Oy Vey 5K a Sunday morning friendly race

Oy Vey 5K - Leaving from the Seaside Jewish Community Center along Holland Glade Road April 23, the ninth annual Oy Vey 5K featured 160 runners, a half-dozen dogs, a few mensches and a smattering of bubbalas. “Oy vey” is a Yiddish phrase expressing dismay or exasperation. The record number of runners for a typically small race field may be a harbinger for the large number of runners anticipated for the summer and fall running seasons. In fact, there is no longer a tourist season, no shoulder months, as running is all year round. Top eliminators from races past Enos Benbow, 41, (21:43) and Leslie Wright, 60, (25:26) endured some friendly kibitzing afterward about all the races they won back in their day. “It’s tough to stay fast if you don’t put in the work,” Enos said. “Everybody slows down.” Angus Repper, 50, of Lincoln University, Pa., who placed fourth overall in 19:42, a 6:20 mile pace, said afterward, “No matter how hard you work as a runner, you basically slow down as you age.”

Name drop - The best name drop in my personal life came from the late Buck Thompson, who once said to me, “I was playing golf with Buddy Ebsen [Jed Clampit] last weekend.” That's right, we're talking Beverly Hillbillies. I told that story while emceeing the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame banquet in 1999 and had organist Paul Richardson play the Beverly Hillbillies theme song. Buck was in the room and he laughed so hard – it was a magnificent moment. On Sunday, I took a picture of a golden retriever in the parking lot prior to the Oy Vey 5K and said to the owner, “I believe I took that dog's photo last year. You just can’t improve on the golden retriever.” And then came the best and only dog name drop of all time: “Her uncle Daniel won Best in the Sporting Class in 2020 at the Westminster Dog Show but lost out to a black standard poodle named Siba for Best in Show and took second,” the owner said. Siba was the fifth standard poodle to win Best in Show since 1991, according to the New York Times. A golden retriever has never won Best in Show. Postscript: In Sussex County, you are a connected cousin if your dogs are related. Poodle-schmoodle.

NBA playoffs - I have always said the Stanley Cup is the hardest-earned trophy in sports. But this year's NBA playoffs have been a war, and whichever team eventually survives will have certainly earned it. Sprained and broken hands, torn and sprained tendons, bruised glutes, lower back contusions ... it sounds like an over-the-hill pickup league, except when the high fliers crash, there is no way to stick the landing. 

Snippets - Cape baseball has improved to 8-1 on the season, beating three tough teams in a row by close scores including Salesianum 4-2, Sussex Central 6-5 and Appoquinimink 7-4. Cape has a stable of top-shelf pitchers, which bodes well for the state tournament. A hands-across-the-generations story: On April 15, softball pitcher Abby Marsh got the win over Conwell-Egan Catholic High School out of Pennsylvania, the same school that Susan (Miz Fred) and I graduated from before the dual highway reached Five Points. And we both taught Abby’s mother Cindy Fisher, who also played field hockey for coach Ruth Skoglund, and let's just stop there with the six-degrees-of-separation game so unimportant to local muppets. Mikey Frederick, a Cape kid now playing lacrosse for the Mercer University Bears, received a plaque as the 2023 Rookie of the Year April 22, the same day his first cousin Ella Rishko scored seven goals in Virginia Tech’s 18-6 win over Pitt in the first round of the ACC playoffs. The Hokies will play Syracuse at Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., at 4 p.m., Wednesday, April 26. Superia Clark from Dover High and Chloe Bethea-Jones of Ursuline are freshmen defenders for Syracuse and played in the Eastern Shore Lacrosse League as teammates of Rishko. Syracuse beat Virginia Tech 16-5 during the regular season. A wobbling runner collapses close to the finish on a hot day at the end of a long race. Nowhere is it written that they should be hoisted to their feet and dragged across the finish line. Not to rock Capt. Safety, but “Dag, yo!” Go on now, git!