Oregon Daily Emerald
TUesday, May 31, 2005
“He really doesn’t get much lift... he pretty much
only needs to stand up in front o f the net, and
he’s blocking the basket. ”
Keith Gatlin on 7-foot-8 Sun Minming, who will be the tallest player in NBA history if drafted
■ In my opinion
CLAiTON JONES
SEVENTH INNING STRETCH
How fantasy
baseball has
swiftly taken
over my life
Fantasy baseball has got a hold of me.
After years of avoiding the computer-junkie
league, I broke down and joined this season
with the guys on the sports staff, and now
I’m addicted.
My lifestyle in the office has changed. My
routine used to be to check my e-mail, see
what’s going on in the world of Oregon
sports, write an article or column and do my
other sports editorial duties.
Now I come in, check my fantasy team,
check my e-mail, check my fantasy team,
check on the world of Oregon sports, check
my fantasy team, write an article or column
and do my sports editorial duties and, you
guessed it, check my fantasy team.
I always thought of myself as a true baseball
guru and not a person who needed to join a fan
tasy league to keep the game interesting.
I thought I was too much of a purist and that
being involved with a league would cheapen the
reasons why I loved to watch America’s pastime.
But — and excuse the dorky Star Wars expres
sion — 1 went to the dark side.
I joined the league, and my life at work hasn’t
been the same since. I pepper my co-workers
with trade proposals as I try to build an unstop
pable force in the world of fantasy baseball.
I watch the annoying ticker on the bottom of
ESPN to see if my players have had a big day.
I keep track of every game that goes on during
the course of a day. I see if Carl Crawford will get
out of his slump in Tampa Bay and be a top out
fielder for my team. At no other time would I
EVER care what the Devil Rays are doing.
I wonder if Colorado’s Clint Barmes can keep
hitting at a torrid pace or if Curt Schilling will ever
recover from his injury.
I scour the waiver wires for players and put
more effort and research into this league than a
normal human being really should.
I pray to the baseball gods that Ben Sheets’ in
ner ear problems have healed up and that Don
trelle Willis and Brett Myers can keep pitching
above expectation.
But I’m in the middle of this moral dilemma.
I am enjoying baseball more, but I feel like I’m
enjoying it for the wrong reasons. It’s kind of like
watching Bay watch for its mesmerizing “acting.”
It has changed me.
If I quit the league, I still won’t watch baseball
die same as before. I’m losing the appreciation for
the little aspects of the game: moving a runner to
third with less than two outs, a good pickoff
move, the squeeze play or a pitchers duel (unless
one of my pitchers is throwing and I have no one
offensively on either of the teams).
The season is only a quarter of the way
through, but the way I view baseball may have
forever been changed because of stat-driven
entertainment.
But 1 do follow one fantasy baseball command
ment that all people should (but don’t) follow:
Thou shall not cheer for thy fantasy team over
one’s allegiance to thy favorite team.
Ever.
•
daytonjones@dailyemerald.com
■ Men's track and field
Oregon captures 12 NCAA berths
The Ducks are poised to do well
at nationals despite the absence
of pole vaulter Tommy Skipper
BY BRIAN SMITH
SPORTS REPORTER
The Oregon men’s track and field team en
dured turbulent weather conditions on Sat
urday en route to capturing 12 individual
berths in next month’s NCAA Champi
onships in Sacramento, Calif.
However, the most notable absentee in Sacra
mento will be the defending champion in the
pole vault, Oregon sophomore Tommy Skipper.
Vaulting into a strong headwind, Skipper
failed to clear his initial height of 17 feet,
1 inch and in the process, failed to qualify for
a chance to defend his title.
On his first attempt, Skipper knocked the
bar off with his feet on the way up. On the
next attempt, he bailed halfway up, collaps
ing into the pit with his pole in hand. On his
third attempt, the Sandy native never got off
the ground as he fired his pole into the pit af
ter botching the approach.
“It was a bad day for everybody on the
runway,” Skipper said. “The headwinds
were really strong, and it makes you move
your approach up, and yet you have to still
try and stay relaxed. I felt really good in the
warm-ups, and I had a really good attempt
on my first try, so I had confidence even
after that.”
Skipper’s absence puts Oregon’s NCAA title %■
hopes in a more precarious position than they
were directly following the Duck’s victory
at the Pacific-10 Championships earlier
this month.
After taking the title in Los Angeles, the
Ducks vaulted into third in the Tfackwire team
Top-25. Oregon was picked to finish third in
the NCAA meet by TYackwire, and many be
lieved the Ducks held a decent shot at winning
their sixth team title in school history.
However, those goals came with Skipper
successfully defending his title and scoring
Tim Bobosky | Photographer
Oregon junior hurdler Eric Mitchum cruises to victory in the 110 meters at the West Regional Championships on
Saturday. Mitchum finished .44 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Blake Fazier of Southern California.
10 critical points for the Ducks.
Though Oregon’s title hopes have been
shaken, they certainly haven’t crumbled. Of
the 20 Ducks sent to Regionals, 12 secured
spots and three others have the chance to
capture at-large bids.
The Ducks nabbed three individual titles
at the meet, led by hurdler Eric Mitchum.
The junior defended his regional title in
the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.65
seconds, finishing ahead of Southern Califor
nia’s Blake Fazier (14.09). Despite stumbling
out of the blocks, Mitchum was only .03 sec
onds off his time at the Pac-lOs.
Saturday also saw the continued, unex
pected rise of senior Kedar Inico. The
Queens, N.Y., native captured his second
straight 400-meters title, coming from behind
to beat Arizona State’s Domenik Peterson.
“I did get a little behind, but 1 still knew
I had it because I had a lot saved,” Inico said.
"1 wish my time was a little bit faster, but
that’s fine because it’s all about going
to Sacramento, and that’s what I came here
to do.”
Inico’s teammate Matt Scherer also earned
a trip to Sacramento by finishing fourth in
the 400 with a time of 46.52 seconds.
In the distances, freshman Galen Rupp
finished fifth in the 5,000 with a time
of 13:59.11. Rupp led the race briefly in the
final few laps, but Arizona’s Robert Cheseret
overtook Rupp and the rest of the field, sepa
rating himself from the pack over the final <
two laps.
“This was a good experience for me,”
MEN, page 12
■ Women's track and field
Malone rewrites Duck javelin record
Sarah Malone landed a throw
at 186-10, three inches farther'
than her previous school record
BY STEPHEN MILLER
SPORTS REPORTER
Oregon’s Sarah Malone took a simple ap
proach in the final rounds of competition
during the NCAA West Regional Champi
onships on Saturday.
As a thunderstorm and accompanying light
ning show moved in, Malone made sure they
wouldn’t steal the crowd’s attention before she
made her last javelin throw at Hayward Field.
“She had already gotten to the show, and we
knew that, and she was kind of just having
some fun,” Oregon throws coach Lance Deal
said. “I don’t know if she thought about it, I cer
tainly hadn’t until after her fourth throw. I called
her over, and I said, ‘This time, why don’t you
think about the fact that you have two more
throws on this track as an Oregon athlete.’ I
asked her to smile before she started throwing.”
Malone’s javelin struck the ground 186 feet,
10 inches away from where she released it, with
more brilliance than any lightning rod. The
distance set new school and personal records,
solidified Malone’s second-consecutive West
Tim Bobosky | Photographer
Senior Sarah Malone improved Oregon’s javelin record
and her personal best with a mark of 186-10 during her
Hayward Field finale at the NCAA West Regionals.
Regional championship and guaranteed her
a trip to Nationals. And all she had to do
was smile.
“That’s what I did,” said Malone, whose
team finished eighth with 36 points. “1 just
took it all in, and it just came out perfect."
Two weeks ago, Malone used a toss of
170-9 to win her first Pacific-10 Conference
Championship title after three runner-up fin
ishes. Her previous personal best was 179-7
and her season-best up until last weekend
was 177-1. Malone felt most pleased about
breaking the 180-foot mark in front of
Oregon’s home crowd.
“To be able to give that to the crowd here at
Hayward is just amazing,” Malone said. ‘Tve
been chipping away at that wall for a while
and just finally got through it.”
Malone's mark of 186-10 stands as the third
best throw in the nation and the second best
toss by a collegian this season. Teammates
Roslyn Lundeen (155-9) and Rachael Kriz
Wallace (151-3) finished sixth and seventh in
the event, respectively. Kriz Wallace, who set a
personal record Saturday, and Lundeen are el
igible for at-large bids to Nationals.
Oregon senior Bree Fuqua finished fifth in
the shot put as her first heave of 52-0 held up
over the six-round competition.
“Bree went out just like last year; good
throw on her first throw, not a great throw,
and she held on,” Deal said. “She got a little
bit lucky.”
Fuqua won the first flight of the discus com
petition earlier Saturday but finished seventh
overall with a best throw of 163-5. The Poison,
Mont., native still has a chance to be invited
to Nationals, as does her teammate, redshirt
junior Brittany Hinchcliffe, who finished sixth
WOMEN, page 10