Summer open fields and gyms are optional, but best show up

Home opener - There is a closing-time joke, “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.” There is a corresponding open field and gym joke, “You don’t have to come, but you can’t play here [if you don’t].” If you want to get jiggy with a juggernaut and not only see the field but step on it when games are in progress, it’s in the interest of you, the athlete, to put in the work. I have a handle on Cape school-aged athletes who live at the beach and have summer jobs and play multiple sports. It’s a tough life, but somebodies have to take advantage of it. On Tuesday night, I checked out open fields at Champions Stadium for the sport of field hockey. There were about 30 athletes, most of them young, as Cape’s only rising seniors are Lina Frederick and Maci Steinwedel. Players condition before playing up-and-down hockey for another 90 minutes. I left the pitch half-baked like a potato in a convection oven. Speaking of field hockey, the United States women’s team is back in the Olympics – just 14 players, eight of them from southeastern Pennsylvania. 

Reverse snobbery - My friend forever in journalism along with misadventures on the high seas and bushwalking the backwoods, Dennis Forney, once accused me of being a reverse snob, saying, “You are not impressed by people with money, and I get the feeling that some of them you dislike because they make more money than you.” Jayson Tatum of the Celtics just signed a five-year contract for $313,933,410. That is $62 million per season to play basketball. Klay Thompson, 38 years old, signed a three-year, $50 million contract with Dallas. Klay has as much chance of satisfying the contract as Biden does of completing a second term. The Sixers have a billion dollars committed to three players: Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George. I was about to write that the NBA makes no media or merchandising money off me, except I have all the cable channels and at least one 76ers skull cap – I refuse to call it a toboggan.

Stopper Topper - Rob Thomson, the manager of the Phillies, is not a charismatic leader. His postgame press conferences are less exciting than an afternoon nap. But inside that baseball brain, Topper is the Mitch Williams of conservative control. I’d go so far as to sing “Born to be Wild” as Thompson’s walk-up song when presenting the lineup. On Tuesday in Chicago, he started a rookie with one inning of major league experience, Michael Mercado. That was a risky play, but I think that’s what excites Topper. On Friday, Kody Clemens and Johan Rojas were called back from Triple-A, and upon arriving in Philly, they were both in the starting lineup. That’s how I look at Thomson: He has more courage than I do, he is crazier, and those young men on the Phillies love the guy. There is just no angst in the dugout. 

Redshirting - Granddaughter Anna played lacrosse for Temple. She had a super senior season, starting and scoring close to 30 goals. And she had another year because of a medical redshirt. She opted to move on and begin her teaching career. I joked, “Well, that’s pretty selfish of you. Now what am I supposed to do? I’ve been following you since you were 5 years old playing Henlopen soccer.” We laughed at the absurdity of it all. Athletes are now redshirting in middle school, getting that extra year of maturity because once the clock starts to tick in ninth grade, there are only four years to play. Then it's time to move on and chase some of your age contemporaries who are already halfway through their junior year of college. Whatever happened to flunking out and transferring three times while playing intramurals? 

Snippets - Tour de France coverage intersecting with Wimbledon tennis is great to watch if you have the inclination to start a summer's day rooted in front of the flat screen for five hours listening to chatter about sports culture of which you know nothing. When are fireworks going to be replaced by laser shows propelled by Google Cloud? Dive off your boat on a hot day into blue ocean water and you may get skewered or shish-kebabed by a swordfish. Rule one when fishing Baltimore Canyon: “Don’t leave the boat.” Go on now, git!