tmh8286 Posted July 10, 2007 Share Posted July 10, 2007 I know that there is little interest in the details of my vacation in Oregon, but I had a few observations from my trip that I thought some MIGHT be interested in. So here goes: ? Corvallis is Beaver-crazy! A week before we got there the Back-to-Back Beavs had won the NCAA Baseball Championship for the second year in a row, and the community has embraced them. Everywhere we went you would see people decked out in orange and black tee shirts and ball caps celebrating the baseball team?s success. I couldn?t help but wonder, if ORU had met with the same level of success as OSU (the Beavers started out as a 3- seed in the Regionals, just like ORU), would our community display the same degree of support and affection? I doubt it, but then, Corvallis is a small community (~54,000) and OSU is a large university (~19,000). ? In an effort to set themselves apart from other OSU?s around the country (such as Oklahoma State, which even has the same school colors), ?Oregon State University has embarked on an aggressive effort to better tell its success story through all forms of visual identity . . .? The athletics programs at Oregon State will no longer promote the standard ?OSU?, as they have been know for many years, but will now go by ?OS?. Here?s an example: Unfortunately, ?OS? fans aren?t very happy with the new logo. Change is hard, I guess. If you?re interested in the thinking behind this move, you can read the rather interesting explanation here. My thought ? it sounds more like a computer term than a sports team. ? One evening we had the opportunity to go to a Corvallis Knights game. This is a college level summer league team that plays in a wooden bat league on the OS campus, at Goss Stadium. This is the home field of the beavers, which is why I mention it, and it is in a lovely setting. The baseball Beavers have played on this very field (traditionally called Colemen Field) since 1907, but the facilities were updated in 1999, when the stadium began being called ?Goss Stadium at Coleman Field? after the benefactors that made it possible. Lights were added in 2002, making night games possible for the first time. The field was nice, with an artificial turf infield and grass outfield. The stadium seats 2,000, compared to J. L. Johnson?s 3,000. Very nice scoreboard! I describe all of this just to say, with the facilities and fan bases you find supporting other teams around the country, it is nothing short of miraculous that Oregon State has managed to win the National Championship, not just once, but twice. I?m including some pics of the stadium. I?ll try to put together a panoramic view if I get a chance. ? We got to Oregon on Saturday, and my oldest son flew in the following Tuesday. It was around midnight driving back to Mom?s from the airport after picking him up, and we were hitting ?seek? on the radio trying to find something to listen to. All of a sudden I heard a voice that sounded familiar, so we stopped and listened for a while. It didn?t take long for me to be certain of who it was, although it took a while for him to identify himself ? it was Chris Plank, filling in on a nationally syndicated show on Fox Sports! Half-way across the country and I hear a Tulsa voice. I don?t know if Plank has filled in for Fox before, but it sounded pretty big time. ? By Oregon law gas stations are required to pump your gas ? no self-serve. Consequently, Oregon usually pays $.30 - .50 more than we do in OK. But on Saturday I paid $2.91 in Oregon, while gas here was $2.99. I consider that proof that we?re getting Shanghaied here in Tulsa. ? On the plane from Denver to Tulsa we rode with Ben Haynes. The plane was late arriving in Denver, and we had a fairly long wait, so I went over and introduced myself to him and talked to him for quite a while. He was very friendly, considering that I was a stranger. He said that he?s looking forward to the coming season, and is looking forward to playing with the new guys. Nice guy! ? By the time we got home and out to Fine Airport Parking to pick up our car, it was after midnight, and the graveyard crew was working. I recognized the guy behind the desk, but I couldn?t put a name with the face so I didn?t say anything to him, but as soon as we turned away, and I mentioned that he looked familiar, one of my boys said, ?That was Mike Morgan, Dad.? I wish that he had told me sooner ? I would have loved to have said something to him about ORU basketball. For me it was the Night of the ORU Walk-ons. I was surprised when I looked him up on the website to see that it?s been two years since he played for ORU. Boy, time flies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted July 10, 2007 Author Share Posted July 10, 2007 Goss Stadium Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted July 10, 2007 Author Share Posted July 10, 2007 Goss Stadium Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted July 10, 2007 Author Share Posted July 10, 2007 Goss Stadium Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted July 11, 2007 Author Share Posted July 11, 2007 Here's a panoramic view of Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. I found the coolest software to do this - it's called Autostitch, and the demo version (which is what I used) is available for free download. All I did to form this image was dump thirteen different pics that I took of the field into the program, and it automatically joined them all together, and seamlessly. It took about thirty seconds. I was absolutely amazed. I then used Irfanview (also available as a free download) to crop the rough edges and resize to fit the width of the page. Very simple. A couple of comments about the pic - you can see that although stands at Goss Stadium are about the same height as at J.L. Johnson, they don't go as far down the sidelines, accounting for the extra thousand fans that can fit into JLJ. You can see in this view that the distance between the base lines and the dugouts is wider (I don't know what you call this area, but I'm sure it has a name) than at JLJ. Also, in spite of the fact that it looks like a dirt infield, it is actually artificial turf, colored to look like OUR dirt. The only real dirt is on the mound and around home plate, which is the natural color of OREGON dirt. Other than those things, I thought the field was really pretty similar to our own. One last point - those three trees outside center left field were ENORMOUS - I would guess in excess of 200 feet tall. From ground level they left me SO impressed. You just don't see trees reach that height around here. Autostitch is available here. Irfanview is available here. I'll probably put both on the "Board Talk" board, under "Resources for Board Users", in case someone would like to access them easily later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Blevins Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 Do you ever feel like you're talking to yourself? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted July 11, 2007 Author Share Posted July 11, 2007 Very much so, but thanks for pointing it out . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Blevins Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 No problem... that's what I'm here for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORU Eli Posted July 30, 2007 Share Posted July 30, 2007 tmh...I thought it was a good read. And I needed something to do at work other than work for a few minutes so this was as entertaining as reading my umpteen millionth fantasy football article...thanks for the memoirs...=) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted July 30, 2007 Author Share Posted July 30, 2007 The point of a lot of what I was saying (although not necessarily that clearly) was that the twice-national champion Oregon State Beavers have neither facilities nor following much different than the Golden Eagles. I find it encouraging that you don't have to have multi- million dollar facilities or 5,000 a night at your games in order to win. In fact, having those things didn't help. It was still the little ol' Beavers that come out on top - from a three seed, no less. Their success should be motivation and encouragement for every team like their's, but in particular, ORU. Apart from conference affiliation (and I realize that's a biggie), there are a lot of similarities between the two teams. Next year, why not ORU??? (Sorry to borrow your line without permission, OT!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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