Packer Avenue, a block off Broad Street near the stadium complex, is a neighborhood sports bar big enough to host an arena football game. I was there Wednesday night with my wife for a benefit to support Larry O’Rourke, Eagles beat writer for the Allentown Morning Call, who is my wife’s cousin.
Young Larry - 42 years old - was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Coach Andy Reid of the Eagles was there along with players Hank Basket and Omar Gaither. The entire Eagles media relations staff was also on hand. Andy and his players posed with fans for photos and signed autographs and seemed glad to do so and were in no particular hurry to leave. Andy Reid comes across as a genuinely good guy and talked at length with Larry and I could see the compassion on Andy’s face.
NO FAT DOUGHNUT - In order to understand most fat people, it is necessary to get inside their heads. Imagine standing outside the glass display case at the Super Fresh doughnut bakery at 7 a.m, on your way to your Boardwalk exercise waddle. Focus on a two-handed, white icing, cream-filled and coconut-topped monster doughnut that is still warm. By the time you reach the Boardwalk on a beautiful morning there’s enough powder around your lips to mimic a rabid dog.
But one fat doughnut doesn’t change your appearance. You pretty much look the same and you’re not sure whether all the sugar has you energized or made you hypoglycemic. You just know you have a social responsibility to eat doughnuts, otherwise you are just another sellout and a step away from drinking pure water from a gallon jug.
GREAT DEBATERS - What do you call a football player with ADHD? A lineman, I guess. Before ADHD was created as a catchall category for every person afflicted with the “I’m not listening to you” selective attention disorder, I coached a quarterback with impulsive dyslexic disorder who would change plays at the line of scrimmage then go the opposite way of the play he called.
A new study of college students revealed that those who get up early do way better in class than those who stay up late. I would add that in all likelihood they also drink a lot less if at all.
RUSH TO ROGER - First it was Rush Limbaugh and now Roger Clemens, both busted in print for possessing quantities of blue tooth diamond-shaped Viagra without a prescription. This is just set up for too many “easy for amateurs” jokes, but the reality is that Viagra inside the vitamin sandwich bag of competitive and intense training athletes aids in workouts providing more blood to the muscles while under workload.
The steroid crowd is “all in” the enhancement pipeline of supplements, but amazing Barry Bonds admitted to quitting Viagra because it blurred his vision and stuffed up his nose. Again, this latest news is ripe for comedy routines except it is real and stupid with side effects unknown and some otherwise healthy athlete will go combination cocktail and expire. You just know that is going to happen. No joke!
BASEBALL AWARDS - Hardball as played in the Henlopen Conference and state of Delaware is the hardest of places to make a living across the pantheon of sports. Cape’s baseball teams - varsity and junior varsity - had a tough season but they had good players all over the place and, in fact, the varsity beat Seaford on the road - a team that reached the state finals and had Derrick Gibson as the 77th player chosen in the Major League draft.
Junior varsity players receiving post-season awards include Marcus Elmandorf, Most Improved Player; Matt Cleary, Defensive/Pitcher Player; and Jordan Plivelich, Offensive and Team MVP Player. The team was coached by Dan Boothman, Mike Walker and David Plivelich.
The varsity team’s post-season awards included J.T. Norton, Team MVP; Alan Vickers, Defensive/Pitcher Player; John Goodwin, Offensive Player; and Tom Wenner, Most Improved.
SNIPPETS - Delaware Special Olympics are this Friday and Saturday at the University of Delaware. Opening ceremonies are Friday night.
This is a big weekend for road racing beginning with the Blue/Gold 5K in Lewes on Saturday morning, and then on Sunday it’s the Father’s Day 5K in Rehoboth beginning at Wilmington Avenue at the Boardwalk. Both races start at 7:30 a.m.
A.J. Benson, former defenseman for the Cape lacrosse team, was named to the All-Commonwealth Coast Conference men’s lacrosse team representing the Fighting Scots of Gordon College. Benson was also named team captain for next season.
School is out - everybody wants to twist and shout. Shake it up, baby!
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Sports Editor Emeritus
Email Fredman at fredman@capegazette.com
