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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 21, 2002)
Sports Editor: Adam Jude adamjude@dailyemerald.com Tuesday, May 21,2002 Best Bet NHL playoffs: Toronto vs. Carolina 4 p.m., ESPN Baseball deserves second run in Oregon I love baseball. If you read any sports writing, you’ve probably read articles about the positive aspects baseball brings to the world. They describe how the sights, sounds and smells of lazy Sunday afternoons at the ball park can be heaven on Earth. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer George Will and others often phi losophize how baseball is sym bolic of life. It’s going to be hard, but I’ll try to not do that. On Saturday, I went with two fel low members of the Emerald sports staff to an Oregon State baseball game in Corvallis. The Beavers were playing Washing ton, and it was a perfect day for baseball. As a student at Oregon, an impartial journalist and a citizen of a state more than 3,000 miles away from Seattle or Corvallis, I was indifferent about the outcome of the game. But I found my self cheering. I wasn’t cheering for Washington’s Michael Done, who hit two, two-run home runs to right and finished the game with four RBI, or the Beavers’ shortstop Will Hudson, who made a few plays on grounders reminiscent of Omar and Nomar. Cabot Around the Dasher I was cheering for baseball. Cheering for stolen bases, big-breaking curve balls, diving stops and key hits. Cheer ing for hot dogs, high heat and hel mets. Cheering for toeing the rubber, crossing the plate, soaking up the sun and spinning the deuce. The smell of fresh-cut grass filled the ... sorry, I promised I wouldn’t go into detail about the pleasing aesthetics of the game of baseball, but it isn’t as easy as taking candy from a baby. Oregon students do have softball to watch at Howe Field — which I gained a new-found respect for by covering the Ducks this spring — but there is just something special about having 90-foot basepaths and a mound 60 feet, 6 inches from the plate. Many of the other teams in the Pa cific-10 Conference are thriving in softball and baseball. Arizona, Ari zona State, California and UCLA all have their softball teams advancing as one of the eight teams in the Women’s College World Series, while their baseball teams are among the best in the country. Soon Oregon will institute a new women’s team as a varsity sport, which is a step in the right direction to comply with Title IX regulations. But the law is vague in its description of what a school must do in order to comply. It says that an institution must show “a continuing practice” to accommodate the underrepresented sex. The Univer sity should do all it can to live up to Title Turn to Cabot, page 8 Stanford turns focus to national meet ■The Cardinal, who easily took the Pac-10 crown, might not fare so well at the NCAA Championships starting next week By Peter Hockaday Oregon Daily Emerald Sure, Stanford ran away with the team title at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships on Sunday, scoring 26 more points than sec ond-place Oregon. Sure, the finish line in the distance events looked like a Cardinal sea, as Stanford runner after Stanford runner crossed in succession, broken up by the occasional Duck on the water. . “I think the whole meet went perfectly; it didn’t seem like there was any problem at all,” Stanford head coach Vin Lananna said. “I think it allowed the kids to just go out and compete. I’m proud of our guys and now it’s on to the NCAAs.” But how good is Stanford in the national picture? Can the Cardinal distance corps match up with the sprinters from Tennessee and Texas Christian, or the throwers from Southern Methodist? Those are the questions that will haunt Stanford and other Pac-10 teams during the next two weeks as they prepare for the NCAA Championships in Baton Rouge, La., starting May 29. At the 2001 NCAA Championships, Stanford was the highest-placed Pac-10 team, at fourth overall, followed by Oregon at No. 9. Simply put, Stanford doesn’t have the indi vidual talent to win national titles and con tend with powerhouses like Tennessee. No Cardinal athlete ranks higher than fourth na tionally in their event. Donald Sage is the only Stanford runner ranked at No. 4, in the 10,000-meter run. The Cardinal won the conference meet by concentrating on a few events — Stanford scored 88 points in the four major distance races — but that won’t work at the NCAA Championships, which will feature much deeper fields. Despite the Cardinal’s easy victory over Courtesy Washington State Media Services Stanford athletes douse head coach Vin Lananna after the Cardinal won the Pac-10 title in Pullman, Wash., on Sunday. Oregon in the Pac-10 meet, the Ducks might have a better chance at finishing strong in the NCAA meet. Oregon has highly-placed ath letes, including Simon Kimata, ranked second in the 800, Trevor Woods, ranked fifth in the pole vault and Micah Harris, ranked ninth in the 110 hurdles. So how will the Pac-10 fare down on the bayou? Only time will tell. Rapping it off The only Pac-10 athlete leading the nation in his event is USC’s Julien Kapek, and he is the main reason USC could make an impact at the NCAAs this year. Turn to Men’s track, page 8 UCLA women win sixth straight Pac-10 track crown Courtesy Washington State Media Services Arizona’s Brianna Glenn (7) took second in the 200, one of only three athletes not affiliated with USC or UCLA to win an event Sunday at the Pac-10 Championships. ■The Bruins edge the Trojans again in the final event to take the track title in Pullman, Wash. By Hank Hager Oregon Daily Emerald All the talk, all the speculation, and all the wonder ended Sunday morning at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships when UCLA and USC woke up. The two schools — expected to contend for the top two spots — were mired in slumps on Saturday, with UCLA in fourth and USC tied for fifth. Then, the teams broke loose. In fact, the Bruins and Trojans were so good and matched so equally Sun day, the win for UCLA came down to one event. The 4x400, the final women’s event, featured the top squads for both schools. In the end, it wasn’t much of an event as UCLA won by four seconds. However, it still came as a surprise to UCLA head coach Jeanette Bolden. “We did not expect to win,” she said. “We didn’t have a great first day and I as a coach needed to pump up myself. One of my assistant coaches got me into it by telling me we really could win if we just do these things and let it come down to the mile relay.” UCLA finished with 160 points, an improvement of 128 points from day one. USC, on the other hand, was only three points below its cross-town rival. The Trojans improved immensely as well, racking up 126 points during the second day. During their improvements the two schools won 11 of the 14 events held Sunday. Only Arizona’s Brianna Turn to Women’s track, page 6
