How many of you saw the best baseball game of the season?
If you’re a student, I already know the answer, and it isn’t good.
Last Friday night in the rain, Oregon took on the No. 1 Arizona State Sun Devils. The Ducks won 6-5 in extra innings at 12:45 a.m., giving ASU its first loss of the season. Where were you? Besides a handful of students, you were probably at the bars, at a party, sleeping, or otherwise ignoring the fact that Oregon baseball exists.
Yes, it poured rain for most of the contest. Yes, the game went on for hours. But against the No. 1-ranked team in the nation, there were maybe 40 students combined who showed up to see just one game of the entire three-game series.
The fickleness of sports fans is something I don’t understand and probably will never understand. I guess can understand not wanting to sit through an entire game if it’s pouring rain. But what I don’t understand is how fans can call for a baseball team, and then when the baseball team arrives, not support it by going to games.
Every time I look down the left-field line to the student bleachers, it’s a big, empty hole. It’s disappointing to see. The University finally put up the money to get a baseball team, building one of the best stadiums in college baseball, and it’s still having trouble drawing fans?
What’s wrong? Has the novelty of the team worn off? Did the teams’ 14-42 record last year make you not want to go see the team play?
It really shouldn’t have. Not many people expected the team to be better than last in the Pacific-10 Conference last year. With a new program, expectations have to be put on hold, so we can let the team get established. This year, the Ducks have improved leaps and bounds, playing solid baseball. The pitching is good, the hitting is light years better than last year, and the attitude of the team is resilient — as opposed to timid from a year ago.
I watched every home game last year. I have the scorecards to prove it. One thing I noticed, even then, was the declining amount of students who showed up for games. There were more students on the warm days toward the end of the spring, but even those numbers weren’t as great as some would have liked.
Right now, there is a humongous, gigantic, gaping divide in this state when it comes to collegiate baseball. The Ducks are the upstarts, and no one will give them the time of day outside of Eugene. There are journalists out there who covered the Beavers, and sigh when they have to travel to Eugene to cover the Ducks’ baseball team for a night. They don’t think it’s worth their time.
Fans are even worse. Not a single OSU fan looks at the Ducks as a threat. I spent an entire weekend trying to explain to my Uncle Butch (who graduated from OSU) that the Ducks were an improved team this year, and they are more than capable of beating the Beavers at least twice this year. But we’re the new kids on the block, and despite some impressive wins this year, the disdain is palpable. Beaver fans are convinced the only reason Oregon brought back baseball is because they showed that you could have success in the Northwest by winning two national titles.
How do we change this lack of respect? By proving Eugene is a baseball town. By supporting the Ducks and showing it is possible for a successful team to thrive here. The team is 19-10, and already on its way to improving its wins from last year by over 10 games. Half-empty stadiums are all the evidence Beaver fans need to show why baseball will always be an OSU thing.
I hope I’m wrong in all of this. Maybe, when it gets sunny and warm, as it is this very moment as I write this column, the fans will come. I sure hope so, because I was thoroughly disappointed when McArthur Court wasn’t filled for the last Pac-10 Conference game ever, and we have already set a precedent for not showing up to big games that are played outside of Autzen Stadium.
The culture is changing at the University. There are more good teams on campus today than there were my freshman year. It’s the perfect time to be a student fan, with free access to most of these events. Use it.
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