College Ball

Duck Blind

The University of Oregon baseball team returns to the diamond with bravado—and uniforms you can see from Kansas.

By Bart Blasengame May 19, 2009 Published in the March 2009 issue of Portland Monthly

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Poor Oregon State. For as long as the Beavers and Ducks have passed, sprinted, and dribbled, OSU has languished as the Frank Stallone to Oregon’s more decorated, pec-flexing Sylvester. Football, basketball, track—the University of Oregon Ducks have, historically, dominated them all. But at least OSU, with the strength of two national championships, could puff out its chest about having Oregon’s best—and only—baseball team.

Until now. This season, for the first time since 1981, the Ducks are putting a squad back on the diamond. And we’re not talking some hodgepodge of rejects. The Ducks pulled in a top-flight inaugural recruiting class, hired a two-time national Coach of the Year, and will enter the season ranked in the top ten.

Beaver fans have reason to be nervous. But at least they’ll enjoy a good chuckle when the Ducks take the field. In keeping with Phil Knight’s tradition of outfitting Oregon teams in eye-popping (some might say retina-burning) mix-and-match uniforms, the Ducks are rolling out a wardrobe that includes not one, not two, but six different combinations of lime-green and electric-yellow regalia—one of which features the lyrics to the university’s fight song stitched into pinstripes. (Seriously.) Here we take a critical eye to the only baseball uniforms visible from space.

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