CELEBRATING ANY AND EVERYTHING by Tannen

I was reading where the Boston Red Sox were distritbuting AL WILD CARD CHAMPIONS gear. Really? A franchise who has won 2 World Series the past 5 years is making a federal case over qualifying for the playoffs as a SECOND place team. Of course this is the same organization who obnoxiously refers to itself as Red Sox "Nation". They're like the drunk idiot at the bar who has to high five everyone over each first down and humorous comment. It just wreaks of desperation. That said, it looks like we have our 8 teams for baseball's post season, it's just a matter of matchups. With the Dodgers in a free fall, Colorado has not only locked up the NL Wild Card, but are within a couple of LA for the Western Division. That's key because it would likely mean a 1st round series with the Cardinals instead of Philly. The Rockies took 6 of 7 from St. Louis and match up really well with them because of their killer lefty lineup that handles the Cards rotation which is exclusively righty. Oh by the way, Rockies and Dodgers for 3 in So Cal this weekend.
Onto the Ducks. 6:15 kickoff from Autzen will be televised live on Comcast Channel 37. Washington State is not a very good football team and that's being kind. They have a win. Versus SMU. The Mustangs needed a 17 point 4th quarter to beat Stephen A Austin. Lot of talk how the Cougs played USC tough. Yeah right! Ignore the 27-6 final because it was a shutout until there were :22 seconds left in the game with the Trojan's 3rd string defense in there. Until the meaningless nonsense in the 4th quarter, the Cougars managed one drive longer than 17 yards. Truth be told, USC doesn't have the typical firepower we've seen during this 7 year reign of terror. Oregon is much more likely to pile up the points. I do not see this as the landmine game some have mentioned. Forget 2003 when Oregon beat Michigan then got buried at home the next week by Wazzou. That WSU team would win 10 games including the Holiday Bowl against Texas. This team won't win 3 games.
Okay, time to give away some loot. I have a $50 gift certificate to the very cool Red Agava Latino restaurant downtown, plus an Oregon T-Shirt if you answer the following correctly and get your name drawn.
On that miserable afternoon at Autzen when Washington State mauled the Ducks 55-16, who was the Wazzou quarterback? E-mail your response to
stevetannen@live.com