Bliss in Corvallis
By Greg Hansen
Arizona Daily Star
I was living in Corvallis, Ore., during the rainy spring of 1981 when the Oregon Ducks eliminated their baseball program. The obligatory protest followed but far too late to save college baseball in Eugene.
A few days later, I asked Oregon State athletic director Dee Andros if OSU's undistinguished, money-draining baseball program was similarly doomed.
The Great Pumpkin puffed out his cheeks and exhaled. "Something's gotta go," he said in an off-the-record revelation. "Track or baseball. Which one would you choose?"
Oregon State soon eliminated its track and field teams.
Not that OSU's baseball program did much to justify its existence. From 1984 to 1998, playing in the impaired Pac-10 "north division" which periodically included Gonzaga, Portland State and Eastern Washington, the Beavers won but two division titles.
When the Pac-10 fully merged in 1999, Oregon State spent six years flailing about, finishing a cumulative 36 games under .500, fodder for the Arizona and California schools.
Once, after being whipped by Arizona State in a 2000 game in Corvallis, Beavers coach went to dinner with Sun Devils coach Pat Murphy and confided that "I'm not sure I can get it done here."
By 2005, Oregon State won the Pac-10 and played in the College World Series.
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