The best magic of all

Magic Jack Noel is a fit little bugger and a great guy who ran his first race last Sunday as a 70-year-old. Jack is a retired telephone company guy beyond the Verizon network spending his career in York, Pa. Jack began running when he looked out the window of a Boston cancer center 30 years ago and watched the Boston Marathon pass by his window. Jack was battling advanced testicular cancer and was given five years to survive.

“I’ve been doing magic since I was 14,” Jack said. “Maybe being here 30 years later is the best magic of all.” Jack said he believes that running is what led to his remission and recovery. “I can’t prove it but I believe it helped my body get better.”

Jack can be reached at 302-945-5919 if you’re looking for a magician for a kid’s party and who isn’t?

GOLDEN KNIGHTS - I saw the Sussex Central royal blue jerseys before Sunday’s Sea Witch 5K and had to gather them for a photo. I didn’t have time to interview Magda Harmon to see how many of her relatives I know, but I’m sure I know lots of them.

CRABBY COACH – From 7-10 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6, at Crabbers’ Cove in Dewey Beach there will be a reception to honor Coach George Glenn who retired last fall after 37 years in education working at Salesianum and Cape Henlopen. All former players, coaches and friends are invited. The cost is $50 a person and includes light fare and other stuff of the drinkable variety. This will be a fun event with lots of players from Coach’s past. Cape football players fortunate enough to play for Coach need to network and get out there. The mic is hot, so if you have something to say Dec. 6 is your chance

BOO THIS - The crowd that booed Santa Claus and threw snowballs at him was pure as the wind driven slush under the wheels of a trolley car. Philly fans back at Franklin Field and Connie Mack Stadium booed not to live up to some national “ain’t we bad” image, they booed because they are easily angered. The Phillies are 3-1 in the World Series and on the verge of closing out the Rays in five games because Tampa has rolled over like a hot calico on a row house windowsill.

Where are the Red Sox and Yankees or even the Angels? Think about the row of foes the Phillies have faced in the playoffs - Milwaukee, Los Angeles and Tampa. I will watch game five old-school style booing my television until the final out.

Last Sunday night in the top of the ninth inning, relief pitcher J.C. Romero threw a ball past Ryan Howard for an error allowing the lead runner on base. “Get him outta there,” I screamed, knowing a 10-2 lead seemingly secure can crumble like a Wall Street investment bank. Hopefully the Phillies win and avoid the trip to Tampa or St. Pete or wherever that dumb, domed, crooked-roof stadium is parked. And I already have the slogan, “We got your World Series right here! Yo, Skippy!”

SNIPPETS - Looks like the Cape football program has gobbled up another coach - the third in nine years - as the Vikings at 2-6 have guaranteed Cape’s ninth consecutive, nonwinning season. Bill Cordrey is retiring this year and so his coveted phys ed job at the high school hangs a vacancy sign which seems a perfect fit for a new football coach. But certified teachers already in the district will roll out of the ball bag like leather Spaldings for that assignment. Here’s my advice: recruit talent, throw away resumes of noncoaches and make all viable applicants weigh in and run the mile, and ask them how to find linemen in the lunch line. And let’s have no gas grill daddies pressuring board members to hire their boiled dog. Anybody seen my cocktail wiener?