The Oregon Ducks need to party like it's 1969

Oregon sports are in a slump. Though the men's and women's track team both completed a triple crown this spring, Big Ten titles in cross country, indoor door track and outdoor track and field, the so-called major sports seem cursed by comparison.

Football played great all season, won two playoff games but ran into an Indiana buzz saw in the semifinals. Basketball had a lost season with its top four players injured, undergoing a massive rebuild. Softball won 40 games and earned a home regional, but in the tournament their ace pitcher suffered a life-threatening eye infection and they were eliminated with a pair of losses.

Mississippi State, the team that won that regional, made it all the way to Omaha. They swept through No. 1 Oklahoma at the Super Regional, another team of destiny.

This weekend the baseball team bashed their way to wins over Wisconsin, Washington and Nebraska at the Big Ten Tournament, only to fall 3-2 to No.1 UCLA in 11 innings on Sunday.

The Ducks led 2-1 in the 9th inning but walked the leadoff hitter. With two outs, the Bruins singled in a run to tie the game and send it into extra innings.

In the 10th the Bruins threatened, but Drew Smith snatched a liner and fired across the diamond for a double play. The Ducks went down in order in the 11th, two striking out swinging.

Then in the bottom of the 11th, a close play at third loaded the bases. Devin Bell fought back by striking out two.

On the first pitch to ninth-place hitter and second baseman Phoenix Call, Bell fired high and inside. Call gestured, saying the pitch nicked his helmet. The umpires reviewed. Hit by pitch, walking in the winning run.

More heartbreak. Right now, the Ducks need a change of momentum. It's early in the fourth quarter around the athletic program, and somebody has to step up and change the pattern.

In the city of New York, 1969 was a sports fan's dream.

In January Joe Willie Namath and the Jets won the Super Bowl as 18-point underdogs. In October the Amazin' Mets, an expansion franchise that had never had a winning season, losing 100 games or more five times, overcame 100-1 odds to win the World Series. That winter and in the spring of 1970, the New Knicks won their first NBA title.

Sports are partly a group psychosis. Belief has power. Teams rise to impossible expectations. They write stories no one thinks possible. It's one of the best parts of the games.

Right now Duck fans are harboring a lingering sense of existential dread. A team gets to the playoffs and somehow they expect something, a bad break, a heroic performance by an opponent, an off day, a weird controversial call, to step in and smear rotten nacho cheese all over the picture.

The Ducks need a break. They need someone, a pitcher, a slugging freshman outfielder, Dante Moore, to step up to the bank of microphones with his finger in the air and say, "We're going to win. I guarantee it."

They need the breath of confidence. They need someone to articulate the Impossible Dream. Maybe at Autzen Stadium or PK Park everyone should close their eyes for a moment and pretend it's 1969 in the Big Apple.

Or just have Dante Moore pitch like Tom Seaver, or be as smooth, cool and confident as Walt Frazier.

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