After last week it was a piece of cake to follow the single remaining game this Saturday afternoon. The #4 Central Catholic Rams of Portland were meeting the #3 and defending champion Lake Oswego Lakers in the 6A championship game at Hillsboro Stadiium. The Rams would be playing for their fifth state championship and the Lakers were playing for their third. Both teams came in with 11-2 records.
Hillsboro is Central Catholic’s home field so this would be the tenth game this season they have played there. They have a nice practice field on campus but the facilities aren’t suitable for hosting games. Their landlocked campus doesn’t allow for any expansion so they have had to rent the field in Hillsboro to host their home games for the last nine years. This week’s crazy fact: They have quite literally not played a single away game this season that was as far away as their home games. Lake Oswego did open the season at West Salem, but other than that this would be their longest trip of the season.
There was rain before the game and there were sporadic showers throughout the second half but the temperature was in the high 40s and altogether the weather wasn’t bad for this time of year. The offenses dominated the first half. Lake Oswego rode their rushing game to 14 first half points while Central Catholic passed for 237 yards and 28 points. The Lakers tied it at 28 in the third quarter before Central Catholic ran off 21 straight to win 49-28. The Rams won back-to-back championships in 1952 and 1953. They won consecutive titles again in 2013 and 2014. So it seems they only win them in pairs, which is why I’ve just bet my house on them winning again next year. Don’t tell Mrs. Ednold. I want her to be surprised by my financial contibution to our household a year from now.
And with that, finally, the 2019 season is done and dusted. I hope you enjoyed it as much as Mrs. Ednold and I did. I think a football game is as good an excuse as any to visit places we would never otherwise go, maybe never even heard of. Some of these places I'd been within a few miles of many times but never had a reason to actually go there and check them out. What other way would we have ever ended up in Crow, hanging out with Crowites for an evening? Of the 12 games we attended we cheered the home team on to victory 5 times, which is better than I had expected. Mrs. Ednold and I have a long history of cursing whichever team we root for and I was just aiming to break the Mendoza Line when the season started.
The next paragraph is dedicated to my sister, who thinks it’s lazy of me not to provide links to every reference I make. She’s a freaking librarian. And she can’t look things up? Whatever. But it’s the holiday season and Ednold is all about making everyone’s life easier. Just don’t get used to it. All of which reminds me - Tasteful Nudies have recently released their first music video. Thankfully, I don’t believe my vocals made the final cut, or the first cut for that matter, but I hope everyone checks out the video and helps send it to #1 on the YouTube top 40. Ever see a monkey play a guitar? You will!
My dad, my wife, and others have been at me for a long time to write something, but I didn’t know what to write. They say you should write about what you know, but I don’t really know enough about anything to write about it. So I decided to write what I would like to read. If I could be any one person I wouldn’t. I would be a combination of Earl Campbell, Graham Kerr, Sal Paradise, James Bond and Glenn Tilbrook. Unfortunately, the little James Bond part of me was strangled in his infancy by the big Clark Griswold part, and my body turned out to be infertile soil for any of the qualities of those others. But that whole idea did lead to a premise that helped me decide what to write about: What if Frank DeFord, Jack Kerouac, John Hughes, Anthony Bourdain and Stephen Ambrose all had a child together? I mean besides them and all of their wives being very surprised and the need for a complete revision of every biology textbook in existence. Well, ok, I suppose none of Jack’s wives probably could have been much surprised by anything he was involved in, but… Anyway, what if you could do a mashup of all those guys who each appreciated and commented on the beauty and absurdity of humanity in their own way? What would an article written by that offspring look like? I’m not trying to compare myself to any of those men, (and this isn’t the place to discuss why they’re all white males) but if you could distill a great sportswriter, a great historian, a great vagabond, a great foodie, and a great humorist into one person that’s what I would want to read. Go big or go home, right? Write!
Since the season is over I need to thank some people for getting me through it. Most of my thanks have to go to Mrs. Ednold for riding along and enduring hours of uncomfortable bleachers in sometimes dismal autumn weather to watch the games with me and share her opinions. She’s also responsible for introducing me to the locals. Upon arrival at a game I scope out the field and snap some pictures while she picks out our seats and by the time I take my place in the bleachers she is on a first-name basis with everyone around us. They’re like moths to a flame with her, and I think everyone who knows her understands that feeling. Thanks also to my other family members who were willing to accompany me a few times. And I’m grateful for those of you who prodded me to finally get this thing started. You know who you are. Thanks. And thanks to everybody else who took any time to read any of it.
It has been fun hearing from people I don’t see often or haven’t heard from in a long time or have never met. I don’t know how to respond to all of the nice comments but I have read them all and I appreciate them even if you don’t get a response. They used to say we were living in the Information Age, where those who had the information had the power. But now that everyone has Google in their pocket we’ve surely moved beyond that into the Age of Relationships, where those who are on good terms with the best people will have the advantage. This is part of my attempt to stay close to the people in my life who are the most important to me and connect with some new people, and if you’re reading this it means that you’re one of those people. At this rate it will take me at least another twenty years to finish this project, assuming I last that long. I hope it works and I hope all of you tune in every season until I’m finished.
Some of you have encouraged me to spend a few bucks and buy a real domain name so that the site can show up on search engines and people can actually find it without a special invitation. You are all totally welcome to share it with anyone you think would appreciate it and I certainly haven’t ruled out making it more accessible in the future but at this time I kind of like having an audience of family and friends and friends of friends (and friends of family and family of friends and friends of family of friends and family of friends of family, etc.) who I can trust not to be too critical. It has also been suggested that I find something else to write about for the next nine months. Honestly, I could use a little break and I’ve got some other things lined up to fill my days and nights for the next several months, but I do have a couple of ideas for a few special features between now and the start of next season so check back in once in a while between now and then and you might see something new. Thanks and have a happy holiday season.