The end is coming.
And we're back in time. 2006. All over again, deja vu.
How did we get here?
Well, basically everyone else failed and these two teams, especially the Beavers, did not. Certainly no one expected them back.
Texas, my post-season favorite to win it all, didn't even get out of their own regional. With arguably the best coach in college baseball history, how does this happen?
Rice? That was my next guess for the best. And just like last year, they go 2-0 and then tank. What? What? How does this happen?
Maybe it's a sign. It's a sign that last year's Oregon State championship shouldn't have happened. Last year's North Carolina loss ended on one of the most routine plays in baseball... a grounder to the second baseman who had plenty of time to throw to first, and then, he just.... screwed up the throw. And little did we know it at the time, that was the game.
It was maddening and sad at the same time. You want a series to end on a game-winning catch, a big home run shot, a play at the plate, but not a bad throw by a second baseman. That's just sad.
Maybe this time, this weekend is about the baseball gods making things right. Setting things straight. Maybe the Beavers weren't supposed to win that way last year. It was too.... not easy... not right... too.... heartbreaking.
The College World Series has had incredible moments... I think the most dramatic for me watching the CWS was watching a Miami? (I'm getting old) shortstop just miss a single that got by him as he dove and the game was over. I don't remember the year, but he just laid in the dirt. Motionless, as long as the camera would have him, and I felt his heartbreaking pain - the idea that dirt was more his friend than having to stand up and face the reality of loss.
When the Oregon State Beavers and North Carolina Tar Heels meet again, let's pray for more drama, which in way, I'm asking - let's pray for more pain. The baseball gods demand it.