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. *