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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 1981)
sports__ Baseball cut irks former coach By STEVE SPATZ Olth* EnwaM Last spring, four Oregon sports were cut from the budget, leaving coaches, players and fans surprised and disappointed. The Emerald Sports department continues with its fourth installment in the five-part series, "Feeling the Cuts", by looking at what happened to the Oregon baseball team. May 13,1981, and the place is Oregon’s Howe Field With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and Washington leading 5-1 over Oregon, Duck batter Kyle Keaton made contact with a curve ball and sent a grounder skimming lightly over the freshly cut grass Routine play The Husky third baseman scooped up the ball and made the long throw to first for the last out End of inning, end of game And the end of baseball at Oregon Of all the cuts announced on May 7 last year, the decision to dump baseball was perhaps the most difficult Since 1908, baseball has been a part of the Oregon athletic program FEELING THE CUTS Through the years, Oregon teams have won 17 league championships, fin ished as high as seventh in the NCAA tournaments, and placed numerous players into pro baseball, including Dave Roberts and Donnie Reynolds But then again, there was little doubt at the time that cuts were being mulled, that baseball was going to be one of the victims “I wasn’t overly surprised,” says Mel Krause, baseball coach from 1971 to the end, and now the head of Portland Community College’s physical education department “Baseball was in jeopardy for the last six years I wouldn't have been surprised if it would have happened then.” One of the rationales given for the cut was the program's direction in the past five years — downhill The last winning season for baseball was in 1976, when the Ducks went 20-18 The last time they won a confer ence title was way back in 1974 Poor weather Another reason was the Pacific Northwest climate — more suited for outdoor water polo than the national pastime Outdoor practice couldn’t begin until March, just days before the season started The most telling reason may have been the lack of support within the athletic department Krause's budget had gradually shrunk over the years, and he indicates that office politics may have been the final straw ’’The signs were evident then that people in the Krause rips officials on commitment to sport t * #£?■ MIR Photo by David Cofey athletic department would like to get rid ot the sport,’ says Krause ‘‘But I really don't want to get into that now " Lack of success, lack of support, and lack of sunshine — three strikes and Oregon baseball was out "We didn't really believe it was happening,’’ says Rick Moonitz, an infielder on the last team, and still enrolled in the University ‘‘I mean this is baseball the national pastime How could they cut it7 We were all just kind of laughing, like it couldn’t be true." "But then, a lot of us figured that if the ax was going to fall, it would be on baseball " "We never really took it seriously,” says Steve Crum, the Ducks best hitter now playing at Portland State University. "I didn’t think they’d ever completely cut it out, and I didn’t realize they were serious until this summer." As is the case with every coach of a sport that the University eliminated, Krause believes the decision to cut out his sport was a mistake Popular sport "Baseball is very popular in Oregon high schools," he says, "And the main responsiblilty for the University is to offer programs for the high school students in the state of Oregon " "If the adminstrators are really serious, then they'll establish priorities that try to meet that criteria " While Krause has moved on to bigger and better things, most of his former players have not Crum, and pitchers Bill Gwinn. Dan King. Dean Hummell, and Eric Austad all ended up at Portland State James Nutt transfered to the University of California at Davis, while Eric Martinez is at Pan American University in Texas But the rest, including Moonitz, pitcher Jim Givens, infielders Bob Krueger, Keaton, Mike McLaran, Stuart Heath, and outfielder Russ Batzer and Dan Alderman are still in Eugene "It was terrible that they were left holding the bag," says Krause "Here are 12 to 15 kids capable of playing Pac-10 ball It comes down to whether or not they want to transfer, and give up everything they had here, to play baseball, or stay here and not play ." “It is admirable that they (the athletic department) are continuing to give (the players) the same grant-in aids they had last year " Blasts administration But Krause would say few things are admirable about the Oregon athletic administration's view of baseball He leveled some blasts at the former and present athletic department administrations as to their stated commitments to baseball "When f saw how the football team used to fly the women's athletic director (formerly Julie Carson) to the away football games, just to show that they have a women's athletic director, just to show her off. well that tells you something about how committed they were to baseball Let's see. a plane ticket costs about $200 a shot? That's $200 that could have gone to saving baseball "Now, when I see the football team holding practices (at Howe Field), making a mess of that field after we spent hours to improve it, that also tells you something about how committed they are now to bring baseball back " Rick Bay, Oregon s new athletic director, has stated that his second priority after balancing the budget is to bring back all of the sports cut last spring But a drive led by Bill Triplett, a Portland businessman, is well under way to solicit enough private donations to bring baseball back — as soon as this spring Save baseball The Save Oregon Baseball fund must meet a Nov 1 deadline of $150,000 pledged in order for the sport to return this spring As of last week, they were still more than $50,000 short of the goal (This topic will be discussed at length in tomorrow's installment of "Feeling the Cuts ') If, by a slim chance, the money comes in, the Ducks can field a team They wouldn't have a coach, but they do have the players "We re covered at every position, except for pitching," says Moonitz "I know the guys still here would turn out " But if that chance to play doesn't come to be for the players still here, it won't really matter to Moonitz "It was something to do in the afternoons," he says, "Now I'll play golf." “It had to end sometime " r Ah, yesssss The LATE GREAT SPAGETTI FEED IS BACK! 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