The Search Continues

U of O is currently looking for a head coach to take over the new men’s baseball team. The job was supposedly offered to Pat Casey, the head coach of the Oregon State team. Many people seem to be upset about this move by Oregon, saying they are trying to steal the Beaver’s coach. Everyone who lives in Oregon, and even most who do not know that the two schools are rivals. The decision to offer the job to Casey was based on his past performance as a head coach. People are taking the offer as some under-handed decision by Pat Kilkenny, Oregon’s athletic director. Beaver fans should take the job offer as a compliment to their program and coach. Kilkenny’s job is to bring the best coaches, players and staff to the school. College sports are a competition that gross enormous amounts of money for universities, and trying to bring in a coach that has lead his team to two consecutive championships is a smart move. The only downfall is that Casey has decided to stay with Oregon State. Baseball is now one more thing for Duck and Beaver fans to argue about, and a new way for Duck’s to support their school, the better school.

B-12 Injection

Vitamin B-12 has the primary use of treating a rare form of anemia. However, according to an Oregonian story, “it is also often implicated in steroids-related cases.” The intended use of injection for people with anemia is to build fresh cells and protect nerves. Justin Gatlin, a world record-sharing sprinter was recently suspended from the sport for eight years after testing positive for steroid use. Gatlin said this came two weeks after he thought he was injecting a shot of B-12 given to him by an assistant coach, not a banned substance. Gatlin stated his suspension was too severe, considering he did not know he was taking a banned substance. I cannot imagine any athlete who would voluntarily confess to taking illegal drugs. It would be in his or her best interest to place the blame on someone else. The steroid use among sports figures these past few months alone have been covering the sports sections of newspapers. It is getting old, and I don’t want to read about it anymore. Eight years is a long time, and this could potentially mark the end of Justin Gatlin’s sprinting career, but he made the ultimate decision to inject himself with a substance that he wasn’t entirely sure what it was. The punishment is harsh yes, but it is also fair. When you put yourself in the public eye your job in not only as an athlete, but also as a role model. Gatlin failed in both those aspects, and he deserves to be punished.

U of O Baseball & Cheer teams

The University of Oregon made an announcement earlier this summer that they would no longer have a wrestling team. This decision was made so the university could add a baseball team to their list of athletics. In an attempt to make the distribution of teams fair between the sexes, competitive cheerleading is also being added to the athletic teams. Both baseball and cheerleading will be given an equal number of scholarships to be given to team members, but that is where the equality ends. The baseball team will be operating with a budget of almost $250,000 a year more than the cheerleading team, and between 5-10 million dollars is going to be spent to build a new baseball stadium for the team. The decisions being made by the school, and the athletic department are unfair. They are supporting the male sporting events with extra funding and media coverage, while choosing a less expensive female sport to add in a botched attempt at equality. U of O already has a cheerleading squad, and with the addition of this new competitive cheer team, they will be one of only a handful of schools with both. This is not a good use of money to promote what females can do as athletes, and it is an obvious attempt to try and not seem sexist in their choices. As a duck I am disgusted at these choices.

Facilitation

Facilitation 8/6
The topic of my facilitation is the use of aluminum bats in college baseball. I decided to look at the pros and cons of using aluminum bats, to see if players would be better off if they used wooden bats.

Pros for aluminum bats:
- There are more homeruns, making the game more exciting.
- You can get an on base hit using a larger surface area of the bat.
- The bats do not break, making it less expensive to replace, and less dangerous with regards to pieces of flying bat.
- Aluminum bats were first put in place to save money.
- Aluminum bats can be made from recycled materials.


Cons for aluminum bats:
- The ball is hit harder, making it more dangerous for players and fans.
- Players don’t have experience hitting with a wooden bat.
- Players don’t have experience fielding hits off a wooden bat.
- Over the past 10 years injuries from aluminum bats exceeds injuries from wooden bats.
- Pitchers don't throw inside to players using aluminum bats.
- Performance of aluminum bats can benefit from engineering science, such as alloys and processing methods. Aircraft quality aluminum is the material of choice for aluminum bats.

The Beckhams move to the U.S.

There has been endless cover and anticipation over the British soccer, or should I call him a football star, and his diva wife moving to the states. Granted he is an amazing athlete who has one of the largest fan bases of any pro athlete. I have just seen so much on TV the past two months hyping the families move to California, and David signing with the Galaxy soccer team. I think it's great that the emphasis is on the team, the franchise and what the star player can bring not only to the team, but to the city and state of california. There are tons of potential profits that can be made from ticket and merchandise sales, not to mention all of the other promotions Posh and Becks will be involved in. There is also a reality tv series that has been filming the whole process from planning the move from the UK to the US, and has followed Victoria around filming the things she does from house hunting,to shopping and showing thier private family lives as a married couple with three young sons. I am really interested to see the show, and get a look at how these famous people live their lives.
There has been so much media/paparazzi attention surounding everything they do, I think it has taken away from the real reason they made the move; so David could join a great soccer team. That aspect has been pushed backed, and for such an amazing soccer star I would like to see more coverage of it. The day he did officially join the team, and got his jersey, there was a lot of press coverage and that is what I had been expecting more of. Not what clothes they had been seen wearing, or the places in LA where Posh had been seen shopping. This is a huge deal in the world of soccer, and I have seen the speech he gave after recieving his Galaxy jersey played a couple of times, but I have seen more about the upcoming reality show. I don't want his amazing talents to be pushed out of the forefront for things that seen so much more trivial.
I am a fan of both the Beckhams, and i love to hear about them, so I understand why there are so many trivial stories about the couple. But he is a soccer god, and I want to see and hear more about what's going on with his new team.
Just some thoughts I had, I would love to hear some opinions.

Bull Riding

I was looking at the front page of the Oregonian's sports section on the fourth of July, and half of it was covering bull riding. I rarely see anything about it as a sport, let alone so much on the front page. I never knew that to even get a score the rider has to stay on the bull for a full 8 seconds. Mosts sports make sense to me, and even seem fun, but nothing about trying to hold on to an angry, bucking bull does. What's the appeal, and has anyone ever tried? Just a few thoughts I had while looking over the paper. Oh, and what seems even crazier are the people who dress like clowns to distact the bull when the rider falls off. I hope they have good medical coverage!