Oregon Daily Emerald
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
“I saw what the governor makes.
That’s like four hands of blackjack. ”
Charles Barkley on why he wasn’t seriously considering
becoming Governor of Alabama
■ In my opinion
CLAYTON JONES
SEVENTH INNING STRETCH
Fans take
passion to
extreme for
fave teams
Everybody is passionate about something.
For some it’s cooking; for others it’s flying,
and for those who don’t get out of the house
too often or still live in their parents’ base
ment, it’s usually Dungeons and Dragons.
(Those are also the same people standing out
side for tickets to the new Star Wars movie —
bring on the hate mail.)
Like I said, everyone has a passion.
But for a lot of sports fans, it’s more than
just a passion.
Take those damn Cub fans for instance.
Note: I’m a Cincinnati fan, and any allegiance
to the Cubs would be almost as bad as saying
something positive about Cleveland.
Every year I have to hear about how the
Cubs are going to turn their season around
because of their great pitching staff (who,
mind you, has never been entirely healthy) or
over-hyped lineup.
And every year something goes wrong, and the
Cubs fall apart, blaming injuries, sports announc
er Steve Stone (who was their best commentator,
giving it to fans straight) or their own fans (i.e.
Steve Bartman getting in the way of a foul ball in
the playoffs).
But the one thing I got to respect about Cubs
fans (and I hate saying this) is that they are loyal.
No matter how many games out of first place
they are or how bad the team is, the Cubs
always get fans in the stands, even during their
day games.
And get this, even though it wasn’t a classy or
a real human being thing to do, poor Bartman
had to go into hiding and avoid death threats at
work, because these fans so desperately wanted
to win.
While baseball is my passion, arguably this
country’s most popular game is football.
Plain and simple, football fanatics are crazy
about their teams.
Take Green Bay fans for instance.
These people wear chunks of cheddar on
their skulls and call themselves Cheeseheads
(I know Wisconsin is a big cheese-producing
state, but why they started putting cheese on
their heads is beyond me).
At historic Lambeau Field, some of the fans go
without shirts during the frigid Wisconsin win
ters and look like they are about 15 minutes away
from hypothermia.
The worst part is, Green Bay fans aren’t rele
gated to Wisconsin. They seem to be everywhere,
and I have no idea why. There aren’t a lot of
people in the state of Wisconsin, yet the abun
dance of people with green and yellow jackets
with giant Gs on them amazes me.
But who am I to talk? My favorite football team
is the Cincinnati Bengals (don’t hurt yourself
laughing). This team hasn’t had a winning
season since the first Bush administration.
But the Bengals (please don’t call them the
Bungals; they have gone 8-8 in each of the last
two years) are my passion, and I will stick with
them to the end.
No matter what.
daytonjones@dailyemerald.com
■ Men's track and field
Teammates become rivals at Invite
Brandon Holliday and other former Oregon track
athletes competed with current Ducks on Saturday
BY BRIAN SMITH & ALEX TAM
SPORTS REPORTER & FREELANCE REPORTER
Saturday’s Oregon Invitation
al pitted a number of current
Ducks against former ones in a
variety of events. The highlight
of the day was junior hurdler
Eric Mitchum running against
former teammate Brandon Holli
day in the 400-meter hurdles.
Holliday finished his eligibility
last season, ending his Oregon
career as a Pacific-10 Conference
champion in the 400 hurdles. The
Beaverton native continues to
train in Eugene and now repre
sents Team XO, a team of mainly
post-collegiate athletes who train
in Oregon.
At Saturday’s meet, Holliday
won the 400-meter hurdle event,
squeaking past Mitchum by
.78 seconds. Holliday finished at
51.47, while Mitchum crossed the
finish line at 52.15. Mitchum said
that despite being opponents, it
was not at all different going up
against his former teammate.
“It’s the same,” Mitchum said.
“But you know, we still train
together, and he will always be
my teammate. ”
Rupp bounces back after
falling in debut race
Galen Rupp made his Oregon
debut on Saturday and finished
fifth in the 5,000-meter event
with a time of 13 minutes, 50.1
seconds. Midway through the
race, Rupp fell to the track and
had to quickly bounce back after
slipping to 11th place. He said it
was unfortunate timing in his
first race as a Duck, but he’d
rather have it occur now instead
of later.
“It’s going to happen some
times, and you can’t always ex
pect to run a perfect race all the
time,” Rupp said. “I’m just glad
that it happened to me early in
the season as opposed to the
NCAAs or regionals where it re
ally matters.”
Tight finish among Oregon run
ners in 400-meter event
The Ducks also placed well in
the 400-meter event with three
athletes finishing in the top four.
Senior Kedar Inico won the event
(46.56) by just a 10th of a second
against teammate Matt Scherer
(46.57) . A.K. Ikwuakor placed
fourth with a time of 47.59.
Inico said he and Scherer fol
lowed their coaches’ advice to
push one another in the race.
“I went with the coaches’ plan
to get out and stay with my
teammate because he’s fast,
too,” Inico said. “We were actu
ally the two fastest competitors,
so (if I) stay with him, we work
each other.”
Scherer said the goal of the
race was to get Inico a regional
qualifying mark, which they
accomplished.
“And that’s what we did,” Scher
er said. “We work together; I
worked the first half of the race,
and he worked the second.”
Oregon keeps up with
Pac-10 opponents
The Ducks stayed ranked in the
top 15, securing the No. 11 spot for
°«jGor;
Danielle Hickey | Photo editor
Oregon junior sprinter Matt Scherer finished second in the 400 meters to team
mate Kedar Inico at the Oregon Invitational on Saturday.
the week of April 26, according to
trackwire.com. Five other Pac-10
Conference opponents are ranked,
four of them in the top six. Arizona
is ranked No. 3, followed by
Stanford at No. 5, Southern Califor
nia and Arizona State tied for
No. 6 and UCLA at No. 19.
briansmith@dailyemerald. com
■ Duck lacrosse
Golden Bears overpower Oregon, 19-8
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Lauren Wimer | Senior photographer
Oregon’s Jenny Browne, seen here earlier this season, scored two goals for the
Ducks in a losing effort against California in Berkeley on Sunday.
Duck goalkeeper Louisa Dorsch made 13 saves
despite facing 41 shots on goal from Cal scorers
BY SIEFANIE LOII
DAILY EMERALD FREELANCE REPORTER
The game started out close, but in
the end, the Ducks just didn’t quite
have enough to clinch the victory.
Sunday afternoon in Berkeley,
Calif., the Oregon women’s
lacrosse team was overwhelmed
by California, 19-8.
The Ducks (4-10 overall,
1-4 Mountain Pacific Sports Feder
ation) started out strong, virtually
matching Cal goal-for-goal toward
the end of the first half after both
teams rode out a stagnant 15 min
utes of opening play.
Oregon co-captain Jenny Browne
had a strong first half. TWenty min
utes into the game, she scored two
goals within minutes of each other
to give the Ducks a 3-2 lead over the
Golden Bears.
Cal soon regained the lead, and
the Bears never looked back. At the
half, Cal led the Ducks 7-5.
“We played well in the first half.
We had so much more in ourselves
to give, but we just couldn’t get
there in the second half,” Oregon
head coach Jen Larsen said.
Cal came out strong in the second
half and simply outlasted the
Ducks. After an initial goal
exchange brought the score to 9-7 in
Cal’s favor, Oregon fell behind.
The Bears went on two five-goal
runs in the second half, in which
senior Molly Brady, junior Leanne
Zilioli and sophomore Laura Cavallo
completed hat tricks.
At the same time, a stellar
performance between the pipes by
Cal goalkeeper Hilary Lynch limited
Oregon to just three scores out of
the Ducks’ ten shots on goal in the
second half.
“I have to give credit to their goal
keeper. Hilary was very good,”
Larsen admitted after the game.
“She just shut us out.”
Cal also appeared to have the
more potent offense, taking a whop
ping 47 total shots on goal. Oregon
goalkeeper Louisa Dorsch put in a
LACROSSE, page 10A