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