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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2002)
Of men with sticks, pig bladders, abusive sports bars My sports bar hates me. This all started because of that nagging human characteristic, that need to be included in something, that desire to go to a place where everybody knows your name. Sure, I wanted Cheers, bar I fell in love with even has a Cheers-like name: The Cheerful Tor toise. And even if they didn’t ex actly yell “Pete!” when I walked in the door ... well, we’ll get to that later. I’ll start this story from Who doesn’t? The Peter Hockaday Two minutes for crosschecking the beginning. The Tortoise was the perfect bar for me. The place has more televi sions than a Circuit City. And they play sports. And I’m a sports guy. It’s not a complicated relationship. I started going in on Sundays, soaking up the Sunday Ticket package, en gulfing myself in football games. The love affair began. I started going Saturdays for col lege football and Oregon away games. Then Mondays for A1 Michaels and Dennis Miller. Then Thursdays for the dollar-beer spe cials. I took a friend there for his 21 er, dropping a ton of money as a small thank you for the months of good, Cheerful times. I was like A1 Pacino in Scarface. I was riding high, living the life. But it wouldn’t be long until I was fighting Is LOUIE’S VILLAGES ^ RESTAURANT AND LOu£E » ilHfHInlnrHfnrnlHrrilHlRfKIr; 1m CHINESE AND AMERICAN FOOD Tuesday-Thursday I 1:00am-10:30pm Friday I 1:00am-1 1:00pm Saturday Noon-1 1:00pm Sunday I 1:30am-10:00pm Monday Closed Yearly Parking Available ORDERS TO GO 343-4480 947 Franklin Blvd. off the feds with a machine gun, sniffing coke as the people I once trusted tried to take me out like a prom date. Wait, where was I going with this? Back up. It was a hard, cold March night when Darren died, and those who knew him will always hold the Tor toise responsible. It was a Thursday, and word about the drink special had started to get out. So the bar had set up a bouncer at the door and a new cover charge. I brought my friend Darren Rhode. The bouncer killed him. Darren was possibly, maybe, not real. He might have been possibly, maybe, my alter ego. My fake identi fication alter ego. But that doesn’t give anyone the right to just take poor Darren and put him in their back pocket, does it? I was faced with a harsh reality. Three months until my 21st birth day, three months without bars. Three months without hope, with out friends, without sunshine. It was a dark period. But then, hope. A birthday. A tri umphant return to the Cheerful Tor toise, preseason football games and baseball pennant races. And here’s where the bar starts to mistreat me. Some of my favorite waiters and waitresses leave. Not a big deal, like taking my fake — not something that they can necessarily control. Then they shrink the size of the dollar-beer cups. Advertise a dollar pitcher special and run out by 7:30 p.m. Run out of pizza cheese on the same night. Have a movie — “Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo,” I’m not even kidding — on the big screen during an important Giants-Padres game. The Beaver game on all three big screens during the 49ers-Giants game, the monumental opening game of the NFL season. I could go on. Little things. A small punch in the arm here and there. A knee to the gut, metaphorically of course. And yet, and yet... It is, after all, a sports bar. The only true sports bar within walking distance of campus. And that’s why I’ll probably keep going there. And I’ll probably follow the same destruc tive pattern in a new town after col lege, a new setting for the same old story. For the sportsaholics, this is our curse. We will go to many lengths — even to the point of personal peril — to cheer, jeer, and generally enjoy our men with sticks and pig bladders. Such is the life of a sports nut. Contact the sports editor at peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com. Pac-10 continued from page 15 Baylor, they went directly from pi geonholed to holy ... whatever. The point is, nobody knows how Gal will perform against Washington on Saturday. The Bears haven’t beaten the Huskies since 1976, a streak that includes 19 straight losses. But the Bears weren’t sup posed to win a game this season, never mind topple Michigan State last month. Washington hasn’t lost at Husky Stadium in 17 tries. But when a team, Gal, needs one more victory to equal its win total from the last two seasons combined, you never know what could happen. Farming for some health It looks like Clarence Farmer fr~ shouldn’t have played those last couple minutes. Farmer, the Arizona running back who finished second in the Pac-10 last season with 111.7 yards per game last season, tweaked his knee in the closing minutes of the Wild cats’ 14-9 victory over North Texas and will likely sit out Saturday’s game against Oregon. “At the beginning of the year, everyone was talking about a big showdown between Onterrio Smith and Clarence, which won’t take place,” Arizona head coach John Mackovic said in a press conference Monday. The injury is not the first to hit the Wildcats this season. Star cor nerback Michael Jolivette is out in definitely with a knee injury. Line backer Lance Briggs and defensive tackle Brad Brittain both went down against North Texas. In all, Arizona starters have missed 15 games due to injury. Somehow, the Wildcats are enter ing the Pac-10 season at 4-1, despite their injuries. Rumble this Saturday Saturday Saturday Northwest meets southwest in two key Pac-10 games this week: UCLA takes on Oregon State and USG squares off against Washington State. The Trojan defense held the Beaver offense scoreless last week, in Derek Anderson’s first hiccup as a Beaver starter. But this week, the USG “D” will face off with the much more formidable Jason Gesser-led Cougars. Youth one week, experi ence the next for the Trojans, and the difference could show up in the win/loss column. Contact the sports editor at peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com. I Nowhere to run to. Nowhere to hide. The Oregon Daily Emerald on the world wide web. www.dailyemerald.com 1 0145941 Basic Step Debbie Basic Step Debbie Kickbox Aerobics Michie Intermed. Step 'Jessica Kickbox Aerobics Michie Kickbox Aerobics Michie .gCHEDUUf-Fa,,^ • A maximum of 30 participants may enter a workout • In order to enter a workout, the participant must present both their punch card and I 4:00 photo ID, I 4'.crn • Classes last ■ 50 minutes. REGISTRATION begins Monday, Sept. 30, Sam-5pm CLASSES RUN FROM October 7 - December 6, 2002 (9 weeks) Rec Sports Workout Program has a format to provide better service. We have a PUNCH CARD system that will allow you more flexibility in planning your fitness workouts. It also allows greater variety. COST: 10 punch card $20 20 punch card $30 30 punch card $40 Unlimited card $45 Classes meet in Room 41 of the Student Rec Center For more information call 6-4113 or drop by 102 Esslinger. lea son Tickets: Ltlx U"* a musical 24,15, 16, 17, 22 & 23 January 31, 7&8 To Ordi UOTiketOffi PO Box 3600 Eugene, OR 97403 By Phom $^r346-4363 By Fax: 541~$46~6Q71 The Misanthrope diet by Moliere April 11,12,17,18, 19,20, 25 & 26 is Ship of Fools A Nnv Folly Devised by Students and A Neiv Folly Devised by rovoked by Sebastian Brant's May 30,31, for infarmatwtffijf Development Office: 541-346-4190 OfitVCTSt
