Gundy savors last Bedlam: OK St. win ‘a big deal’
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Dave Wilson, ESPN Staff Writer
STILLWATER, Okla. — As fans poured onto the field following Oklahoma State 27-21 win over Oklahoma in the final Bedlam game, coach Mike Gundy stood at the mouth of the tunnel at the edge of the field and took in the moment.
In his 33rd appearance of the game as either a player, assistant or head coach, the former Cowboys quarterback wanted to do something Saturday he doesn’t often do. He wanted to take in the moment.
“I did better than I’ve done in the past,” Gundy said. “I actually walked off and then walked back over to thank the students and try to enjoy some of it instead of just taking off and running off the field. I wanted to be able to see the Oklahoma State people enjoy it. I want the players to enjoy it, and so I wanted to see a little bit of it.”
After 118 games, the series is dying because of conference realignment, with Oklahoma headed to the SEC next season. Gundy said it would be a “poor business decision” for the schools to continue, given their conference schedules.
The series has been lopsided, with Oklahoma winning 91 games. In front of a sellout crowd after ticket prices soared, Ollie Gordon II ran for 137 yards and two touchdowns, Alan Bowman passed for 334 yards and Rashod Owens had career highs of 10 catches for 136 yards to become Bedlam heroes in OSU’s 20th win over the Sooners. But this one secures bragging rights for the foreseeable future.
“It’s a big deal. I mean, this is the last Bedlam,” Gundy said. “All the Oklahoma State people have put up with a lot of crap for 100 years. They’ve had their butt kicked a bunch. Now they’re going to walk around and say we won the last game.”
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Oklahoma State athletic director Chad Weiberg presented Gundy with a ball for his 100th Big 12 win, joining Bob Stoops (121) and Bill Snyder (104) as the only coaches to reach the mark.
It’s something that seemed very unlikely when the Cowboys were blown out 33-7 by South Alabama on Sept. 16, followed by a 34-27 loss to Iowa State the next week.
“Our coaching was awful, so we didn’t play very well,” Gundy said. “I told the coaches their coaching was awful and my coaching was awful.”
The Cowboys have now won five straight and with UCF, Houston and BYU remaining, are right in the thick of the Big 12 championship race. Gundy said he couldn’t have predicted the turnaround this season.
“Nobody could have predicted the change that we made. Nobody,” he said. “If anybody in this room says that, I’m calling B.S. on it.”
Gundy said he owes a lot to the Cowboys fans, who kept filling the stadium despite the struggles. He said today was “electric,” and he wanted the players to know just what they accomplished with the win.
“I did tell the team … that the one thing they should remember, these are special moments,” Gundy said. “The one thing that they can take with them for the rest of their life is the thrill that they gave the fans. There’s been a lot of years and a lot of history and a lot of tradition with Bedlam, and our crowd is more engaged with our team than any of the years I’ve been here. So what they did is they gave them a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
BOSTON — Red Sox manager Alex Cora will miss Monday’s series opener against the New York Mets at Fenway Park so he can attend his daughter’s college graduation.
Cora’s daughter, Camila, will be graduating from nearby Boston College.
“It’s going to be a very special day — one that I’m not going to miss,” Cora said before Sunday’s game vs. the Atlanta Braves. “I 100% will miss the game for that. I will do that any given day. It’s going to be a very special day for us.”
Cora reflected on how the time has seemed to go quickly and spoke about how fast his daughter seemed to grow up.
“It went fast, it went really fast,” Cora said of her time in college. “For a girl from divorced parents, her mom did an amazing job, staying the course while I was playing and coaching and doing my ESPN thing. … She’s actually a reflection of her. I appreciate everything she’s done for her and for us.”
Asked if he’ll be able to hold back his emotions at the ceremony, Cora smiled and said “We’ll see,” before bringing up memories of when his daughter was at the 2018 World Series victory celebration and a postseason series wrap-up win over Tampa Bay in ’21 at Fenway.
“It’s going to be an amazing day. It happened fast,” he said. “You put everything into perspective, you go back to the videos of ’18, she was a little girl.
“Then you go back to ’21 when she hopped onto the field when we beat Tampa, she was still a little girl. Now, she’s not a little girl,” he said. “She’s a woman. She had fun with it. She’s a great student and the future’s bright for her.”
MILWAUKEE — Brewers pitcher Tobias Myers is going back to the minors as he continues to struggle to match the success he enjoyed as a rookie last year.
The Brewers optioned Myers to Triple-A Nashville on Sunday while selecting right-handed pitcher Easton McGee from Triple-A and transferring left-handed pitcher Connor Thomas to the 60-day injured list.
Myers is 1-1 with a 4.95 ERA in six appearances, including five starts. He allowed four runs over 3 2/3 innings in a 7-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Saturday.
The right-hander had gone 9-6 with a 3.00 ERA last season and was selected the Brewers’ most valuable pitcher by the Milwaukee chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. He closed that season by pitching five scoreless innings in the decisive Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series against the New York Mets, a game the Brewers lost 4-2 by allowing four runs in the ninth.
“I love the kid, man,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said after Saturday’s game. “You saw it in Game 3, that’s in there. So we’ve got to get back to that.”
The Brewers had optioned Myers to Nashville a week ago, but he didn’t actually pitch there before rejoining the big-league club after left-hander José Quintana went on the injured list with a left shoulder issue. Now he’s heading back to Nashville.
Myers entered Saturday having walked 10 batters over 16 1/3 innings. He didn’t walk anyone Saturday, but gave up a career-high 11 hits.
“My goal was to fill the zone up and kind of get away from the walks I’ve been dealing with,” Myers said after the game. “I think I just filled it up a little too much.”
McGee went 1-0 with a 3.44 ERA and 20 strikeouts over 18 1/3 innings in 13 relief appearances with Nashville.
McGee appeared in one game for Tampa Bay in 2022 and one game for Seattle in 2023.In the only two games he has pitched in the big leagues, McGee has allowed just one unearned run over 9 2/3 innings while striking out three and allowing five hits and one walk.
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