“There are 159 sunny days a year, on average, in the town of Corvallis, Oregon. That, of course, is a minority.

The average high/low temperatures in March are 58 and 40 (14.4 and 4.4, Celsius). In April it zooms up to 64 and 42 (18 and 5.5). Corvallis gets 51 inches of rain per year, mostly during the time Oregon State University is in session.

Baseball would not seem to be a naturally-occurring commodity at Oregon State, in other words. Until 2005, the Beavers had been to one College World Series, in 1952, and the players were stunned at how hot it was in Omaha, although they were spared further discomfort by losing twice and going home.

So what Oregon State has done since then is one of the great improbabilities in American collegiate sport.

Now the Beavers’ dam (cq) good run has been endangered not by its richer, sunnier Pac-12 rivals, but by the utter incompetence and greed of those who have just now been barred from treating players in all sports like unpaid servants.”