Photoessay #294 - It's cold and it's wet

That's the main story here the last two days as the University of Oregon plays 6 games in 3 days as part of the Cascade Clash. Two games each against Northern Illinois, Mississippi Valley State and Utah State. I've attended the first two, Ducks has won all 4 games.

Temperatures in the mid 40s. As one fan commented as she looked at her hand-held internet device looking at a weather site. "They say it's 48 degrees and it might be 48 degrees somewhere but not here!" Used all of my cold weather stuff including my very thick softball socks.

This time of year, rainstorms swirm around the Willamette Valley. It rains and it stops. It rains in Eugene and not in Corvallis and vice versa. The coaches were determined to get these games in. So when it would start to rain, the plays would pull the tarp over the field, wait for it to stop, untarp the field, play until it pours, then do it again. Both days, the games started at 1pm but did not end until 7pm because of multiple rain delays, some lasting more than an hour. No covered area at Howe Field. Huge high school basketball tournament going on next door at Mac Court so no parking and wet softball spectators could not take refuge there. So this made for a lot of wet very cold softball fans waiting it out. By the end, the players are wet and cold and the dedicated spectators (those that stuck around) even more so.

So those of us who waited out, we are chilled and stiff and we wonder if we will ever dry out and get warm.

Picture shows the Oregon team dragging the tarp over the field during one of the many rain delays.

Go Ducks!