Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 2004)
“The Red Sox are the logical pick, except for one thing — they’re the Red Sox. ” Anonymous MLB scout making a World Series pick ■ In my opinion STEPHEN MILLER OFF THE CROSSBAR Mt. Ichiro buries Sister's hit record Where were you on the day that Mount St. Helens erupted for the first time in 24 years? I was learning how to spell my name in Spanish. Right after my exclusive foreign lan guage spelling bee, I heard that St. Helens belched some ash that was sitting uneasy in its magma chamber. Then I started go ing through volcanism terminology in my head. I spelt magma, lava and eruption to myself en Espanol. When 1 got home, feeling up-to-date with my current events, I turned on the tube to see what kind of rumbling was go ing on elsewhere in the state of Washing ton, particularly at Safeco Field with the Seattle Mariners. Gasp! Me, watch television? Me, watch the lousy Mariners? Yes and no. I "was watching Ichiro Suzuki, not the entire Tacoma Rainiers club dressed up in Mariners uniforms. I had listened to some sensible advice: “Don’t hate the player, hate the game (or team in this instance).” Ichiro has been my favorite player since his major-league debut in 2001, when he crossed the pond from Japan and joined the Mariners. I have probably collected every Ichiro bobble head available in a ce real box. Anywho, Helen blew her lid in unspec tacular fashion on Oct. 1 and then again last Tuesday. Ichiro laced his record-break ing 258th hit of the year on the same day as the first volcanic occurrence. He played in 161 games this year and finished with 262 hits. George Sisler was the former record holder with 257 hits in 154 games played. His mark had stood for almost 85 years. Roger Maris’ 1961 record of 61 home runs was replaced 37 years later by Mark McG wire (70) and then again by Barry Bonds (73) in 2001. Those guys were idolized — and criticized and accused but mostly idol ized — for moving such a disposable benchmark. Nothing keeps a baseball hit by a mortal Hercules from leaving the yard quite like a force of nature, such as wind, humidity or gravity. But slap hitters like Ichiro use gravity to their advantage. It keeps the ball on the ground and out of the reach of the nine po sition players, inflating his batting average. The slap-hitter only has 37 homers in four major league baseball seasons. How do you say, “Thank you Sir Isaac Newton,” in Japanese? I only know how to say it in Spanish. Some sports fanatics believe that Ichiro’s record is insufficient in some way, or that there should be an asterisk next to it in the record book because Ichiro played in more ICHIRO, page 18 ■ Women’s soccer Lauren Wimer | Senior photographer Oregon senior defender Christine Mintz (8) looks to return to action on Friday against USC, after receiving a red card in last Friday’s match against Wyoming. Red card breaks Mintz's streak at 48 Oregon gets its top defender back for Friday's Pac-10 opener in Southern California while the Duck offense finds new life BY BRIAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTER Oregon senior defender Christine Mintz never missed a start in her Oregon career. Until last Sunday. Mintz sat out in Oregon’s win against Gon zaga as the result of a red card she was issued in Friday night’s match against Wyoming. The red card was issued after Mintz tackled Wyoming forward Mercy Adetoye on a break away toward Oregon’s goal. Mintz said the choice to tackle Adetoye dur ing the game was made in a split second and was a difficult decision to make. “I thought I was close enough to make the tackle,” Mintz said. “It was a decision, and I made it. I got the ball and unfortunately, I got her too.” Mintz’s red card ended her streak of con secutive games started at 48. Junior midfield er Cristan Higa is now the leader with 14 in a row. Higa had her own streak of 45 games snapped last October vs. California. “(Wyoming’s) number four is a dangerous player,” Oregon head coach Bill Steffen said of Adetoye. “And unfortunately, she spun us. Christine’s decision to take her down was a professional foul, and the referee decided to remove Christine. ” Offense gets going The Ducks’ three-goal output against Wyoming was their highest since their win against Weber State on Sept. 3. During the Ducks recent five-game losing streak, Oregon managed only two goals and was dealt four shutouts. After a goal and an assist last weekend in a 3-1 win over Wyoming, junior Mele French leads the team in points (5) and is tied for the team lead in goals (2) . She is tied for second in assists (1), ranks third in shots (16) and third in shots on goal (9). Sophomore An drea Valadez ranks second on the team in shots (21), is tied for first in shots on goal (11) and tied for second in assists (1). Fresh man Kami Kapaku also has a pair of goals on the season against fifth-ranked Portland and Wyoming, and now leads the team in shots (22) and is tied for the lead in shots on goal (11). Lainez solid behind the net Redshirt junior goalkeeper Domenique SOCCER, page 18 ■ Women's golf Women tie for second in Washington Finishing with a 918 in three rounds of play, the Ducks tied Washington and heat out five other Pacific-10 Conference teams BY SCOTT J. ADAMS FREELANCE SPORTS REPORTER Oregon women’s golf recorded its best finish thanks to senior Johnna Nealy’s even-par 72 Wednesday at the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational. The Ducks finished the tournament, held at the 6,192-yard Sahalee Golf and Country Club in Sammamish, Wash., in a second-place tie with host team Washington with a 918. Finishing in first place was No. 8 Oklahoma, 19 strokes ahead of Oregon and Washington. Oregon’s best finish before this at the Edean Ih lanfeldt Invitational was in the mid-1990s when the Ducks finished third two years in a row (1993, 1994). Nealy set a career-best by tying for third place in the individual competition. She was still 10 strokes behind first-place Karin Sjodin of Okla homa State. The only mistake that Nealy made during the day was a double bogey on the par-4 14th, but she recovered with a birdie on the 18th to finish at even par. Her 72 was the second-lowest round of the day. Oregon’s Kim McCready also had a personal best seventh-place finish at 226. Her best finish before this was a tie for 13th at the 2004 Duck In vitational. Junior Erin Andrews tied for 25th with a 235. The Ducks threw out her final round score of 84. Other Ducks recording scores were junior Michelle Timpani and freshman Victoria Wenslow, who both shot an 81. Timpani tied for 31st with a 237, while Wenslow was 62nd at 251. Behind Oregon, USC finished fourth at 926, fol lowed by No. 9 Pepperdine at 930, Nevada-Las Vegas at 932 and Washington State and San Fran cisco tied for seventh. Stanford, ranked 20th in the nation, finished with a 940 and No. 21 Cali fornia finished with a 941. Oregon made a prolific start at the invitational on Monday and Tuesday. The second round of play, which saw McCready card an even par-72, helped Oregon climb above Pepperdine, who led the Ducks after the first round. As a collegian, it was a career-best round for McCready, who fin ished tied for third individually with Kay Hoey of Long Beach State. Andrews and Nealy found themselves tied for 12th after shooting 4-over 76 and 6-over 78 re spectively. On Tuesday, Oklahoma State carded a 301, bringing its tournament total to 597, good enough for first place going into Wednesday. GOLF, page 20
