Beaver News

Mike Hass signs for the Saints. Here's a great blog post from the Oregonian OSU football beat writers:

No Escalade for Hass ...


Keith Ellison signs with the Bills

Ellison Becomes Second Bills Draft Pick to Sign

The Bills are anxious to see Ellison's talents in pads in the live football setting of training camp. The athletic linebacker plays faster than he times and Bills scout Brad Forsyth who saw a lot of him at Oregon State likes his football smarts.

"He's a very intelligent football player," said Forsyth. "He's been extremely productive. He made a ton of plays for them at Oregon State."

Ellison feels comfortable with what he's been able to retain with respect to the Bills defensive system considering his circumstances this past spring.

And unfortunately Brandon Browner was released by the Broncos.

Broncos Release 5 Players From Roster

Hope he can catch on somewhere. But seriously, why did he leave? Maybe he was already academically ineligible, but if Browner would have stayed the secondary wouldn't have gone through as much pain and we could have had a decent season. That decision to go pro just makes me angry.

News from around Beaver Nation

From the "where are the now" category:

This is a great article from the Oregonian about the what the National Champion OSU Beavers baseball team is doing now. Both former players and current players.

The Oregonian - Beavers now boys of summer

James Newson is playing football...

Stockton Record - Newson activated for season finale

Former Edison High receiver James Newson will be on the active roster for the Stockton Lightning's final game this weekend.

The 6-foot-1, 210-pound former Oregon State standout was on the Lightning's original roster and played in 10 games before he was placed on recallable reassignment June 2.

The Lightning (5-10) ends its inaugural season against Central Valley (11-4) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Stockton Arena.

And we'll kick it old school:

West Linn Tidings - Hoss has no plans to slow down

Hoss was a standout football player at West Linn as a tight end and his play earned him a scholarship to Oregon State University where he was a three-year letterman.

As a standout player for the Beavers, Hoss was eventually drafted into the NFL when New England selected him in the 1972 draft.

It was a difficult first season for Hoss as a professional athlete. Shortly after being drafted, he was traded to Cleveland and then, eventually he was moved to Philadelphia.

“It was a little difficult. The plays are essentially the same but the terminology is different. You had to be ready to play on short notice,” Hoss said.

Always cool to get some Beaver history.

College Football Previews

College football is slowly getting back on the radar. The Trib had a story about were the Beavers and Ducks are predicted to finish by the major magazines out there.

Portland Tribune - OSU and UO are hard to pin down

Here's the summary of predicted finishes. Read more in the article. It's a good read.

The Sporting News - 8th
Street & Smith’s - 5th
CBS Sportsline - 6th
The Gold Sheet - 8th
ATS Consultants - 2nd
Insiders - 7th

Looks like the Beavs are anywhere from 2nd to 8th. That probably pins down the range of possibilities that Beaver Nation believes as well.

I personally believe that the Beavs will be better that last year. How that transates into W/L, I don't know. The schedule is tougher but there's more games to work things out. I'm optimistic that Moore will be better and our secondary will be better. Assuming our recieving core isn't too much worse without Hass and the punting keeps up well with Loomis, the Beavers should be better. They return the entire O-line, RBs, and have great LBs waiting to play. But I'll reserve judgement for when fall camp starts.

Here's a couple of other previews that I found online that we'ren't mentioned in the Tribune article:

FOX Sports - COLLEGE FOOTBALL - 2006 Preview: Oregon State Beavers

realfootball365.com - In the Pac 10, this is the Year of the Quarterback

realfootball365.com - PAC 10 upsets? Leave it to Beavers

Vote for the best upset ever

The OSU beavers upset against UW in 1985 is one of the choices. Vote away!

ESPN.com: SPORTSNATION - SportsNation Trivia

Article from New England on Catch Mitch Canham

Nice little article with Cape Cod league player Mitch Canham. Looks like he's tearing up the Cape Cod league.

CapeNews.net - Comms’ Catcher Canham Is A Keeper

The reaction to the title has been outstanding, the catcher relayed. Life in Corvalis has changed since the national title. “From the day we beat Stanford until, well it’s still going on right now, it’s been a crazy ride. Sitting down to eat for lunch and dinner and having everyone in the restaurant come up and congratulate you, having little kids ask for your autograph, it’s been unreal,” he said.
Of course the final game of the national championship series was decided in thrilling fashion, with the Beavers scoring the winning run in the eighth inning, thanks to a throwing error by North Carolina’s Bryan Steed. Canham said he felt no remorse for the Tar Heel, but also said that no one player or play wins or loses a game.

“In the first game (against Carolina) I had a passed ball that let in the lead run, so I don’t feel any pity. There’s a lot of opportunities in the first game, where we could have scored more runs. I never attribute a game to one play. A passed ball is not the game. A ground ball that is thrown away is not the game. There’s a lot of other stuff that can happen throughout the game that can totally turn things around. I’ll never look back on any one game and think if I had just made one play, it would have been different.”

Baseball Articles

Looks like the new scoreboard is going up!

.: Corvallis Gazette-Times :. Sports

Life has yet to slow down for the Oregon State baseball program in the three weeks since the Beavers captured the 2006 NCAA championship by defeating North Carolina at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha.

To wit:

• The new state-of-the-art scoreboard is being erected in right-center field.

• The new synthetic infield surface will be installed in October, immediately after fall practice.

• The Gill Coliseum coaches offices are getting a facelift.

The interesting thing for the future will be if the Beavers can significantly upgrade or at least maintain the talent level over the next couple of years. Should be a fun few years ahead of us!


Here's another article from last week that is good about how the baseball story is bring people to the OSU program that wouldn't normally be contributing:

Knight and Casey show true character

This whole saga taught us something about two people. One of them, of course, is Casey. We’ll get to him in a minute.

But the second is Phil Knight. A source inside the OSU athletic department has confirmed the rumor that’s been raging since last week – Knight, Super Duck, as he’s called around Eugene – played a big role in keeping Casey in Corvallis.

Casey’s base pay at OSU has nearly doubled, and Knight, it is now known, is going to pay a sizable chunk of that raise, every single year Casey is coaching at Oregon State. And Knight stepped up to do it without being asked. He volunteered.

And while that may irk a few stray Ducks (even a few misguided Beavers, who can’t come to grips with it), I find it incredibly refreshing. Knight loves this state, and he loves winners. He recognized how important Casey is and what a remarkable job he’s done.

I'm OK with that as a Beaver fan. Let's make him a Super Beaver!

Assorted stories about beaver baseball players in the pros

Here's a few more baseball stories to keep the feel good season going.

The Clackamas Review - Honoring a local hero

East Valley Tribune - D-Backs notebook: Surgery likely for third-round pick Buck

Statesman Journal - Out of college, into the pros

The Oregonian - Philosopher at the plate

Pat Casey stays and they baseball story just keeps getting better

Man, every time I go somewhere something crazy happens. I'm in Boston for a conference, and Pat Casey nearly gets lured away to Notre Dame (Anywhere but Notre Dame!).

Then when I come back to read the transcripts from the press conference...all I can say is, I love you Pat Casey!

Casey, De Carolis Talk About Contract Agreement - Official Site of Oregon State Athletics

Bobby D:

[...]
Personal phone calls from Governor (Ted) Kulongoski, OSU President Edward Ray and (former OSU football) coach Dennis Erickson trying to coax Pat to stay.
[...]

That struck me as interesting. That DE is still tied to OSU enough that he would make a call like that. So cool.


Pat Casey:

"One thing that happened to me that’s almost unbelievable is that Susan and I were standing in line to get on the plane in Chicago, and there was this kid standing there – flip-flops, T-shirt, pair of shorts and two bags, and the bags hang down to his ankle. His back was to me, and he was probably from me to (the back of the room), and I thought, ‘Man, where is the kid’s parents? The kid can’t carry those bags.’ He turned around, and it was (2004-06 OSU pitcher) Kevin Gunderson. And Gundy looks at me, and I look at him, and he goes, ‘Coach, where are you going?’ Chicago. He goes, ‘Susan’s with you; I know you don’t vacation there, what are you going to Chicago for?’ I said, can you keep a secret? I’m going to interview at Notre Dame. I said, where are you going? ‘Chicago.’ We road together on the plane, and it was just like it was when we flew to all our away games – he had the headphones on, the head back, turned around and had the big old grin looking at me. When I wasn’t sleeping the last couple nights, that picture kept coming into my head – him jumping into (OSU catcher Mitch) Canham’s arms – and all of a sudden, none of the other things mattered to me. What mattered to me, when it comes right down to it, was our players, our coaching staff – Spence (OSU associate head coach Dan Spencer) has been with me forever; without him, we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing. Marty (Lees) is down in Los Angeles recruiting, coach (David) Wong is over at the field taking care of a tournament. But it’s the players, the staff and the people at Oregon State."

"The people of the Northwest and the support we got just blew me away. It made my decision – which was a difficult decision – an easy decision, which was to surround myself with the people I care about and my family.The most popular guy in my family is (eldest son) Jon, and the night I got back I went to bed at 2:04, and at 2:24 my door opened and this 6-foot-5 guy is standing there looking at me, and I said, ‘What, Jon?’ and he said, ‘Dad, I don’t want to go, I don’t want to go.’ You know, all those things come into play, but ultimately it just comes down to people. We have the best people you could find right here in the Northwest, and we are going to continue to really try to bring the players back here who got you excited this year. There’s another Kevin Gunderson out there, there’s another Tyler Graham, and the way they come here and the way they stay here is by who they meet when they come here and what they see when they get here.""

That nearly brought a tear to my eye. Pat is so good for OSU. I really hope this turns into something special here at OSU. A flagship program. A university defining program. And I don't think I could pick a better person to lead the charge than Pat Casey.

Another great quote:

"We haven’t even really had a chance as a club to sit down and think about the national championship. (2004-06 OSU pitcher) Jonah Nickerson was in my office yesterday, and Spence can relate to this, and it almost made me cry – he said, ‘Coach, if you go, I understand, and if you stay, we’ll be better.’ But he said, ‘You know, when I was in high school, I would have signed for $5,000 if I’d gotten drafted. But right now, knowing what I know and going through that experience, I wouldn’t have signed for $500,000 out of high school. And those things, for me ... there’s nothing I can compare to the way those guys feel. Obviously, part of that is because we had such a successful year, but those guys become a part of you."

I hope all the recruits getting draft out of HS over the next few years read that quote.


Thank you Pat for staying and making OSU beaver fans feel special. Now it's time for Beaver fans to step up and show the support that the program needs to grow and continue to stay on top. I know we that we can and will do it.


Some other related articles:

The Oregonian - Oregon State's Casey will stay as baseball coach

Corvallis Gazette-Times - An easy decision

Portland Tribune - Casey takes new deal at OSU

Great post on Pure Orange:

classic email message from friend on the great news!!!

Statesmen Journal Blog - Beaver baseball fans breathe sigh of relief

A must watch photo/audio slide show

The Albany Democrat-Herald put together an awesome photo slide show with audio from fans and the celebration at Parker stadium. A must watch:

Photo Galleries

Photos and more of the Beavers Baseball National Championship

I haven't found much on the video front. I did just finish watching all of the games I tivod from the Championship against UNC. Awesome. Except the 3rd game went too long and I didn't get to see the celebration.

Here's a good photo gallery for those who also may have missed the games live:

NCAABB - Photos - Yahoo! Sports


Thanks to BendBeaver on PureOrange for this great find. The final call by Mike Parker...

AUDIO: Voice of the Beavers, Mike Parker (MP3)


And relive the fan euphoria on the message boards:

BSC II Forums - Baseball