Sports

There's nothing worse than watching a favorite football team lose a game that they had well in hand, before they make a bunch of dumb-ass mistakes that snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. That's what happened to the Oregon Ducks this afternoon.  Sure, their play sucked in much of the first half. But Oregon had a 24-17 lead at 1:59 left in the fourth quarter with Stanford on its own 4-yard line. There should have been even less time left on the clock if Oregon hadn't inexplicably gone for a pass on its last possession instead of running…

I'm so old, it feels like I've been watching the Olympics ever since those ancient Greeks wrestled in the nude, foreshadowing gay pride for athletic muscular dudes. Thus I was prepared to be underwhelmed by the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics, which were supposed to be the 2020 Olympics if Covid hadn't thrown a pandemic wrench into the gears of the games. The opening ceremony bored me. I figured that Japan would put on something to surpass the ceremony in China some years ago, which was a mesmerizing spectacle. But no, I had to watch pieces of wood being shuffled around…

It's a natural high -- watching the Oregon State men's basketball team pull out six unlikely victories,  starting with the PAC-12 tournament. UCLA. Oregon. Colorado. Those underdog wins produced a PAC-12 tournament championship, the only way Oregon State was going to make it into the NCAA March Madness. Unable to see Oregon State play during the regular season because I'm stuck with DirecTV, which refuses to carry the PAC-12 Network, I became a big admirer of how the team was able to covert their underdog role into top dog wins. Then came the NCAA tournament. Tennessee. Oklahoma State. Loyola Chicago…

Whew! My heart rate has slowed down enough to enable me to share some praise of the Oregon State basketball team that just beat Oklahoma State -- getting Oregon State into the Sweet 16 round of NCAA's March Madness. Their first win in the tournament over Tennessee was wonderfully satisfying. Tonight's win was even better, in part because Oklahoma State has Cade Cunningham, a great player who might be the #1 pick in the NBA draft. Oregon State is a delight to watch. The team has great chemistry. When a starter is faltering, or in foul trouble as Ethan Thompson…

I've got a friend who doesn't watch college football games live, only recorded, because he gets so emotionally involved with wanting a team to win, his psychological health suffers. So when he knows the final score, he can watch the game with equanimity.  After being raised to a height of happiness during the first part of yesterday's Oregon - Stanford game, with Oregon leading 24-7 at halftime, bit by bit, mistake by mistake, the Ducks football team chipped away at my emotional high until I felt like shit when Stanford scored a touchdown in overtime and Oregon whiffed on four…

I just finished watching the Oregon softball team come from behind in the final inning to beat Kentucky and advance to the Women's College World Series.  It was an amazing game. Since I was recording it, and the Ducks were down a distressing 5-2 at the end of the sixth, I figured there was little chance a comeback was in order. So I acceded to our dog's wordless demand and took her for a walk just before the seventh inning got underway. Returning home, I settled in to watch the final inning. The end result -- four runs scored in…