Will the Beaver prevail?

As I finish remixing the soundtrack to Brokeback Mountain after 2 1/2 weeks (which I will discuss further in a future entry), I have decided to jot down some thoughts on this year's college world series, and its absurdly anti-climatic championship: North Carolina vs. Oregon State. This matchup sound familiar? It should...its a repeat of the 2006 College World Series Championship that saw both teams come out of obscurity to compete for the #1 prize in all of collegiate baseball. Oregon State University would win the championship...yeah, I didn't understand it either.

When one thinks of the traditional havens of baseball talent, states like Florida, Texas, and California are a few that come to mind. Oregon? The weather in the great Northwest isn't traditionally cooperative, and baseball is a sport that requires good weather in order to actually be played. (Hence the tradition of powerhouse baseball talent in the aforementioned states that have millions of people to choose from and great weather year-round). Oregon State winning a national championship in baseball can be akin to the University of Georgia winning a championship in hockey, no? Anyways, Oregon State came into this season as a heavy favorite to come back to Omaha, after losing few starters from its championship squad. The same was true for the Tar Heels, who also brought in many prized recruits from in-state and around the country. North Carolina lived up to its lofty expectations, dominated ACC play, and entered the NCAA tournament as the #3 seed overall. The same was not true for Oregon State, who disappointed throughout most of the season, and BARELY found its way into the tournament, and then proceeded to get scorchingly hot thanks to some easy early-round draws, and a questionable decision to host their super regional in which they were the lower seed. The Beavers, who finished an unimpressive 38-24 in the regular season, have now found themselves back in the championship series. To me, there is nothing worse in sports than two teams meeting in championship games in successive years...aside from the Tomahawk Chop. What happened to the parity in college sports? Both North Carolina and Oregon State are frankly boring. I refuse to support a team who hosted a super regional as a #3 seed against a Michigan team that had a higher seed. Where's the logic in that? I can assure you that if the Wolverines had hosted that series, Oregon State would be back in rainy Corvallis where they belong. Also, I'm not rooting for a team whose star player's name is "Darwin Barney" and looks like he's 17. I'm sure ESPN is furious that these two teams unexplicably made it this far once again. What happened to Irvine? That would have been an intriguing story and a fun team to root for in the championship. Even Rice (a C-USA rival of Tulane's) would have been deserving of a spot in the best of three championship...with 71 year old head coach Wayne Graham as an intriguing backstory. But North Carolina and Oregon State? Two teams that shouldn't have been in the championship last year, have made equally surprising and irking runs to the pinnacle of college baseball once again this year. How anti-climactic.

And I won't watch them. Oregon State reminds me of those Spurs and Patriots teams that I loathe so much...they probably don't deserve to win most of the time, but they somehow do. I don't get it. They don't have any spectacular players, but they have all achieved success by taking advantage of their opponents mistakes, and installing conservative gameplans in winning their contests. That sucks. As much as I dislike Oregon State, and fail to understand how they have gotten to the CWS championship in consecutive years, North Carolina doesn't really do it for me either. It's too easy to root for the Tar Heels...they're powerhouses in every sport. Let's game some small, obscure schools for smaller conferences in this championship. Since college baseball prides itself on its purity and uniqueness that is lacking in college basketball and football, wouldn't it be fitting for two schools that don't happen to dominate the college sports scene to make it to the final? Rice and Irvine would have been fun to watch.

Oh well, at least I'll have Tulane to root for in next year's series...right? Or maybe even (GASP!) a team like St. John's from the Northeast. (Hey, if a team from the rainy Pacific Northwest can do it, why not a commuter school in Queens?)

Tar Heels will get revenge from last year's defeat, and take the series in three. Yet another title for the University of North Carolina. So much for college baseball being unique...