Sports

For me the most tragic moment in this year's Winter Olympics was Ilia Malinin, a hugely talented American figure skater, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory when he bungled a seemingly certain gold medal by falling twice in a performance where Malinin was so far ahead of his competition, all he needed to do was skate a clean program and the medal was his. As his stood on the ice, unable to comprehend what had befallen him, there was still a lot of cheering from the audience. They recognized his brilliance, and how uncharacteristic his deeply flawed skating was…

It warms my heart to behold the recently released Pac-12 football schedule for the 2026 season. Back in November 2023 I wrote about how sad it was to watch the last Pac-12 Oregon vs. Oregon State game, as back then Oregon, Washington, Stanford, California, UCLA, USC, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State had announced they would flee the Pac-12 conference for greener (as in more media money) pastures. That left Oregon State and Washington State as the sole remaining members of what had become the Pac-2. Things looked dark for OSU and WSU. But in December 2023 they got $255…

Ever since the Oregon football team beat Texas Tech 23-0 in the national playoff quarterfinals, I'd been looking forward to the Ducks rematch with Indiana in today's semifinal game. After all, Oregon had played Indiana close for most of the first game, which Indiana ended up winning 30-20 after Indiana scored the last 10 points, aided by a couple of fourth quarter interceptions thrown by Oregon quarterback Dante Moore. Coach Lanning and the Oregon players had been talking about how they were a better team now, having learned from their only loss of the season. Oddsmakers had Indiana favored in…

Wow. I'm exhausted. Mentally, not physically, because I was just sitting on my butt watching three college football playoff games today, unlike the players who gave it their all in ESPN's nationally televised games. And I watched another game yesterday. Tough job, but someone's got to do it. The most satisfying game for me naturally was the Orange Bowl contest between Oregon and Texas Tech. I was nervous about it, as an Oregon fan, because Texas Tech was seeded #4 with Oregon #5. Thus the teams seemed equally matched, both with stellar offenses and defenses. Pre-game, the ESPN announcers said…

Football is a strange game. Well, all sports are. But it's mainly in football that I can watch my favorite team win, yet feel almost like it was a loss. Conversely, I can watch my favorite team lose, yet feel almost like it was a win. Tonight the Oregon Ducks defeated James Madison 51-34 in Eugene. I believe Oregon was favored by 21 points, so the 17 point margin of victory wasn't far off from the expectation that #5 seed Oregon in the College Football Playoff would handily beat #12 seed James Madison. Especially since James Madison only got into…

I love to watch sporting events because they so often -- heck, maybe always -- reflect life as a whole. Meaning, victory or defeat often doesn't go to the better team, or the most deserving team, but the luckiest team. That's true of life in general. We like to believe that successful people earned their way to the top of the Success Pyramid through hard work, talent, and perseverance. Actually, though, being in the right place at the right time and benefiting from chance events that ended up being the difference between success and failure often is a better explanation.…

I don't follow professional baseball very closely. I'm much more of a college baseball fan, the Oregon State Beavers being my favorite team. But since the Seattle Mariners are the closest professional baseball team to Oregon, I was rooting for them to beat the Toronto Blue Jays for the American League Championship, especially since Seattle had never made it to the World Series. When the Mariners lost 4-3 yesterday in the deciding game of the Seattle-Toronto series, after taking a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning, I was only mildly disappointed. I could understand the pain felt…

This evening the sixth-ranked University of Oregon defeated third-ranked Penn State 30-24 in two overtimes. Oregon football coach Dan Lanning said "“I think that’s the best game I’ve ever been a part of. Regardless of who won.” No argument there. It was one of the best games I've ever seen, for sure. When Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman intercepted a pass by Penn State quarterback Drew Allar in the second overtime, the game was over and Thieneman celebrated by running down the field with the ball tucked under his right arm. I felt almost as happy as Thieneman did. The game…

Tomorrow, June 13, Oregon State plays its first game in the 2025 Men's College World Series: 4 pm Pacific time against Louisville, televised on ESPN. I've been looking forward to this ever since the Beavers won two out of three games against Florida State in the Corvallis Super Regional, thereby punching their ticket to Omaha and the College World Series. This could be wishful thinking, but watching Oregon State play in the post-season makes me think the team is destined for a national championship. I fondly remember the three championships OSU won in 2006, 2007, and 2018. The current incarnation…

Really impressive, Oregon State baseball. Amazing comeback. This afternoon the team defeated USC 9-0, advancing to the super regional phase of the NCAA tournament. That seemed really unlikely three days ago. After fighting hard all season to become a highly ranked team (#8 in the country) that earned the right to host both a Corvallis regional and super-regional in the 2025 NCAA tournament, the top seeded Beavers flopped in a 6-4 opening loss to fourth seed Saint Mary's last Friday. In a double elimination tournament, losing the first game makes for an uphill battle, since another loss means an exit…

I'm really happy that the University of Oregon softball team is headed to the 2025 College Women's World Series after winning twice over Liberty this weekend in a super-regional matchup in Eugene. But there were two plays in the first game on Friday that left both the announcers and me wondering, What the heck was that all about? In each case, Kai Luschar, Oregon's lead off hitter who is noted for her speed and ability to steal bases, was called out after appearing to steal a base following a challenge by the Liberty head coach. Here's a video that shows…

Whenever the University of Oregon softball team makes the post-season, I look forward to watching them even if I didn't see any of their preceding games. Baseball appeals to me also, but softball -- a woman's college sport -- is more entertaining for me, partly because a game moves along more quickly given the lack of annoying pick-off moves by the pitcher (in softball a base runner can't get a lead until the pitch is thrown) and a game lasts seven innings instead of nine (even shorter if a team is ahead by eight or more runs after five innings…

I can't be absolutely sure about this, but after watching the 2025 Super Bowl, for the first time I feel like I'm turning into a NFL fan -- even though I've watched every previous Super Bowl and never had that inclination.  It's hard for me to tell what made the difference this time. Sure, it was an entertaining game, filled with surprises. I expected that the contest between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles would be close. When the score was 24-0 at halftime after Philadelphia held Kansas City scoreless, I realized a blowout was more likely. Yet all…

Wow. What a game. And what a season. The University of Oregon football team went 13-0, capping it off with a nail biter of a Big Ten championship game against Penn State that the Ducks won 45-37 tonight. It was a highly entertaining game. Somehow I remained calm through most of it. Probably that had a lot to do with my memories of the preceding twelve games, some of which -- like Boise State and Ohio State -- were won extremely narrowly. But somehow Oregon found a way to win. That's the mark of a great team with great coaching.…

My heart still hasn't recovered from the closing minutes of Oregon's thrilling 32-31 victory over Ohio State in a battle of #3 versus #2. After tonight, Oregon should be the second ranked team in the country, maybe even close to the top spot, a major accomplishment given the mediocre play from Oregon in its first two games. Sports writer John Canzano captured my feeling exactly in his "The Bald Faced Truth" substack post (I'm a subscriber) as the talented Ohio State quarterback took the field in the last few minutes of the game, needing only a field goal to pull…

Today started off on a high note for me, college football-wise. I was thrilled when, in the morning, I set my DirecTV VCR to record the 3:30 pm Oregon State vs. Idaho State game on The CW (channel 32) and the 4:30 pm Oregon vs. Idaho game on the Big Ten Network (channel 601).  While that may not sound like a big deal to football fans who don't use DirecTV -- we live in rural south Salem, Oregon, where there's no cable options -- those of us who suffered through many years of not getting the Pac-12 Networks due to…