Finally!

After finishing in dead last for the last 26 years, the powers that be have decided the University of Oregon needs to actually field a team to try to reverse the trend. I am obviously overjoyed by the news. Fortunately, I only wore my Oregon State NCAA Champions t-shirt once. Unfortunately, multiple pictures were taken of me wearing the t-shirt on July 4th so certain blackmail will follow. To my credit I have a Nike Oregon Baseball hooded sweatshirt that I picked up from Eastbay about 18 months ago. Many people will consider me a villainous traitor for my actions but I will know that I have one of the first, if not the first, Oregon Baseball piece of apparel. It may take ages for the team to make a run at a Pac-10 title but I will be present for as many games as possible.

Please don't ask me what my feelings are on 'competitive cheer'. If you know me you already know my feelings and if you don't know me then ask someone that does. Okay, fine. Here are my brief thoughts. Apparently, the thinking is that we can quickly "become a national power" in the sport. Note, we are using a very liberal definition for the word 'sport' in order to use it in this case. The exact same reason was used when women's lacrosse was added. I guess every person's definition of 'quickly' is different. Northwestern's women's lacrosse team became competitive quickly, as I define it. Let's hope for the new 'competitive cheer' team quickly more closely resembles my definition. You can read between the lines and figure out my thoughts on adding a 'sport' for the sole reason that no other school is crazy enough to field a team. In the end, if having to add leisure activities is what it takes to bring back baseball I am all for it.

(Image from University of Oregon Athletic Department.)