Sports make your dreams come true, but sometimes not

Enjoy the journey - Condensed craziness has settled over the metropolis leading into Memorial Day weekend as teams chase championships while dodging unsettled weather patterns. The Cape girls’ lacrosse team has won state titles an improbable eight straight years, and on game day most will wear a smile and enjoy being in the show. That is until the first draw control; then it is on like Donkey Kong. The Vikings were scheduled to face Saint Mark’s at the Delaware Turf Sports Complex Thursday, May 25 (after deadline). Then Saturday, May 27, there’s a rare doubleheader at Cape, with baseball hosting Tower Hill at 1 p.m. and boys’ lacrosse hosting Archmere at 6 p.m. I’m in favor of waiting for a nice day to play because I’m not a turf field, I’m an actual person, and even water dogs don’t play in the rain for two hours.

Connected by Karma - Sitting in my blue chair taking photos at the finish line of the DE-Feet Breast Cancer 5K, a clear sound system was playing rock music from the ’70s and ’80s. The Hall & Oates song “You make my dreams come true” seemed appropriate. The next person to talk to me would get a dose of my story, that Daryl Hall and John Oates are Temple guys from my generation and actually sang with a group, the Temptones, that won a contest at the Uptown Theater in 1965. But luckily for somebody, no one came up to talk to me, and I just kept rocking in my chair, very subtle movements from side to side. A woman with a cane, wearing a survivor’s banner, snuck past me singing along, “You make my dreams come true,” and I wanted her story, but before I knew it she was gone, and everybody’s high on consolation. 

Let’s talk about me - I’m the guy who interviews Walmart cashiers. The script was switched May 24, as I was interviewed by Lynn Parks for a Delaware Beach Life magazine feature. Lynn is top of the line from the west side of Sussex. She understands the art of conversation. Cut to the capture at the end of the 90-minute chase, Lynn leaned in for her closing question: “So who are you?” “Think of separate soap bubbles floating inside one giant bubble and that is me,” I said. “I call it multiple muppet disorder, helps explain my life.”

Delaware Turf Sports Complex - 23 miles from my driveway to prime-time game time. The facility in Frederica is awesome. Someone said to me: “It’s in the center of the state if you start at Fenwick Island.” And another great point: “No beleaguered athletic directors and well-placed keepers of the gates questioning every pass that shows up at the table.” This is new-age sports stuff. I may have to recycle my career. Note: Cape has the best athletic director in Bob Cilento, but that is not the case everywhere.  

Snippets - Memorial Day weekend is about remembrance of those who lost their lives in service to our country. And I think that also includes those soldiers who lost a part of themselves in a foreign war that has changed them forever. Families maintain the memories. Memorial Day weekend is very special for them. And Little League baseball in small-town America. Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Stargell’s second wife is auctioning off his World Series ring and his National League MVP Award. Willie’s first family is living below the poverty line, which can’t be found on Google Maps. “Pops,” as Willie was called, had a painted seat up in right field at Veterans Stadium for the longest ball hit into that section. I’m sure some Saudi sheik will pay big money for the memorabilia and can display it in the stateroom aboard his U.S.-purchased battleship. There’s a college lacrosse jamboree in Foxboro, Mass., this weekend, as national champions will be decided. Salisbury University will play RIT at 5 p.m., Sunday, May 28. Go to laxpower.com for complete bracket updates. All games can be found on cable, dish, AppleTV or live stream - if you can’t figure it out, go push the button on your electric-start mower and cut the grass. Go on now, git!