Mr. Field Hockey is an inside joke working outside the lines

Inside joke - “They call me Mr. Field Hockey.” That was started by the zen master of Cape girls’ lacrosse PJ Kesmodel, whose teams I covered. I’d always ask PJ after games, “Tell me what I just saw because I’m sure I have no idea.” And then in the fall he’d see me tracking the field hockey team. PJ would go to some games and started calling me Mr. Field Hockey. He also went to girls’ basketball games because there was always something to learn watching athletes perform in different sports. And the upside: these athletes know that you value them as a total person, not just some athlete to embellish a lineup. I covered the high school-level Champions Field Hockey Camp last week and I learned a lot about young talent that is just fun to watch, but I also overheard coach speak reinforcing what I already know or in fact don’t know.   

Barstool Sports - I am a sportswriter who is beyond the demographic, a back-porch sitter from the get-off-my-lawn-if-I-had-one generation. Barstool Sports culture is geared to the co-ed wine cooler, hard lemonade, pale ale crowd still in their 20s with some mid-30s wankers mixed in who have yet to evolve into adulthood. Statcast and Powered by Google Cloud launch angles and exit velocities make baseball telecasts unwatchable for this old dog. I’m missing AM radio broadcasts of Phillies games, frosted mugs being served in corner tap rooms in row house neighborhoods. Sitting on the stoop was an open-air chat room, a place to sit and complain about the Phillies but you had to own your words. A childhood friend of mine had a dad named Shoes. Mom would tell knock-kneed Billy, “Go down to the bar and get your father. Tell him it's time for dinner.” Billy would push through the doors like a tumbleweed toddler and walk behind the barstools until he found dad’s shoes. He’d tug on his pant leg then bring daddy home like a lost dog. The first sentence in Billy’s baby book: “One more and I’m outta here.” The Phillies were on the radio with Gene Kelly doing play by play. 

Diversify the talent pool - You don’t have to be Gregor Mendel or own a doodle to know genetic diversity is good for the genetic talent pool. I remember a baseball game at Cape when a Brandywine runner was called out at third base. A fan stood up and shouted, “Be careful, they are all related!” I remember a football game, Salesianum at Sussex Central. Sallies were losing at halftime, and as they walked to the locker room, a dad stood up and yelled, “Don’t drink the water!” Funny stuff, but back in the ’70s, there was a feeling that downstate schools should always give preference to their own graduates when hiring teachers and coaches. I totally get that as a hiree who is from someplace else. I looked over the list of Cape head coaches who are at least one generation away from someplace else. Let’s use 25 as the number of heads of programs including band and cheerleaders and unified teams. A number north of 20 for those one generation away from someplace else. Sesame Street by the Sea is like a witness relocation program. You need a program to designate seaside muppets. My question is, “Is anyone back home wondering where they went?”       

Snippets - I’m looking forward to following the Olympics, which are annoyingly five to six hours ahead. So what you are watching in prime time actually already happened. I prefer track and field over everything else and still miss the old days when the athletes were amateurs. Team WNBA beat the U.S. National Team Saturday night 117-109 and I have no idea what any of it means. I have tried to follow the WNBA the first half of their season, but honestly it is not must-see TV on any of my seven televisions. And who is Arike Ogunbowale, who had 34 points for the WNBA team, all coming in the second half? She is a Notre Dame graduate, and her parents are Nigerian. Her brother Dar is a running back for the Houston Texans. I guess like Caitlyn Clark and Angel Reese she did not make the Olympic team? Anyone see the inaugural Grandparents Race hosted by Emerald Downs in Washington state? Go to YouTube – it seems like a better idea than voting machines to decide a winner. Go on now, git!