Charles Fischer

Simply unbelievable. In the pregame interview on the GoDucks.com app for Oregon Baseball, Coach Waz was asked what he wanted the large crowd (second largest ever at PK) to learn about Oregon? What is Oregon's identity? Waz answered that he wanted Oregon fans to see "a team that was tough, gritty, and determined to fight to the last out." Could he have been any more prescient? The track record for teams down eight runs in the entire history of Super-Regionals? 0-96...until now. Oregon made the record books with the biggest comeback ever in the Supers!

Those blankly-blanking people jerking us around. We all have our DVRs set, and now so many have it recording on the WRONG Station! Still listed on ESPNU for Saturday night thus far, but it is ESPN tonight. ESPN Manager...

If Klemm wanted him and recruited him--I trust that pretty well.

From another site... As the injuries piled up, Wasikowski and Angier were left to rely on a core of young, unproven pitchers during the stretch run of the season. The results were disastrous. On May 1, Oregon was the No. 17 team in the nation and firmly in the mix to host a regional. Over the next 17 days, the Ducks went 1-7 and dropped to 32-20 on the year. The low point came during a 12-5 trouncing at the hands of last-place Utah on May 18. But, since the postseason began, Oregon’s nucleus of young hurlers have righted the ship and helped lead the charge to this weekend’s Eugene Super Regional at PK Park. The Ducks swept their way through the Pac-12 Tournament with four wins in five days to secure a trip to the NCAA Tournament. They entered the Nashville Regional as the No. 2 seed and notched close-fought wins over No. 3 Xavier and host Vanderbilt to clinch a spot in last Sunday’s regional final, where they topped the Musketeers, 11-2, and advanced to their first super regional since 2012. Throughout the improbable seven-game winning streak, a quartet of Oregon true freshmen have excelled in significant roles while playing in their first respective collegiate postseasons. LHP Grayson Grinsell: 12.2 IP, 4 ER, 18 K’s, 7 BB’s RHP Turner Spoljaric: 13.0 IP, 12 ER, 6 K’s, 2 BB’s RHP Dylan McShane: 3 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 3 K’s, 2 BB’s LHP Ian Umlandt: 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 K, 0 BB’s The lone blemish in that time came during Oregon’s Pac-12 Tournament showdown with Stanford when Spoljaric was tagged for six runs in 1.0 inning of work. But he bounced back two days later and gave the Ducks 6.0 strong frames in their conference title game win over Arizona. The contributions of those four in high-leverage scenarios, along with bullpen mainstays Matt Dallas, Austin Anderson, and Josh Mollerus have provided Oregon with much-needed stability throughout the postseason. -------------------------------------------- I admit that after that 12-5 loss to Utah....I knew the season was over. It was too bad, as this is a great hitting team, but the pitching injuries are too much to overcome...so I thought. What has happened is beyond amazing, and we gotta hope that they can do it enough to win TWO MORE GAMES!

Doing some homework in advance of the Super-Regional, because I am Devoted Delusional Duck, who is anal that way... Here are D-1 Baseball National rankings going into the Regionals: No. 4 Vanderbilt No. 16 Oklahoma State No. 18 Dallas Baptist' No. 24 Oregon Unranked: Oral Roberts I show you this to remind us all to take pride in our wins at Nashville, because although Vanderbilt had a No. 6 seed--D-1 Baseball had them at No. 4 in the nation. But Oral Roberts....they beat some GOOD TEAMS in their regional, as they had more high quality teams stacked against them at Stillwater. BTW...Oregon State lost twice to Dallas Baptist in a Regional two years ago, as they are a relatively new program and that coach is sensational. DBU was written up ten days ago as a "team to watch" from many sources. From OregonLive: "the Ducks offense has been producing at a higher rate in batting average, extra-base hits and runs to help lead a nine-game win streak. Oregon (40-20) has surged at the plate, hitting .331 — which would rank third nationally if done over the entire season — with 76 runs thanks to 28 doubles, four triples and eight home runs over its last nine games. Even over the last six games against NCAA Tournament teams, UO is hitting .312 with 49 runs with 15 doubles, two triples and seven homers." My concern? ORU has great starters at pitcher, while Oregon has a good bullpen. Both teams hit the ball really well, thus my worries are that their hitters will get to our starters before we can get to theirs. Thoughts?

And I got excited about Oregon having seven of nine starters battling over .300 recently! What to know about Oral Roberts, Oregon’s opponent in Eugene Super Regional WWW.OREGONLIVE.COM The Golden Eagles have won 21 straight games and rank in the top 20 in a bevy of categories

A fun read, and great to hear that Coach Waz is building bridges with former players the way that Dan Lanning did! Bill Oram: This former UO baseball player is fueling Ducks' magical run — $6 at a time WWW.OREGONLIVE.COM 89-year-old Duane Reeves had an idea to support his alma mater — by replacing each home run ball they hit this season.

"Freshmen Grayson Grinsell, Ian Umlandt, Turner Spoljaric, Dylan McShane and Matthew Grabmann, juniors Logan Mercado and Austin Anderson, and seniors Matt Dallas and Josh Mollerus have combined for a 3.73 ERA over the last 82 innings spanning the nine wins for the Ducks. That ERA would rank third nationally ifricken performed over the course of the entire season." How Oregon baseball’s pared-down pitching staff helped lead postseason surge to super regional WWW.OREGONLIVE.COM Nine Ducks pitchers have combined for a 3.73 ERA over the last 82 innings spanning the nine-game win streak.

It makes me want to CRY for the Trojans and their fans!

Some serious information here... Wasikowski on super regional matchup against Oral Roberts: 'They're good, they're the real deal' 247SPORTS.COM Oregon is set to host Oral Roberts (49-11, 23-1) starting Friday at 5 PM at PK Park.

Good. They aren't paying attention to the Ducks... I never said I was noble...

Seeing Coach Powell win the Mens Pac-12 Championship at Washington turned my stomach...

This is VERY big, and important news. Thank you for sharing it!

There is not a signed agreement that is known in the public sphere. Canzano reported that the schools have all verbally agreed to the Grant in Rights, and will sign it when the media deal comes out and they approve of the media deal.

Precisely. I was going to write about how people shouldn’t post when they don’t read the article that I shared of Canzano. But I thought it would not be very nice, especially with the way I was thinking of writing it. People do that all the time, as they will give an opinion about an article, they have not read. Years back when I would post a FishDuck article on other sites, you would have 5000 views of the post on that site, and 80 comments in the thread criticizing my article. Then I would come look at the analytics of FishDuck, and see that only 37 people actually came over from that site to read the article! People do it here all the time as well with your and my articles, David. You can tell when they write a comment making a point that you or I had already covered in our article. They didn’t read it! A ton of people will post, without reading the articles, or, as we saw this instance, without even reading the post. (It’s too long!)

Actually, they play Shout at the baseball games during the seventh inning stretch, and everybody’s dancing!

I think this weekend SHOUTS to us fans as Party-Time!

(Press Release from UO Athletic Dept.) EUGENE, Ore. – Because of significant demand, this weekend’s NCAA Baseball Super Regional games between the University of Oregon and Oral Roberts University are sold out. In the event temporary bleachers are approved or unclaimed tickets from the visiting team become available, there may be additional tickets on sale Friday morning. Duck fans are encouraged to wear green all weekend. To enhance the fan experience before the Super Regional games on Friday and Saturday, a new and exciting PK Park FanFest concept will activate in the area between Autzen Stadium and Pape Field beginning three hours before first pitch, 2 p.m. on Friday and 3 p.m. on Saturday. FanFest will include food trucks, a beer garden, tents and televisions to watch games, a live DJ, shaved ice, photo opportunities, Kids Zone inflatables, and appearances by The Duck and the Oregon Cheerleaders. All fans are welcome, and a game ticket is not required to attend PK Park FanFest. The Oregon-Oral Roberts game will also be shown on the back of the Autzen Stadium video board during each game as well as in the FanFest area for those without game tickets. There will also be a dedicated FanFest area for UO students that includes food, free T-shirt giveaways, face painting, and the opportunity to make posters to take into the game for those with game tickets. For more information, please visit www.goducks.com/SuperRegional.

Coach Waz talks about the matchup, the impact on the program and many of the players. What a special time! (The first in ELEVEN years!) It would be nice if a certain sportswriter could ask a question that is shorter than the answer....

Not much there, but my guess is that Shade is "iffy," while Stoffal and Ayon remain out for good. Shade came in to pinch-run, but his left wrist was in a brace, and I do not know if he can use a mitt or bat with his wrist now. Big loss at the plate if out.... (One of our .300+ hitters!) Mark Wasikowski provides injury updates on three key Oregon players - On3 WWW.ON3.COM As Oregon prepares for its most significant postseason series in over a decade, it's unclear if three of the Ducks' key players will play.

Outstanding post, as I believe you really nailed it. As many of you know--I am a Daffy, Delusional, Devoted Duck beyond all reason. I enjoyed and WATCHED the Beavers on TV win their Baseball 'Nattys, and was very indifferent about bringing Oregon Baseball back. I did not want it back at Oregon because of the OSU success, as I regarded it as "their" sport, as Track was ours, etc. You are right HDuck, in that it was a couple of major players who spearheaded it back, and one behind the scenes that few know about, (I did not know until recently) is that Penny Knight wanted Oregon Baseball back. Even Phil knows, "happy wife-happy life."

"It will include performance/merit based revenue sharing." Now THAT is big news...if it is true. Sorry for the skepticism, but I do not believe any source right now outside of Canzano and Wilner. I was just talking with NJDuck about that point--that Oregon must be rewarded for making Playoffs, Tournaments, etc., with an extra share size of the payout. Oregon has put a ton of money and time into building our brand, and it is time that other league teams no longer piggy-back off that with a reward for not putting in the same resources.

Nobody has said a deal is in place--Canzano stated that the league teams are in agreement on the Grants in Rights, and that has not been reported before. Thus NOT misleading, and I find the accusation amusing coming from the Big-12!

(Below is the article by John Canzano) The remaining Pac-12 Conference members have finalized the terms of their Grant of Rights, sources tell me. That contract includes a variety of elements that all 10 schools needed to agree on — and it appears they have. Among other items, the Grant of Rights includes what sponsorships are Pac-12 centralized vs. left for individual campuses to sell, what sets of rights the conference can sell, and how the revenue will be split among the 10 member schools. Even shares? Postseason incentives? “Over the last few months,” a member of the Pac-12 CEO Group told me, “we have negotiated all of these issues and the Grant of Rights is ready to go.” The length of the contract will be dictated by the length of the Pac-12’s yet-to-be-finalized media-rights deal. But I’m told all 10 schools are ready to sign the Grant of Rights once the media deal is concluded to their satisfaction. A few things while we wait: • When will the Pac-12’s media rights deal be done? I thought it would get done by last Thanksgiving. Then, by Christmas. Then, by March. The Pac-12 presidents and chancellors are now being careful to preserve the “late spring/early summer” timeline they reset a couple of months ago. Summer officially begins on June 21 — in 12 days. • What about San Diego State’s timeline? The Aztecs are viewed as a strong expansion possibility. If they want to join the Pac-12 for the 2024 football season, the Aztecs have until June 30 to inform the Mountain West Conference they’re leaving. If they miss that deadline the $17 million MWC exit fee doubles to $34 million. A Pac-12 source told me last week: “We can’t really control their deadline. Need to get our deals done so we can tell them what they’d get.” I suppose San Diego State could just inform the MWC they’re leaving on June 30 and figure the details out later. The Pac-12 could also invite the Aztecs without the media deal fully completed, but I find it hard to believe SDSU would commit without knowing what the offer is. San Diego State is being very patient. SDSU is being told by the Pac-12 that the conference “feels good” about the impending media deal and is just “trying to wrap things up,” per an Aztecs source. Stay tuned on this front. • What do you make of Colorado’s Board of Regents meeting this week? The sad souls out there rooting for the demise of the Pac-12 saw “legal advice on a specific matter — athletics matter at CU Boulder” on Tuesday’s meeting agenda and jumped to a lot of conclusions. Apparently the “matter” was not a move to the Big 12. “It was just a status update on the Pac-12 media rights negotiations,” an involved source told me. Those same regents now have added a “special board meeting” scheduled for Friday. • What about other Pac-12 members? Washington State also has a Board of Regents meeting scheduled for Friday. The Cougars are knee-deep in an athletic department budget crisis. The agenda for that meeting outlined department revenue, expenses, and the plan to bring the budget in line during the next fiscal year. But it was “Action Item No. 4” that jumped off the page to me. It would give WSU President Kirk Schulz the authority to “execute contracts or other agreements related to the University’s athletic media rights.” Schulz isn’t just a member of the Pac-12’s CEO Group, he’s particularly tuned in as a member of the executive committee along with Washington president Ana Mari Cauce and Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne. Schulz currently only has signatory authority on matters up to $5 million. Beyond that, he needs to consult with WSU’s regents. Resolution No. 230609-684 would give Schulz authority to sign deals in excess of that cap. “It is highly likely business necessities will dictate that the execution of said contracts or agreements will need to occur on an expedited basis, a necessity difficult for the Board of Regents to manage as a body,” the request noted. I don’t want to make too much of one action item, but this is definitely an important step toward putting ink to paper. • How do conference media-rights deals get finalized? Bob Thompson, the retired Fox Sports Networks president, was on the other side of the table the last time the Pac-12 sold its media rights. Thompson told me on Wednesday that he didn’t remember individual schools having to consult with their regents. “Basically, we told the conference they were responsible for acquiring the necessary grant of rights approvals from the schools and to represent that they had those approvals,” he said. “How and when they did that I have no idea.” I asked around. Each campus has a different process. Private schools, such as Stanford, have different protocols than public schools. Some of the universities have already granted signatory rights to their presidents and chancellors. Others, like Oregon, are going through a change of leadership. It’s working with an interim president until July 1, when John Karl Scholz takes office. Said one Pac-12 CEO Group member: “Each campus is doing whatever it needs to do to be ready to approve when the time comes.”