I know the fact that we won't be playing post-season baseball is tough for most, including me, to handle. I think it's a chance to take some time to reflect and relax like I said in my last post. Especially for Coach Casey and the rest of the OSU Staff. I feel for this year's seniors who won't get a chance to end their college careers in Omaha, especially Daniel Robertson, who came so close to getting a taste of post-season baseball.
Everybody hates loosing, and everybody hates not qualifying for the playoffs. Including Pat Casey. If you ask him today, I'm sure he'd be devastated that this year's team didn't qualify, especially since he felt we were good enough to get in.
But with that all in mind, maybe the Selection Committee did us a favor. There were and are some flaws in their process, we can probably all agree on that, but we gave the Selection Committee the opportunity to pass over us. The Beavers could have solidified their entrance into the tournament with a few more wins against teams like Washington State, USC, and Utah Valley State, but that didn't work out. Even if the Committee did pass over the Beavers for Oklahoma, and even if we did have a better resume, we still gave those guys the opportunity to do so.
There's been a lot of talk lately about Pat Casey and what his future will look like at Oregon State. After going to Omaha in June for three years in a row, maybe this year's end result will give him some necessary time off. He's talked about being as physically and mentally tired as ever this year, and maybe that's because he's been going non-stop since before the season started in 2005. There's a lot of added stress that comes with a trip to Omaha, we can be sure of that. And not only that, but the publicity and appearances that comes with winning a National Championship. And Pat did it twice in a row. And remember folks, he's been in Corvallis since 1995.
Even if we didn't have the resume to make the playoffs this year, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth thinking about what we could have done. After being the last team selected last year and winning it all, I can only imagine what this year's team could have done. I would have felt much better about this run knowing that we got selected to a regional and went down fighting somewhere. I don't like the idea of our season ending at the hands of ten people sitting in a hotel conference room somewhere.
With that said, best of luck to our fellow Pac-10 teams who will be playing this week: Arizona State, Arizona, Cal, UCLA, and Stanford.
This week we'll start taking a look back at this season, and what the Beavers have done in the last few years. It's been a remarkable run, no doubt, and it's one that nobody wanted to see end.
Until then, let's take a few minutes for this to set in. And enjoy the rest of your Memorial Day Weekend.
Lastly, a few images from the 2006 and 2007 runs:
--JB--