Series 'ignites' campus
By Brian Witter
In the last week, the Santa Clara women's soccer team rattled off three straight wins in five days, including arch rival Portland, and regained status as the top contender in the West Coast Conference.
With that in mind, you might think that most of the sports-related talk around Santa Clara would be associated with their performance or perhaps the volleyball team's win over a difficult Pepperdine squad. Or even the nail-biting three-point contest at the Bronco Bash last Friday.
However, the biggest sports story this week was arguably the World Series. Walking to class or through Benson, one would be hard-pressed to find less than half a dozen fans sporting Red Sox or Cardinals merchandise.
The games themselves were significant events which people attempted to plan their schedules around, so they could at least catch the last few innings. The intensity level of this year's match-up was almost unequaled to anything we as students have experienced or can probably ever remember.
Of course, this isn't true if you deplore the Sox or the Cards, but when furniture is ignited on Bellomy Street because the Red Sox just came back from three games down to win four games straight and beat the Yankees, it quickly became apparent how serious people were about these games.
Whether it was watching Boston pitchers try to survive against the usual menacing lineup of Pujols, Rolen and Edmonds, or it was seeing Red Sox ace Curt Schilling pitch while his ankle tendon was sewn together and blood was leaking through his sock, the drama that unfolded nearly induced heart attacks with each strikeout or crack of the bat.
It was also great to see that there were more and more Santa Clara students from New England and Missouri (e.g. not Washington, Oregon or northern California), coming out of the woodwork this week to support their beloved teams and get vocal. Most of them would definitely tell you who the bandwagon fans were, but as long as the right team won, all would be forgiven.
Regardless of whom you rooted for though, this Series will be go down as the one which finally rid the Red Sox of the infamous Curse.
With all due to respect to the St. Louis Cardinals and their fans, not winning a Series since World War I is a far cry from not winning since Reagan was in office.
* Ã Ã Contact Brian Witter at (408) 551-1819 or bwitter@scu.edu.