series on Tuesday. So another loss would have given Arkansas the World Series championship. 

In the ninth inning the Beavers had a man on third with two outs. Cadyn Grenier was batting. I'll let a New York Post story tell the tale, which you can see in all its historic glory in the video above. The score at the time of the pop-up was Oregon State 2 and Arkansas 3.

Oregon State hadn’t been able to catch a break in the College World Series finals. And then the ninth inning happened Wednesday night.

Three Arkansas fielders watched a foul ball drop between them with two outs. If one of them catches the ball, the Razorbacks would have locked up the national championship.

No one did.

Cadyn Grenier singled in the tying run, and Trevor Larnach followed with a two-run homer into the right-field bullpen to give the Beavers the lead in a 5-3 win that forced a third and deciding third game on Thursday night.

“As soon as you see the ball drop, you know you have another life,” Grenier said. “I needed to refocus and make the most of that extra life we got. That’s a gift.”

Now, things went from bad to worse for the Arkansas baseball team the next night, since OSU beat them 5-0 and walked away as 2018 NCAA Division 1 champions. 

So because none of the three Arkansas players apparently called for the ball, and second baseman Carson Shaddy overran the pop-up, this single mistake -- which would be understandable in a junior high game, but not the College World Series -- had huge consequences.

The screenshot above is from the You Tube video. It shows the ball after it bounced off the ground in the middle of the triangle formed by the three players.

Who I have a lot of empathy for, notwithstanding the joy I felt after the botched pop-up led to OSU winning the game, then going on to win the College World Series.

I suspect that these three guys are going to have "If only I'd..." thoughts running through their minds for a long time. "If only I'd called for the ball... If only I hadn't overrun it... If only I'd stepped forward and made the catch."

That's natural.

Yet I hope that I'm wrong, and these three highly competent baseball players are able to stop beating themselves up over this play fairly soon. Because this won't be the last time they'll face a major If Only moment. Life is full of them. It isn't at all unusual to recognize, in retrospect, how a simple failure to do this or that leads to complex consequences.

And those consequences, as in this case, can be far greater than the seemingly slight mistake. Conceptually, this is due to chaos being the way the world often works. Not in the sense of things being totally screwed up and unstable, but in the scientific sense of small causes having large unpredictable effects. 

These causes and effects occur in a deterministic fashion, according to chaos theory. Of course, many, if not most, people believe that we humans are somehow exempt from the determinism that rules the rest of the natural world. Meaning, we have free will.

But free will is just a belief.

There's good reason to accept that people are just as much a part of the deterministic world as everything else is. I've read many books that argue just that. For example, in his book "Free Will," Sam Harris argues that if someone does something, and it were possible to rewind the universe so that every atom was in the same state as when the something was done, that someone would do exactly the same thing again.

Which makes perfect sense.

If the three Arkansas baseball players who failed to catch the pop-up were in precisely the same positions, with the same frame of mind, with the same location of the ball, in short, with everything happening exactly as it did before, what else could occur but what did occur in the ninth inning of the second game of the 2018 College World Series?

So "If only..." really doesn't apply in a deterministic world, which appears to be the world we live in, the only things that can happen are the things that do happen, and if the conditions that make those things happen remain the same, the same things are going to happen.

OK. I promised some deep thoughts, and I've delivered. 

Watching the Oregon State baseball team is better than reading a thriller

I've been hugely enjoying watching the Oregon State University (OSU) baseball team wend its way through the loser's bracket of the 2018 College World Series. 

Now, I readily admit that I'm a "fair weather" OSU Beavers fan, since every year I only start watching them when the NCAA playoffs start.

(I do have a good excuse, though, since I have DirecTV, and the super-irritating pissing match between DirecTV and the Pac 12 Networks shows no sign of being resolved. Thus it's only when OSU games show up on ESPN that I can record and watch them.)

Back in high school, though, I was an avid San Francisco Giants fan, living as we did in central California.

Since Three Rivers was about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, albeit in the foothills of the Sierras, about half of the boys who took the bus from Three Rivers to Woodlake Union High School were Giants fans, and half were LA Dodgers fans.

Ah, I fondly remember the heated arguments we'd have on the bus about whether Juan Marichal or Sandy Koufax was the better pitcher. And here's another interesting memory:

The fact that even now, more than fifty years later, I can pretty clearly remember some of the Giants team that won the pennant in one of my high school years: let's see... Tom Haller, Orlando Cepeda, Willy Mays, Jimmy Davenport, Mattie Alou, the aforementioned Juan Marichal.

I mention this because without much success I've tried to explain to my wife, who is utterly uninterested in sports, why I find watching baseball on TV so engrossing.

It's not so much the action on the field that is important. It's feeling like you know the cast of characters on your favored team. Then watching a game becomes a lot like reading a novel. You care about the outcome because you care about the characters, which in the case of the OSU baseball team are real people, not fictional ones.

Even more: in the case of the College World Series, the drama continues beyond a single game, because this is a double-elimination tournament where a team remains alive until it loses twice. 

OSU lost its first game.

So the baseball team needed to win four games in a row to make it into the World Series championship series. Amazingly, and happily, they did just that. I'm looking forward to seeing them play tomorrow against Arkansas in a two out of three series.

Thus though OSU started off as a favorite to win the World Series, after they lost that first game against North Carolina they became underdogs who had to fight their way against considerable odds to make it to the championship series. 

The final hurdle was yesterday. After beating Mississippi State, a team that was undefeated in the World Series up to that point, OSU had to beat them again, or be eliminated from the tournament themselves. Hence, it was a must-win game for both teams.

High drama.

And as I just said, the drama is made much more interesting if you feel like you know the players, rather than just seeing them as guys holding a bat, or pitching a baseball, or standing on a baseball field. Yeah, baseball is boring if all you know is what you see.

Which basically is a lot of nothing happening, until occasionally something does.

In yesterday's game, which OSU won 5-2, all of the Beavers' five runs were scored in the third inning. To add to the drama, the four hits that produced the five runs came with two outs in the inning. Four consecutive hits is quite rare, given that a batting average of .333, one hit in every three at bats, is pretty darn good.

So what OSU did, basically, was beat the odds: 1/3 X 1/3 X 1/3 X 1/3 equals 1/81. Meaning, if I've gotten my math correct, if each of the Beavers had a batting average of .333, the odds of four consecutive hits would be one in 81.

But this happened.

And it seemed to happen because some sort of hitting chemistry took place in the third inning. Maybe it was due to the Mississippi State pitcher losing some of his mojo, but watching the game, I felt it was more that the OSU batters willed their way to get the four hits and five runs.

Tyler Malone celebrating

That's the mark of heroes. OSU didn't score again, yet for one inning, with two outs, there was magic on the field -- punctuated by Tyler Malone's massive three run homer that turned out to be the winning margin in the game.

Mississippi State didn't fold, though. In the bottom of the ninth inning they created the baseball equivalent of a "cliffhanger." I was on the edge of my TV-watching seat as a single, a walk, and a hit batter by the OSU pitcher loaded the bases with the winning run at the plate.

And the Mississippi State batter, if my memory is correct, was a guy who had hit a grand slam homer in a previous World Series game. 

A quote in today's Oregonian story says this about the OSU pitcher in the ninth inning, Jake Mulholland: "Mully is a drama queen, [Kevin] Abel said." (Abel was the starting pitcher.)

For sure.

Yesterday's game had all the ingredients of a thriller novel that demanded to be read straight through, it was so suspenseful. Just when you thought the good guys would come out on top, if you're an OSU fan, they find themselves in a highly dangerous situation.

It was spellbinding to watch the OSU coach pacing back and forth in the dugout, powerless to do much except watch the drama unfolding on the field. Mulholland looked unhittable for several innings, but when he needed to get the last out that would put OSU in the championship series, it appeared that nerves affected his pitching. 

Which was totally understandable. 

If Mulholland made just one poor pitch, the Mississippi State batter could hit a home run, ending the OSU baseball team's dream of making it to the championship series, and hopefully winning it. For the rest of his life that one poor pitch would nag at him. He'd wish he could take it back, but since life only goes in one direction, that would be impossible.

During the ninth inning the OSU catcher, star second baseman, and, I recall, other members of the team went out to the mound to talk with Mulholland. I have no idea what they said. I can imagine, "Relax," "You've got this," "We've got your back," and such.

In the end, Mulholland threw a pretty good pitch, the Mississippi State batter hit it to the OSU shortstop, and after a bit of trouble getting the ball out of his mitt, he threw it to Nick Madrigal for a force-out at second base.

Happy ending, for OSU fans. Sad ending, for Mississippi State fans. A thriller, for everybody watching the game. Baseball can be hugely entertaining. But really only if you know the cast of characters, which makes a drama much more engrossing. 

U of O softball way more entertaining today than OSU baseball

I'm an end of season softball and baseball fan, because we have DirecTV and they still don't carry the Pac 12 Network after so many years, I've stopped counting. 

But today ESPN showed important games for both the University of Oregon softball team, which needed a win over Kentucky to advance to the Women's College World Series, and the Oregon State baseball team, which needed a win over UCLA to have a chance of winning the Pac 12 championship, plus get a better seeding in the NCAA playoffs.

My conclusion: women's softball is way more entertaining than men's baseball.

Now, this is something I've been aware of ever since I started watching softball games. The Ducks' exciting comeback win in the final inning over Kentucky last year convinced me of that.  

But today's viewing added more fuel to that conclusion.

And it wasn't just because the U of O Ducks won, while the OSU Beavers lost. It was how the games were played that made watching softball so much more enjoyable. 

Let me count the ways...

(1) Softball moves along much more quickly than baseball. The between-inning commercial breaks seem considerably shorter, probably because baseball pitchers throw warm-up pitches and I don't believe softball pitchers do.

(2) In softball, a runner doesn't get to take a lead from the base they're on. Thank you, softball!

Today I watched a UCLA pitcher throw to first base about a zillion (or so) times in a row for some reason or another. The announcers thought it was because the pitcher wasn't comfortable with making a throw to the hitter, so he kept throwing to first base to buy more time.

Whatever the reason, it was super-boring. Softball runners still steal bases, by the way. There just isn't the not-fun-to-watch drama between a pitcher and a runner on first base created by the ability to take a lead in baseball.

(3) The women who play softball appear to be having more fun than the men who play baseball. Their celebrations appear more genuinely happy. Their cheers are more creative, with better choreography.

And I've never seen a softball player, or a softball coach, spit. Which makes me wonder why men need to. Don't both sexes have the same amount of saliva?

(4) I don't think this is due to a difference in athleticism, but softball is more unpredictable.

Today I saw two U of O runners try to occupy third base at the same time. And in the end, both were safe, owing to the Kentucky third basewoman's inability to make a throw to second when one of the runners had to retrace her steps.

Again, the unpredictability of softball seems to have more to do with the ball (larger) and how the game is played, rather than the ability of the players. Errors do seem to be more common in softball, but I consider this a good thing, as it makes a game more interesting. 

(5) Softball games last for seven innings, not nine. That's plenty.

And softball has an eight-run rule. Meaning, if a team has had five at-bats, and they're behind by eight runs or more, the game is over. I'm not sure what the reason is for this, especially given my impression that softball is more unpredictable, but it does speed the game along, as happened today.

(6) Softball pitchers actually spend most of their time pitching, not shaking off signs, throwing to first, pondering the nature of the cosmos, or whatever baseball pitchers do when they're not throwing a ball to the plate. 

I always record college baseball games, because I don't have the patience to watch them live. But I watched today's softball game live, and I didn't feel bored at all. 

I've got a 30 second advance on my DirecTV remote. With baseball games, often I'll press it several times and the pitch count hasn't even changed. (That feature also is a must when I watch professional golf, where a putt can take an eternity, more or less, to occur.)

Anyway, I look forward to watching the Oregon Ducks softball team in the Women's College World Series. They've been in the Series six times, but have never won it. I'll also be rooting for the OSU baseball team to make it to the Men's College World Series. 

But for sure I'll need to record the baseball games so I can fast forward until something interesting happens.

Oregon's softball team shows how far women's sports has come since 1966

I just finished watching the Oregon softball team come from behind in the final inning to beat Kentucky and advance to the Women's College World Series. 

It was an amazing game.

Since I was recording it, and the Ducks were down a distressing 5-2 at the end of the sixth, I figured there was little chance a comeback was in order. So I acceded to our dog's wordless demand and took her for a walk just before the seventh inning got underway.

Returning home, I settled in to watch the final inning. The end result -- four runs scored in the top of the seventh and holding Kentucky scoreless in the bottom of the inning -- led to this joyous celebration by the Oregon softball team that had me feeling happy also. 

Mostly for the Ducks, since I live in Salem, Oregon.

But part of the smiling I felt inside myself arose from memories of how pitifully limited girls' sports were back in my high school days, 1962-66. I just checked my senior yearbook to make sure I recalled correctly that the only sports available to girls at Woodlake Union High School (central California) were tennis and swimming. 

Yes, that was the case. Boys had football, basketball, baseball, track, wrestling, tennis, and swimming. 

Miranda Elish, a freshman, pitched the final innings for the Ducks. She was remarkably poised in the crucial bottom of the seventh, when Kentucky had their 2-3-4 hitters coming up. I'm pretty sure I was more nervous than she was when she got behind in the count -- then proceeded to either strike out the batter or retire them without a hit. 

Now, I realize that I'm damn old. It's been over fifty years since I graduated from high school.

Obviously a lot of societal change can happen in half a century. Still... reading Elish's softball background on the GoDucks web site hit home to me how great it is that girls today have so many more athletic (and other) options in high school than was the case in the not-so-good-old-days of the 1960s.

HIGH SCHOOL
Ranked the No. 1 recruit in the nation by FloSoftball.com…Three-time Indiana Gatorade Player of the Year…A MaxPreps first team All-American in 2016...Went 15-2 in her senior season with a 0.41 ERA with 196 strikeouts in 103 innings with just 13 walks...At the plate as a senior, hit .505 with seven homers and 26 RBIs...Posted a 0.65 ERA and a 15-1 record with 198 strikeouts in 107 inning as a junior…Allowed just 39 hits as a junior while collecting 46 hits as a batter…Was the MaxPreps National Sophomore of the Year in 2014 and was also named first team All-State and conference Player of the Year…As a sophomore, went 24-1 with a 0.31 ERA with 223 strikeouts and 18 walks in 137 innings.

CLUB
Led her club team, the Beverly Bandits to a national championship (16U) in the summer before her sophomore year…Played with Jenna Lilley and Alexis Mack on the Bandits.

The Kentucky softball team seemed almost as equally skilled as the Oregon team. Heck, to get to a super-regional and be two games away from the Women's Softball World Series, they'd have to be. (Friday Oregon won the first game in the best of three series, so Kentucky needed to win today and then also tomorrow.)

In the top of the fifth, Oregon was behind 3-1 to Kentucky but had runners at second and third with two out.

The Ducks batter hit the ball hard into the gap between the shortstop and second base. It should have been a hit, tying the game. But this blurry photo from my recording of the game shows the Kentucky shortstop catching the yellow ball while stretched full out and flying through the air about a foot off the ground. (The camera was shooting through a net.)

It was one of the most athletic plays I've ever seen on a ball field. Softball or baseball.

Yeah, women can hit, throw, run, pitch, and field the ball. Not in the same way as men do, of course. But damn well, based on the Oregon softball games I've watched with great enjoyment the past few weeks as they've won at both the regional and super-regional level. 

So congratulations to the Ducks softball team for making it to the World Series after a heartbreaking loss last year to UCLA in the super-regional. 

Also, congratulations to girl's/women's sports in general. I realize that youngish people today take female athletic opportunities for granted, since they've grown up with (almost) equal opportunity in this area. 

But as I've noted, older folks like me look upon 21st century high school and college women's sports through eyes that marvel at how far females have come. Given how many inequities still exist in this country, it's good to know that some things have gotten a lot better.

Like the ability of skilled, talented, personable, athletic women such as those who make up the Ducks softball team to play at such a high level. Whether or not they finish on top in the College Softball World Series, they're winners.

Most disturbing play in Oregon's 2012 loss to Stanford

There was a lot not to like in how the Oregon football team lost last Saturday to Stanford. Aaron Fentress of the Portland Oregonian nailed the awesome awfulness of the loss in a story today.

Saturday's defeat ranks as one of the most disappointing in the program's history. All but gone are the Ducks' national title hopes. Claiming a fourth consecutive Pac-12 title will require help from others. A potential fourth consecutive trip to a BCS bowl game could dissolve into a trip to the Holiday Bowl. 

...On the field, Oregon looked dreadful on Saturday. Its running game was stuffed. The passing game was rough. Oregon has made field-goal kicking a form of witchcraft the Ducks can't quite figure out. 

Blend all of that together and you have arguably the most disappointing loss in program history. 

l'll drink to that last statement. Much more than usual.

I'm typically a one-glass-of-red-wine guy. But after finishing watching a recording of the Oregon-Stanford game late Saturday night, I felt like becoming an alcoholic for a while so I could drown my memories of the many horrific moments that added up to an enormously frustrating loss.

Here's the image that sticks in the mind the most. Meaning, the worst. Watch the first 45 seconds of this video.

 

De'Anthony Thomas running ahead of quarterback Marcus Mariota as Mariota approached the Stanford end zone after a scintillating 77 yard gain. Mariota was tackled at the 15 yard line by a defender who ran up on him from behind.

An untouched defender, because Thomas was blissfully looking at the end zone from in front of Mariota and never noticed the Stanford player. Amazingly, after the game Thomas said:

“I was just running and trying to be a lead blocker,” Thomas said. “I didn’t even see the guy behind (Mariota).

“I just thought he was already out there (in the clear) and he was running to score a touchdown.”

Now, I've never played competitive football. However, I'm pretty damn sure about this: if Thomas is the lead blocker, and he's twenty yards from the end zone, not seeing any Stanford player in front of him to block, maybe he should consider the possibility that all of the Stanford players are behind him, and he should look around to see if Mariota needs some blocking help in that direction.

That play was a game changer. Oregon ended up with zero points after Mariota was tackled at the 15 yard line. The Ducks lost in overtime by three points. 

It's often said that football, like other sports, is a game of inches. I get that.

An Oregon field goal bounced off a goal post. A controversial Stanford touchdown came down to a replay review of a reception that was right on the borderline between "complete" and "incomplete." In overtime a Duck defender reached out for a fumble and barely missed grabbing it, which would have stopped the Stanford series that ended with the game-winning field goal.

But Thomas' play on the Mariota run was much more disturbing.

It reflected a cluelessness about basic football technique which someone with Thomas' talent and experience should have well in hand. If your quarterback is on his way to a touchdown, make sure you block any defenders trying to tackle him. 

Don't focus mindlessly on the goal line, seemingly looking forward to the high five's and chest bumps that you and Mariota are going to exchange in the end zone on national TV. 

If that comment sounds unduly critical, watch De'Anthony Thomas' postgame interview. His cavalier attitude toward both his poor play on the long Mariota run, and the Ducks' loss of the game, really surprised me. 

I could be wrong, but Thomas strikes me as me as someone who isn't big on self-examination or self-criticism. He's got a whatever, dude attitude and an air of uncaring coolness that rubbed my Duck fan'ness the wrong way.

I hope Thomas learns from the mistakes he made in this game. Watching the interview video, though, makes me wonder if he will.

Why the Oregon football team lost to LSU

Wow, that's a gutsy title for this blog post.

Me, little blogger Brian, is going to explain why the Oregon Ducks, ranked #3 in the country for a frustratingly brief time this 2011 football season, lost ignominiously to the LSU TIgers last Saturday.

(The final score 40-27, doesn't reflect how badly the Ducks were dominated by the Tigers.)

My qualifications for this feat?

I've never played organized football at any level. I watch a lot of college football on TV but haven't gone to a live game for decades. I know next to nothing about the intricacies of play calling, defensive and offensive strategizing, all that X's and O's stuff.

But I know what I feel. And watching the Oregon - LSU game a few days ago left me feeling that the Ducks offense has caught a serious case of uncertainty.

Last season the Ducks were like a hurry-up-offense force of nature. I could feel the power, the confidence, the attitude of you can't stop us. Once the offense got rolling, the speed with which they ran plays obviously disconcerted the opposing defense.

I could tell how quickly the Ducks were playing by how often, and how much, I needed to press the "back six seconds" button on my DirecTV DVR after pressing the "forward 30 seconds" button after a play was called dead in order to avoid announcer blather; usually a college team takes almost exactly 30 seconds to get the next play underway, but with the Ducks I'd usually have to rewind to catch the beginning of the play.

But at the end of last season, especially in the BCS Championship game, and notably last Saturday, quarterback Darron Thomas habitually engaged in start-and-stop behavior that struck me as seriously disruptive to the offensive flow.

Everything would look fine as the Duck offense lined up for a play. I'd think, "Quick, run the play, keep the pressure on." But instead:

Thomas would look toward the sideline. Then quite a few Ducks would get out of their stance and do the same thing. Thomas then would jog up to various players, apparently whispering "this now is the play" words in their ears. Or maybe he was telling them what kind of pizza he planned to eat after the game. I don't know.

Regardless...

This got really old after a while. I didn't keep track of how often the Ducks failed to run their usual speedy offense, but it was a high percentage of the plays. I'd watch the play clock and realize that this supposedly hurry-up offense was taking almost the entire time available to them.

So what's the point of all this (1) get-ready-for-the-play, then (2) get-out-of-the-ready-for-the-play stance, followed by (3) talk-it-over-while-the-LSU-defense-calmly-looks-on?

It made the Duck offense look more than a little ridiculous, especially when after all this hemming and hawing the play would net a whole two yards, or whatever.

Whoopee. (I believe the Ducks had less than 100 yards rushing for the entire game.)

Now, I don't really know what Thomas and the rest of the Duck offense are doing when they stand up, look over toward the sideline, and apparently peer at the strange cards held up to indicate the play.

Back in the old days, I recall, quarterbacks called the play in the huddle, usually on their own. Then the offense would break the huddle, get in their stances, and run the play.

Sweet and simple. Also, clear and confident.

My impression of the Oregon Ducks football team, v. 2011, is that it's become too obsessed with cuteness. Not exactly in an appearance sense, though there's some of that too (the uniforms worn in the LSU game didn't project a sense of macho toughness, but rather isn't this a slimming look?

LSU, like other SEC teams, and like big powerful teams from other conferences that regularly beat up the Ducks in crucial games, simply outmuscled and outplayed Oregon.

Razzle-dazzle, running backward to go forward, carrying the ball in one hand, fancy option fakes/handoffs -- the Ducks were really cute.  But especially now that other coaches are deeply familiar with Oregon's offensive style, cuteness isn't going to cut it.

I hope the Ducks offense gets back to its previous version of smash-mouth football. Oregon won't ever look like a southern or mid-west team filled with 300 pound muscled human hunks of corn-fed beef. The Eugene vibe is too organic for that.

But most of the time, at least run your damn plays without looking like you're changing your mind. Less cute and more cutthroat, then maybe you'll go 11-1 this year.