The last baseball coach at the University of Oregon died yesterday. Story here. Mel Krause was an institution at U of O. He got leukemia a year or so ago, and was given only a short time to live.

I met him at that Costner event a couple weeks ago. He looked very good - like he might be able to hang on for some time. There was hope he'd make it to the first UO baseball game next spring.

The guy was a coach til the end. Within two minutes of meeting my son, Coach Krause was deep in demonstrating his catcher on-base stance views.

He touched many lives, and I am just grateful I got to meet him before he died.