FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • THUrsday, aprIL 1, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
COMMUNITY
SPORTS
MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL | NCAA TOURNAMENT
Adult rec softball
deadline April 19
The Bend Park & Rec-
reation District’s adult
recreational softball team
registration deadline is
April 19.
BPRD softball leagues
are known for great ca-
maraderie and fun. The
recreational softball
leagues offer variable
game nights and self-um-
pired games. Standings
are not kept in this league
and no playoffs are held.
Two divisions will be
offered: Men’s Rec and
Coed Rec. All teams will
play a 12-game schedule,
with one game a week
at 6 p.m. The season runs
from May 10 to July 30.
All games will be
played at the Pine Nurs-
ery Sports Complex and
the Skyline Sports Com-
plex. The registration fee
is $375 per team.
League rules and for-
mat will be adjusted to
comply with the most
current local and state
COVID guidelines which
may include face mask
mandates for players and
spectators, social-dis-
tancing restrictions and
field-capacity limitations.
To register a team, visit
www.bendparksandrec.
org. For more information,
contact Rich Ekman, sport
program coordinator, at
541-706-6126 or rich@
bendparksandrec.org.
Former Bend resident drives
1,400 miles to watch Beavs
BY BRIAN RATHBONE
The Bulletin
I
Submitted photo
Former Bend resident Lew Johnson drove his RV from New Mexico to
Indianapolis to watch the Oregon State men’s basketball team’s run to
the Elite Eight.
t is a moment that Lew
Johnson had been waiting
for since 1982, the year af-
ter he graduated from Oregon
State.
So when the Beavers men’s
basketball team advanced to
the Sweet 16 of the NCAA
men’s tournament, Johnson, a
former resident of Bend for 30
years, hopped into his orange
and black RV with “Fear This”
and beaver teeth on the back,
and made a beeline to Indi-
anapolis just to see how long
OSU’s magical run would last.
“I might be dead by the time
they get that far again,” said
Johnson, who has since moved
to Las Cruces, New Mexico, af-
ter three decades of residing in
Central Oregon.
The 67-year-old made the
more than 1,400 mile trek to
Indiana, driving over 900 miles
in one day. He made a stop
in Chicago to pick up his son
Eric — a Mountain View High
School and Oregon State grad
himself — before making it in
time to catch the Beavers’ 65-
58 upset win over the Loyola
Ramblers in the Sweet 16.
That win set up a unique
scenario for the Johnson fam-
ily in the Elite Eight. Lew’s
wife, Kathy, is a graduate of the
University of Houston, which
ousted Oregon State from the
tournament with a 67-61 win
to advance to the Final Four
on Monday. Houston, Johnson
said, was just bigger, faster and
stronger than the Beavers.
“I was hoping to stay for a
week because we wanted us
to go to the Final Four,” said
Johnson on his drive home
with a raspy voice from cheer-
ing. “It has been a fun couple
of weeks. Compared to where
we were a month ago, we didn’t
have a snowball’s change of
getting to Indianapolis.”
See Beavs / A6
MLB | OPENING DAY
The fans
are back
— Bulletin staff report
NFL
‘Hawks, Lockett
agree on extension
SEATTLE — Tyler Lock-
ett is sticking around with
the Seattle Seahawks, and
likely as Russell Wilson’s
favorite target, for the
foreseeable future.
The Seahawks and
Lockett have agreed to
a four-year contract ex-
tension that includes
$37 million guaranteed,
according to a person
with knowledge of the
deal. ESPN first reported
the deal, which could be
worth more than $69
million over the life of the
contract.
The deal locks up Wil-
son’s favorite target from
each of the past two sea-
sons and will likely help
Seattle in its attempts to
ease a salary cap crunch
for the 2021 season. Lock-
ett’s current contract was
set to expire after this sea-
son and carried a salary
cap charge of just under
$15 million.
Lockett, 28, is coming
off a career-best season
with 100 receptions for
1,054 yards and 10 touch-
downs. He teamed with
DK Metcalf to become just
the second pair of Seat-
tle receivers to each have
1,000 yards in the same
season. The Seahawks
had an explosive passing
game early in the season
that fizzled badly over the
second half of the year.
Lockett twice had
games last season with
double-digit receptions,
including a career-high 15
catches for 200 yards and
three TDs against Arizona.
Lockett was a third-
round pick of the Sea-
hawks in 2015 out of
Kansas State and was a
first-team All-Pro as a kick
returner his rookie season.
He quickly grew into one
of the most reliable re-
ceivers in the league while
overcoming serious leg
injuries along the way.
Lockett became a bit
more of a possession re-
ceiver last season with the
emergence of Metcalf as
a deep threat and had a
career-low 10.5 yards per
catch. Eight of Lockett’s 10
touchdowns were of 12
yards or less.
— Associated Press
Major League Baseball is set to start
the season Thursday and opening
day brings a welcome change
BY BEN WALKER
AP Baseball Writer
G
reat to see ya, Buster Posey. Been a
while, Tony La Russa. Good luck,
Madison Bumgarner and every
other National League pitcher toting a bat.
From Comerica Park to Coors Field to the
Coliseum, Major League Baseball is set to roll
out a big welcome mat Thursday.
Ted S. Warren/AP
Jessica Sherman, an advanced registered nurse practitioner with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, plays catch with
a colleague in the outfield of T-Mobile Park, the home of the Seattle Mariners, on March 22 in Seattle. The Mariners
invited health care workers to play catch so they could experience the ballpark ahead of Opening Day on Thursday
and as a way of saying thanks to workers throughout the region who have battled the pandemic in the past year.
Most of all, this opening day, it’ll be for the fans.
“That’s what we’re doing. It’s an entertainment
When Gerrit Cole throws the first pitch of the
business. We’re all playing a game and competing
season — weather permitting — nearly 11,000 peo- and everyone’s got their team they pull for or just
ple could be in the stands at Yankee Stadium.
likes watching the game in general,” he said.
Sitting in socially distanced seats and
The crowd sizes will vary.
wearing masks, inside a park that will
At Fenway Park, where Xander Bo-
Inside
continue to operate as a mass corona-
gaerts and the Boston Red Sox host
Mariners place
virus vaccination site.
Baltimore, 12% of capacity will be al-
Kyle Lewis on IL
Far from normal. But after a year
lowed. At Globe Life Field in Texas,
ahead of opener,
in which fans weren’t permitted at
where the Rangers open Monday, a
A7
any regular-season game because of
full 100% will be permitted.
COVID-19 protocols, no longer will
The Rangers didn’t have any fans in
“Take Me Out to the Ball Game” strangely
their $1.2 billion palace that opened last
echo around empty ballparks during the sev-
year during the pandemic-shortened 60-
enth-inning stretch.
game season. But 11,000 spectators were inside
“That’s how it’s supposed to be, I think,” said
the Arlington, Texas, park when Clayton Kershaw,
Bumgarner, ready to start for the Arizona Dia-
Mookie Betts, Corey Seager and the Los Angeles
mondbacks against Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny
Dodgers beat Tampa Bay in MLB’s first neutral-site
Machado and the San Diego Padres.
World Series.
“It’s an entertainment business. We’re
all playing a game and competing and
everyone’s got their team they pull for or just
likes watching the game in general.”
— Madison Bumgarner, Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher
Boosted by signing the reigning NL Cy Young
Award winner Trevor Bauer, the pitching-rich
Dodgers start in Colorado. Kershaw gets the opener
against the Rockies, while Bauer goes in the second
game.
“I’m pumped up for it. Especially pumped up to
get back in front of the LA fans for my first home
start,” Bauer said.
See MLB / A7
COLLEGE SPORTS
Pay student-athletes in college? Oregon’s taking up the issue again
BY KEVIN HARDEN
Oregon Capital Bureau
New legislation that landed
in late March in the Oregon
Senate could allow some col-
lege student-athletes to be paid.
Senate Bill 5, introduced
March 24 by Senate President
Peter Courtney of Salem and
Sen. James Manning Jr., a Eu-
gene Democrat whose district
includes the University of Ore-
gon, allows student-athletes to
“earn compensation for use of
their name, image or likeness.”
That includes royalty payments
for college merchandise sold
with the athlete’s name or im-
age.
“I’ve been happy to see similar bills pass in other states.
It’s time for Oregon to do the same. We’ve worked with our
student-athletes and universities on this issue. Senate Bill 5
makes sure our college athletes are treated with fairness.”
— Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney of Salem
The bill also allows Oregon
student athletes to retain a pro-
fessional sports agent while in
college, but they wouldn’t be
able to sign contracts for their
images or likenesses that con-
flict with school or team rules.
The Senate Committee on
Rules plans an online public
hearing on the legislation at
1 p.m. April 8.
Courtney said Oregon’s bill
mirrors legislation in about
three dozen states, like Califor-
nia’s 2019 Fair Pay to Play Act
and New York’s 2020 Collegiate
Athletic Participation Compen-
sation Act. Similar legislation
has been introduced in the U.S.
House and Senate.
“I’ve been happy to see sim-
ilar bills pass in other states,”
Courtney said. “It’s time for
Oregon to do the same. We’ve
worked with our student-ath-
letes and universities on this
issue. Senate Bill 5 makes sure
our college athletes are treated
with fairness. I hope to see it
pass this session.”
California’s law put the
NCAA in a bind, requiring a
big change in national rules
governing student-athletes.
In October 2019, the NCAA
Board of Governors unani-
mously supported changes to
allow student-athletes to bene-
fit from the use of their names
and images. The board hoped
to have new rules in place by
early this year.
In a related legal fight, ar-
guments before the U.S. Su-
preme Court were scheduled
Wednesday to decide whether
NCAA rules against allowing
student athletes to be compen-
sated violated federal anti-trust
laws. The case grew out of the
2015 ruling in a similar law-
suit brought by UCLA athlete
Ed O’Bannon. In that case, the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
affirmed most of a lower court
ruling that NCAA rules vio-
lated anti-trust laws.
See College / A6