#154 - civil war!

well here it is folks, the week we've all been waiting for. the battle for the state of oregon...civil war!! this is a tradition over a hundred years. oregon state versus oregon in what is the most important game of the year. you can be 0-10 but if you win the civil war then it is not all lost. whoever wins the civil war gets bragging rights and pride all year. the last two years the Beavs have been successful and before that it was back and forth, with the home team winning.
2006 - Reser Stadium

2007 - Autzen Stadium

2008 - back at Reser!
what's at stake this year is the rose bowl, yes the rose bowl. Beavers win and we go to the rose bowl on new years! since we beat USC this year we are actually at the top of the pac-10. we've gone through quite an exciting season, ups and downs. we had losses to stanford, utah and penn state. when we get to the rose bowl we will face penn state again and redeem ourselves. it won't be at their stadium and we have found our mojo on the field. when we played them at the beginning of the season we didn't quite have it together.

OREGON, YOU ARE GOING DOWN!!!

GO BEAVERS!!!

#141 - giant killers III

i blogged a couple weeks ago about football season since we had just beaten hawaii. i wrote about the upcoming game against #1 USC and what we needed to do to beat them...well, we did it! oregon state 27, usc 21! it was our house and we defended it, we played with respect for USC and what they can do and just played beaver football. it was 21-0, oregon state at the half and i knew this usc team deserved to be #1 for a reason. they dominated the 3rd quarter and came back to within a touchdown, were going for another when greg laybourn intercepted mark sanchez's pass and ran it to the USC 2 yard line. the superstar of the night, jacquizz rodgers (a true freshman!), ran it in easily to put us up 27-14. of course they wouldn't stop and had a nice quick drive to pull within 6 with 1:19 to go. onside kick failed and it was history!

i wasn't there. (tear!) i didn't even watch it. i was in a meeting and had my friend texting me with updates. i was so nervous and clammy my whole meeting! when it was finally done i ran to a restaurant with a tv and stood outside cheering. it was crazy and i will definitely get a hold of a replay sometime. this team will be known as giant killers III. the original team was a dee andros team in 1967 who beat #1 USC 3-0. OJ simpson was on that USC team, it was historical. since then we have not beaten a #1 ranked team but we did beat them two years ago (i was there!) when they were ranked #3. although they weren't #1, many still consider it a giant victory. many thought that this year's USC team was the best and that sanchez would win the heisman. i am not sure if i doubt that now, if i say they aren't then maybe it's not a big a win as it seems. i want them to win out, i want them to play for the national championship (pretty slim chance i think) and i want to say that we were the only ones that could beat them this year. sure there are better teams than the beavs but we have a lot of heart. we've got an awesome quarterback with amazing energy. you can just feel it the way that he leads his team. he's a real leader.

sometimes i think i can believe in them hard enough so they will win. i think that maybe my cheering and believing actually makes a difference. who knows?! while i respect every opponent that dares to come into reser stadium, we will put up a fight. we will play our hearts out. we will prove that we belong here. and we will show you that just because you live in LA doesn't mean you're awesome. corvallis may be a sleepy little town, but it's a college town and it's all about the BEAVERS!!!

#102 - corvallis

corvallis is the home of oregon state university, the best educational institution in the state of oregon. most people who live in this modest city of 50,000 people are either affiliated with the university or hewlett-packard. it's a very quiet place and there really isn't much to do if you don't look hard enough. i spent four awesome years there as an undergrad student and have been back quite a few times afterwards. yesterday i went down for a memorial service to my uncle. i went to hawaii in february to attend his actual funeral and inurnment at the national cemetary. since he was a professor at the college and resident of corvallis for almost 30 years he made quite a few great friends. they decided to have a memorial in my uncle's honor. it was a great service with lots of fun stories about him and then got together for food afterwards.

i've been back to c-town quite a few times since i graduated and it certain is changed. the old favorites are still there, like american dream pizza (now with two locations) and the beanery. then there are a slew of new stores and pseudo-strip malls. it is kind of strange. the campus is still beautiful, like the first time i visited in '98. it only took one visit to corvallis for me to fall in love. it sounds weird but i loved everything about it. going from my small-ish hometown to corvallis was a pretty easy transition despite the cold weather and rain. i spent the first couple years in the dorms on campus and eventually moved off campus to various apartments, duplexes and houses the next couple years. i rode my bike everywhere and it was just a nice place to live. yesterday i felt the same way, it really is a nice college town and i actually wouldn't mind living there again. sometimes the city gets too crazy, and portland isn't even a crazy city.

you can be sure that i return to corvallis every year, mostly to make a pilgrimage to reser stadium, home of the BEAVERS! i'm not sure if season tickets are happening this year for me but you can be sure i'll be wearing orange and black, sitting in the rain and cheering for my team till the bitter end. i took my parents to the ucla game last season (we got demolished) and they were troopers, sitting in the exposed section of the new addition to the stadium. it was so cold and rainy but they kept cheering with me, even though the team played HORRIBLE. my dad signed up for a credit card so we could get a free blanket! this season the university of hawaii WARRIORS are coming on september 13. in recent history each team has won once. the first time was the oahu bowl (1999), the first winning season for the beavers in almost 30 years. hawaii won by 6. it was my freshman year and i sat there in my orange, next to my whole family clad in green. it was great! in 2006 the beavers took another trip to hawaii, but this time they were ready. it was an exciting game, even more so because i tailgated with high school friends and they were all rooting for the warriors.

it would have been interesting to play the warriors last year when they went undefeated and went to the sugar bowl. i am a huge fan of the warriors as long as they are not playing the beavs. this season the beavers are younger, especially on defense. hawaii lost their star QB colt brennan, foursome of awesome receivers and the coach. all i know is it will be an exciting game and lots of hawaii people will be there (i hope!). my parents are planning on going and i will definitely be there.

everytime i go back to corvallis i don't stay very long. i hope i'll get to hang out a little this season. hit a couple of the old favorite bars and eat at el sol de mexico, home of the macho burrito. or maybe the all you can eat indian buffet for $6 or suds & suds (laundromat/bar) where i went "around the world" by drinking all their beers, got a shirt and my name on a plaque. mostly i want to ride my bike around on a nice spring day, pretending i just got out of class with nothing to do but enjoy life and play a little ultimate frisbee. back when life was simpler.

#18 - baseball

i am an atlanta braves fan. in 4th grade i played a season of baseball, with the boys. we were the pirates. it was fun but i totally sucked. although i never really became a pirate fan, it got me liking baseball. the next year the braves played in the world series, beating the pirates on the way. they lost that WS but i watched the whole thing as a braves fan, and i made a lifelong decision that i would be a braves fan. most people who are fans have a reason, like living in a city or having family who were fans. i don't watch baseball unless the braves are on, or i know the people.

so here are two players who i watch and cheer for (as long as they aren't playing my braves). they are both outfielders:


jacoby ellsbury was a player at oregon state while i was there. he was a first round pick by the boston red sox and just made his major league debut this summer. i worked my share of baseball games and this guy was fun to watch. great defense, hitting and base stealing. he is the man! he's also cute and a nice guy.


shane victorino is a maui boy. he went to st anthony and now plays for the philadelphia phillies! i didn't know anything about him until i was working in a sports medicine clinic in hawaii. he was doing specific training at our clinic so i met him. he's a great guy, real funny and down to earth. i didn't even know he played in the majors!

the point is, baseball is keeping me from studying right now. cheering the red sox on...it's game 7 of alcs, they win it's WS time. bottom of the 7th and jacoby is up. the score is 3-2 sox..

#11 - my osu beavers beat #2 cal bears!

it was one of the best games i've seen in awhile, when it came down to the end it was oregon state 31, cal 28. the way that it happened is sad for CAL QB, kevin riley from beaverton (that's what he gets for not going to OSU). on what should not have been their last play, with probably 12 seconds or so, he made a freshman mistake of scrambling instead of throwing away the ball, which would've given them another play or two. he played a heck of a game but that one mistake cost them.

the beavs led by 10 with about 6 minutes to go when cal put together a nice drive and scored a TD with about 2:30 left, which included a 64 yd pass to lavelle hawkins, who just really killed us. then we got the ball back after an unsuccessful onside kick. we couldn't get a first down but ran the clock down to 1:19, at which time cal proceeded to march all the way down to osu's 12. 1st and 10 with 12 seconds and he ran. but you can't beat our defense, we are too fast, strong and good. we fly around!

kevin riley

but enough about them and how they messed up, this game was about the beavers. we won it in a great fashion. we didn't lay down at halftime. it felt like 2006 vs USC all over again. coming into the game as 14 point underdogs to the #2 team in the nation you have nothing to lose. we finally put it all together. although we were getting killed by justin forsett and hawkins we never let the game get out of hand like in previous games. and of course, MY DEFENSE!!! there is just nothing as exciting as the OSU defense.

here are a few highlights:
* offense, defense and special teams all showed up to play
* the best goal line stand I've ever seen (cal was 1st and goal at the 2 and tried to get in four times. we stopped each and every attempt)
* gerard lawson who fumbled 3 times in a row against ucla redeemed himself with great positive run backs, even one that went for 39 yards
* alexis serna with a 52 yd field goal
* alexis serna punting pretty well
* OSU swarm defense baby! hard tackles, an interception and multiple sacks. these boys are good
* sean canfield for stepping it up and playing like a champion
* yvenson bernard for being the go-to guy and that flying TD
* OSU o-line for giving bernard huge holes





GO BEAVERS!!