Washington Waddler

Just too close to reverse the 3rd base call. Remember, the bag only moves after the first touch. While I agree with the announcers that there was some slight sound prior to the pop of ball in mitt, it was so lacking in the ring of contact that it could have equally been caused by the batter’s reactive motion. Just a gut-wrenching way to lose. Feel for the team. But, in the rear-view mirror now, and if the predicted regional odds pan out, this loss’s silver-lining might just end up being us going into a Westwood super regional with the chip on our shoulder rather than the other way around.

That intense series against Nebraska in Eugene really sets the table for this one. Gonna feel more like an away than a tourney game with all that red in the stands.

It seems to me that it really doesn’t matter whether you have a 24, 48, 72 CFP, or go back to the old 4 teams. With the current direction things are going in, the power team universities will come out on top no matter what the format, and a few crumbs will go to the rest. While I’m no fan of ESPN, the old bowl system did provide a regional attractiveness to small schools from those bowl areas that gave them a fighting chance to be included in some of that year end money that they’ll never see in an ever expanding CFP. From where I’m viewing this, it’s really just about Fox trying to take down ESPN, and neither really cares what effect their greed has upon team unity, loyalty and stability, or the concepts of university life, and the over all health of a cultural heritage we’re watching being destroyed by us allowing them to turn it into just “a business”. There is a word that describes that. Cancer.

When college football started to become less about the game, and more about the money made by corporations specializing in communication technologies, the words of media puppets like Sankey became nothing more than what is being placed in their mouths by their media (and university?) bosses. So long as the ESPN’s and Fox’s of this world can count on being bailed-out by Sherman Anti-Trust rulings, nothing is going to change the direction in which this conflict of values is going. And, this IS about values: a national cultural heritage vs. $$. Perhaps it is time to begin viewing this conflict in those terms; college football as a national cultural treasure being plundered by an outside source that is destroying something that belongs to us all — in the same light as Federal Cultural Heritage laws protect and shield native historical sites, including, “intangible traditions that hold significant value for a community or the nation”. Know it’s a long shot, but just trying to think outside the box for something I love.

Unfortunately, that gaze does fall on T&F as well. The 2026 men lost discus world record holder Mykolas Alekna to a torn pectoral muscle. But, T&F does have an injury advantage over diamond sports (and football) in not having to rely upon lynchpin athletes like pitchers and quarterbacks.

Perhaps because we’d no previous experience with diamond post-season conference tournaments in the old PAC 12, both baseball and softball have seemed unprepared for the energy brought by traditional B1G teams to those games. But, that’s how you learn, and to be ready the next time.

Two evenly matched teams squaring off in a rubber match that goes extra innings, and you’re hanging on every pitch. It just doesn’t get much better than that!

A team that has each others’ back, and a home crowd like ours will be ready.

Lying as leverage? You can make a strong case based on the evidence that some programs make deals and sign agreements with the intention of breaking them solely in order to gain an advantage on those who keep them.

No way you can say the Bruins are ever conceding, but putting in a freshman reliever with a 4.72 era with the stable they’ve got?

As yet being too new and untried a concept, one can only assume that the law of averages still apply, and that there is the other side of the coin yet to exert itself. Without agreed to conference game contracts, going it alone would seem to require those universities to negotiate each game separately with those they wish to play, and the more an Ohio State would stand to make, the more they’d have to shell out - above and beyond the old formula. No free lunch.

As online watering holes go, only FishDuck captured the cerebral excitment, enthusiasm, unique meaning and true spirit that is Oregon sports, which is what drew so many of us to it. Thanks for the memories, and here’s to the future of the forum!

Did the Vet euthanize or just neuter?

Never fun being the one who has to figure out how to get the bottleneck unplugged. Appreciated by all.

On the other hand, what has ultimately proven to be the NCAA’s loss of traction and undoing is making these arbitrary ‘lines in the sand’ stands that run head on into the court’s interpretation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Saying when and when not a player can utilize their legal right to negotiate an NIL contract seems to go in one direction: to court, and where the NCAA ultimately loses.