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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2001)
Sports Editor: Adam Jude adamjude@dailyemerald.com Assistant Sports Editor: Jeff Smith jeffsmith@dailyemerald.com Friday, October 19,2001 Best Bet NLCS: Arizona at Arizona St. 5:00p.m., FOX Give us some quality, but not quantity Even in the wake of Randy Johnson’s three hit masterpiece against the Braves on Tues day, I just can’t get excited about the Ari zona Diamondbacks. I also don’t see the thrill of Watching the Min nesota Wild. I really don’t care about the score of the Nov. 29th game pitting the Toronto Raptors against the Memphis Grizzlies. Even though the contest will feature some of the top prospects in the NBA (Shane Battier, Ja son Williams and Vince Carter), you can guar antee that my face will not be glued to a television set. In short, I don’t really like all the expansion that has oc curred in the sports world over the past few years. This country is obsessed with expansion. We had to expand west when the country was young. We feel the need to expand our homes, our bank accounts, our computer’s memory, our CD collection — and now the professional sports world is getting in the game. Cabot Around the Dasher Do we really need a professional team in every major city in the country and enough pro fessional athletes to fill every stadium in which they play? Back in the days of the original eight National Hockey League teams, fans knew every player in the league by name, number, playing style and probably even their mother’s maiden name. Granted, back then fans did not get the exposure to as many incredible athletes and did not have the variety of viewing options that we have today. But, back when the games were pure, there was no need for other options. The Bruins-Canadians game or Giants-Cardi nals game was on and that was what you watched. Those games were the ones kids ran from school to the ballpark to watch. Call me old-fashioned, but Heat-Wizards doesn’t have the same ring as Celtics-Lakers. Those match ups from the past made you want to drop every thing that was going on in order to watch (or listen to) every pitch or tick of the clock. Some of today’s games make the act of drop ping everything more interesting and fun to watch than the contest itself. Expansion is not all bad, because, if the pro fessional sports leagues had not grown we wouldn’t have the West Coast’s beloved teams like the Mariners, Padres or Kings, but can’t the leagues stop where they are? We have enough teams to think about already. I’m not sure there is a solution to the prob lem of too many teams, because the expansion era has brought in millions of dollars of new revenue and thousands of new jobs for team employees and budding journalists trying to step into the sports world (hint, hint). So, when a team is economically struggling, like the Montreal Expos, there will always be another proposed team ready to step into the world of professional sports. A world full of cleats and pads and dollar signs. The sports world lives on, though, and we old-fashioned folks steadily maintain our loyal ty to our hometown teams. That is, until the newest Albany Annihilators or Creswell Crush knock us out of the game we have loved for so long. Chris Cabot is a sports reporter for the Emerald. He can be reached at chriscabot@dailyemerald.com Sm-w&j&ass: Jon House Emerald After losing in three straight to Arizona State, Lindsay Murphy and the rest of the Ducks look to defeat Arizona for the first time since 1998 at McArthur Court tonight. ’Devils destroy UO, 3-0 ■A disappointing loss leaves Oregon mentally drained and still looking for its first Pae-10 win By Hank Hager Oregon Daily Emerald After starting off the season 8-9 over all and 0-7 in Pacific-10 Conference play, Oregon volleyball couldn’t have imagined things could get any worse. It just did against Arizona State. After being swept in three games (30-15, 30 24, 30-16) by the Sun Devils (6-9 overall, 2-6 Pac-10) Thursday night at McArthur Court, the Ducks are at their lowest point of the sea son. While it is another loss for Oregon, this one is the worst of the season. There were “not enough real points scored tonight and too many unforced errors,” head coach Carl Ferreira said. “Real points being the points that affect the scoreboard... your hitting, your serv ing and your blocking (are important).” The Ducks came out strong early on against Arizona State, splitting the first 10 points of the first game, only to see their chances go down the drain after that. The Sun Devils, led by sophomore Kim Mehlhorn’s 16 kills on the night, struck back to win four of the next five points to put themselves up at 10-6, the closest Oregon would get for the rest of the game. Arizona State won 10 of the last 12 points in the set in a convincing 15-point win. Game two’s result would be no differ ent, but with a little twist. Oregon matched the Sun Devils point-for-point until Arizona State pulled ahead at 20 19. The Ducks could muster only five Turn to Volleyball, page 6A Oregon soccer finally taking to the road ■After seven-straight home games, Oregon heads to the desert to take on the struggling Arizona schools By Peter Hockaday Oregon Daily Emerald Finally, a road game. Few teams are ever happy about going on the road to play, but the Oregon women’s soccer team couldn’t ask for a better road trip than the one it has scheduled this weekend. Arizona and Arizona State are two Pacific-10 Conference teams that have traditionally been kind to the Ducks, as Oregon has a combined 4 3-2 record against the desert schools. These are just the sort of opponents that the Ducks want to meet after last weekend’s losses to Stanford and California by a combined margin of 6-1. Oregon head coach Bill Steffen said this weekend could present an opportunity for the Ducks to score a Pac-10 weekend sweep, which would be their first since they swept the Arizona schools in 1998. “If we play two halves like the second half against Stanford, we’ll be very successful from here on out,” Steffen said. Steffen referred to the Ducks’ game Sunday against the Car dinal, when Oregon equaled Stanford in the second half with eight shots. The Ducks pulled close, and went into halftime trailing 2-1, but Stanford added a goal with five minutes left in Turn to Soccer page 6A Adam Amato Emerald Freshman Nicole Garbin (right), seen here battling a San Diego defender on Sept. 28, and the Ducks head to Arizona this weekend. *
