Sports stories fun to tell but harder to write and verify

Telling stories - A lyric from the Tracy Chapman song, “Telling Stories,” released in 2000: “There is fiction in the space between/The lines on your page of memories. Write it down but it doesn't mean/You're not just telling stories.” One year while teaching Problems of Democracy to seniors, otherwise known as the World According to Fredman, I had a fastidious note-taking girl give a title to every story I told. She kept a record in one of those black-and-white composition notebooks. There were 547 separate stories over 180 class periods. Jay Maull was a Cape quarterback and track athlete who graduated in 1979, then became a football and track coach. He and I were sharing stories on the track last week. Jay is coaching the jumpers. He led Cape football to the state finals in 1978. He was at the championship game this fall in 2023. We both have stories to tell. Everyone in the sports world has a bank of stories, and some of those are even true. We thought there should be a series of Fred Talks called “Telling Stories,” where all muppets from Sesame Street by the Sea are invited to talk for four minutes max, recounting a favorite memory or sports yarn. Twenty-plus years ago, I told a story in class and decided to move on. Top-tier student Shawn Sukamar, 2001, was in rapt attention, then said, “That’s it? What’s the moral of the story?” I responded, “Who am I, Mr. Rogers?” Twenty years later, now a successful attorney, Shawn sent me a message: “I finally got the moral of the story, thank you.”  

A dozen pop pops - I took photos at the 2023 field hockey state championship ring ceremony held Tuesday night in the Cape rotunda. There were 22 girls, including two sets of sisters. I knew a baker's dozen of their pop pops. While none of them were there, I saw them in the eyes of their granddaughters. Families are fascinating. By the way, add 10 mom moms. When it comes to kinship matrixes, I will chase that ball all day long. 

March Madness - I’m ready for Major League Baseball to open the season Thursday, March 28, with all 30 teams in action. I watched two days of NCAA basketball play-in games and the first four games, and I’m already saturated. I play in an online pool delivered to my desktop by DJ Hughes. I spend 10 minutes filling out my bracket, which conflicts me at times on game day as I root for the team I didn’t pick. My Final Four are UConn, Arizona, Purdue and Kentucky.  A Purdue versus Kentucky semifinal gotta be the fried chicken game. 

Softball - Cape softball has the talent and coaching to improve on last season’s 12-7 overall record in which the Vikings won a tournament game before being knocked out in the second round by Indian River. Cape softball used to own the spring, but then girls’ lacrosse and soccer were added and competed for the talent in the building. All sports are not created equal. A sport like softball is a hard place to make a living. There are just so many good teams. Cape has never won a state title in softball; it's hard to get out of your own conference. Games are quick and crisp. It promises to be a good season, so get out and support the players. Games are always more fun when there are fans in the stands.   

Snippets - A rising tide lifts all boats. I always vote yes for school referendums, figuring all property values are lifted with improvements to district buildings and programs. My personal contribution of chump money lifts my house value like a Whaler at a floating dock. High school spring sports are now in their first week of action, and I look for crooked numbers. Here are a few. Baseball: Indian River over Dickinson 32-0. Boys’ lacrosse: Caesar Rodney over Dover 19-1. Girls’ lacrosse: DMA over Sussex Tech 14-0. Girls’ soccer: Dover over Aspira 11-0. Softball: Lake Forest over Dover 23-0. Volleyball is a sport where plenty of teams win matches 3-0; you have to look at scores of all games to see if the match was closely contested. Aspira is a K-12 charter school in Newark with more than 1,000 students. Broadneck at Cape in girls’ varsity lacrosse Saturday, March 23, begins at 10:30 a.m. It’s the best game of the weekend. Rain is in the forecast. Go on now, git!