Oregon Daily Emerald
TUesday, November 2, 2004
“Nobody wants to be in my pants right now.
T\vins pitcher Juan Rincon after giving up four runs in one third of
an inning in their 6-5 loss to the Yankees in Game 4 of the ALDS
■ In my opinion
BRIAN SMITH
LEFTY SPECIALIST
Washington
loss doesn't
tantamount
to Kerry win
John Kerry will win the presidential election.
Forget votes.
Forget the electoral college.
The election has already been decided.
Just thank a certain Washington D.C. National
Football League franchise. Well, that is if you
want to believe in superstition and coincidence.
Since the presidential election of 1936, the out
come of the final Washington D.C. home game
before the election has correctly predicted the
next president elected.
Washington D.C. wins: The incumbent re
mains president. Washington D.C. loses: The
challenger wins.
Not exactly the Gallup poll, but hey,
whatever works.
Then again, because this seems to be holding
consistent, 1 have a brilliant idea. Maybe we get
rid of the entire campaign process, gather the
candidates together for the final Washington D.C.
home game and solve ten months of uncertainty
in three and a half hours.
How cool would that be? Let’s just use our
imagination...
President: Damn, these pretzels are good. Too
bad Laura won’t let me have more than one at a
time. Go Cowboys!
Edwards: Um, John could you move over a bit?
1 can’t see the television.
Kerry (sitting in a brown cloth La-Z-Boy): Sure,
John. I need a beer anyway. Anybody else want
something? W? Cheney?
President: Sure. Got to wash these
pretzels down.
Cheney: No, thanks.
President: Go Washington!
How American is that? Democratic elections
with beer, pretzels and a big screen?
Imagine how cool it would be to watch the
game as a nation and then immediately witness
the inauguration of the next president of the Unit
ed States of America?
No time taken to vote?
Hell yeah.
This new political process already has some
converts.
“I don’t have to vote now,” Green Bay Packer
safety Darren Sharper said after their defeat of
Washington D.C. on Sunday. ‘‘Don’t even have to
go to the polls. Saved me a trip on Tbesday.”
This idea got me thinking. In what ways could
we accurately predict other elections?
What if the Senate races were decided by the
final count of chicken eggs laid on the day of elec
tion. Odd: Challenging Party. Even: Incumbent.
None: The Green Party.
What if city council positions were decided
by the choice of the local school principal’s
color of tie?
The fact thJt so much emphasis is placed on
events that are arbitrary in nature is slightly
worrisome.
Ask the Chicago Cubs: 59 years without a
World Series because a billy goat, owned by
William Sianis, was denied entrance into Game 4
of the 1945 World Series due to hygiene issues.
So if the goat had been hosed down before
the game, the Cubs would be the modern day
SMITH, page 10
■ Duck hockey
Oregon
rolls over
challenger
Huskies
Oregon will take its winning
streak into co-conference leader
California this weekend
BYBEAUEASTES
FREELANCE REPORTER
The Oregon Club hockey team embarked
on new territory this weekend, defeating
Washington twice for the first time since the
introduction of the 1-5 Cup in 2000. Oregon
dominated the Huskies 7-2 Friday night and
then won a thriller 3-2 Saturday evening. The
Cup, modeled after UCLA and USC’s
Crosstown Cup, is a best-of-four game series
between the two Northwest rivals. Just as
important as winning in the Cup, the Ducks
are now 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the Pacific-8.
“It feels great,” senior Justin Keeland said.
Keeland scored the game-winning goal
in Saturday’s contest with 14:25 left in
the game.
“They tried to dump it in the zone,” said
Keeland, a defensman from Portland.
“1 stopped it with my skate.”
Keeland sent the puck down the rink
toward Washington goalie Matt Hazzow,
hoping that a teammate could get a quick
deflection into the net.
“It went through (Hazzow’s) legs. I didn’t
even see it,” Keeland said.
After Keeland’s score, the Ducks kept
defensive pressure on the Huskies, sealing
Oregon’s victory.
Washington started the scoring on a goal
by Jamie O’Brien with 3:14 left in the first
period. Oregon then opened the second
period with goals by defensman Whit
Ackerman and wing Ryan Jones to make the
score 2-1 in favor of the Ducks at the 9:06
mark.
The Huskies tied the contest when Conor
Foley found the net five minutes later, setting
the stage for Keeland’s game winner.
Defensively, freshman Matt Nuernberg
Erik R. Bishoff | Photographer
The Club hockey team celebrates an early goal on its way to a 7-2 win against Washington on Friday. Oregon’s
Mike Roley led the team with two goals and two assists.
had 26 saves on 28 shots, shutting down an
always-competitive Husky squad.
“The level of play really stepped up the
last 14 minutes,” Nuernberg said about the
game following Keeland’s goal.
In Friday night’s contest, sophomore Mike
Roley led the Ducks with two goals and two
assists. Washington took an early lead at the
14:24 mark in the first period to go up 1 -0 on
an O’Brien goal. Roley answered by scoring
with 4:42 left in the period, and the Ducks
never looked back.
“(The goal) really got us going,” Roley
said.
Oregon scored the next six goals of the
game, going up 7-1 before allowing a last
minute shot with less than two minutes to play.
Left wing Sam Driver, center Mike Tornabene,
Jones, wing Dorian Dolinajec and wing Scott
Tedrick all tallied one goal each for the Ducks
during the offensive outburst.
Nuernberg started his stellar weekend with
12 saves on 14 shots during Friday’s blowout.
Oregon’s defensmen completely shut down
the Huskies’ offense, spending almost the
entire game on Washington’s side of the ice.
“Defense has been playing strong all year,"
Nuernberg said. “They make my job that
much easier. The few shots they allow are
bad-angle shots.”
Oregon will take its winning streak
to Berkeley, Calif., this weekend to face
California, the Pac-8 co-leader with the
Ducks.
“These are the games we have to win,”
Keeland said. “Everyone’s very excited after
this weekend. These upcoming games are
the toughest of the year.”
Cal, the pre-season Pac-8 favorite and
defending conference champion, is the first
major hurdle in the Ducks’ quest for the
Pac-8 championships.
“Having four wins already is a great step
towards making the Pac-8 tournament,”
Keeland said.
Roley was equally excited about the
Ducks’ postseason aspirations.
“We’ve got a chance of winning the Pac-8
and going to nationals,” Roley said.
Beau Eastes is a freelance reporter for
the Daily Emerald
Gilbertson to end run as UW head coach
Keith Gilbertson will no longer coach the Huskies' football team,
which has gone 0-5 in the Pac-10, after this season
BY TIM KORTE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEATTLE — Washington coach Keith
Gilbertson will step down at the end of the
season, ending a difficult two years as Rick
Neuheisel’s replacement.
“Coach Gilbertson and 1 have talked for
several weeks about the football program,
and we mutually agreed that it needs an
immediate boost,” Washington athletic
director Todd Tlirner said Monday. “Keith
will finish this season as our head coach and
has agreed to assist me beyond that time to
develop a strategy for reinvestment by our
university in its football program."
The Huskies lost 31-6 at Oregon on
Saturday, dropping to 1-7 overall and 0-5 in
the Pac-10. This is the worst season in 35
years for a school that shared the 1991
national title.
Gilbertson, 56, a Washington native, is
7-13 in his second season at Washington.
“I want to see this program succeed and
get rolling again. Whatever 1 can do to help,
I'll do,” he said. “Sure 1 wish we had been
more successful and won more games.
But there was never a day I didn’t enjoy
coaching over the past two years.”
T\irner said the search for Gilbertson’s
successor would begin immediately.
Gilbertson took over the Huskies six
weeks before the start of fall camp in 2003
under tough circumstances.
Neuheisel was fired in July 2003 for
gambling on NCAA basketball, leaving then
athletic director Barbara Hedges little time
or options to fill the job.
Hedges said at the time that Gilbertson was
chosen because he was the only member of
the staff with head coaching experience.
Gilbertson previously coached Idaho
(1986-88) and California (1992-95) and is
55-48 overall in nine seasons as a head coach.
The Huskies went 6-6 last season and 4-4
in the Pac-10, barely avoiding the school's
first losing season since 1976. Washington
lost at home to Nevada and was blown out by
California and UCLA.
The only win this season was over San Jose
State, and Washington is winless in the
Pac-10. The last time the Huskies went with
out a league victory was 1973, when they
were 0-7 in the old Pac-8.
This year’s squad was hit hard by injuries, and
the team's struggles on offense have
been frustrating for Gilbertson, who was the
offensive coordinator under Neuheisel and coach
Don James on Washington’s 1991 title team.
“Keith came into a difficult situation and
worked hard to turn the program around, but
obviously things went in a different direc
tion,” Washington president Mark Emmert
said. “His relationship to this institution goes
back many years and includes the glory days
of Washington football. We are grateful for his
years of service.”
Only four years ago, the Huskies were 11-1
and beat Purdue in the Rose Bowl.
Washington plays Saturday against visiting
Arizona. The Huskies face No. 4 California in
Seattle on Nov. 13, then finish the season
Nov. 20 at rival Washington State.