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People In Sports

Beau knows comedy – 9-year-old just makes people smile

December 6, 2013

Beau knows comedy - Beau Smith, born on Christmas Eve almost 10 years ago, is a community player, and yes, it takes a village to raise a child, but if you don’t know Beau you have not truly discovered the child in yourself. Beau is the son of Terry and Maureen Smith. His three older sisters, Madi, Molly and Maggie, are all at Cape and all poised and pretty like their mom. Terry is a 1988 Cape graduate and told me during Special Olympics bowling Tuesday night at Millsboro Lanes, where my grandson Davey displays his stealth sidewinder nuclear missile delivery, that the day Beau was born, he was baptized and given last rites. Beau still battles a global array of physical limitations but he is all the way there under that flaming red hair, and he enjoys performing and making people laugh. I said to him, “Beau, my name is Fredman. I am Davey and Mikey’s grandfather. Fredman. Will you remember that - Fredman?” He came right up to me, grabbed both my forearms, looked into my eyes and said, ”No!”

Keep on rolling - My buddy Iron Mike DeStasio continues to practice bowling on Tuesday nights at Millsboro Lanes, now two years past winning the 2011 AWBA National Championship and five years past a diagnosis of ALS. Mike also continues to golf at Baywood Greens. I don’t know how he manages but nothing he does would surprise me in the least. ALS is a hideous and cruel degenerative motor neuron disease, and we all know someone or some family that has been stricken. Mike drives himself to practice - we talkin' practice -and manages the whole power lift van accessible maneuvering by himself. Don’t even steal one of those parking spaces, not only because it's lame, but you may find someone like Mike waiting by your car to give you a piece of his mind and maybe knock your pins from under you. The Iron Mike ALS fund is active at all County Bank branches for your tax-deductible contribution, so be a player, and if you're half as tough as Mike you should go looking for Iron Mike Tyson.

Tyson Chicken - Mike Tyson remains a scary dude in my eyes, and that is his appeal, along with his lisp and tattooed head and brief foray into ear cannibalism. I just read his book and watched the Spike Lee documentary of Iron Mike’s one-man show on HBO. Mike was always the master of the malapropism (using a wrong word for a right word that it sounds like) because he reads stuff, learns new words then tries to use them in spoken sentences, which is what self-education is all about. I think the guy is street smart and has a comic sense seen in "Hangover" movies (we all know how hilarious post-drunk reminiscences can be). His appeal is his dangerousness; if he told a funny story and you started laughing but he didn’t, your instinct would be to run or hail a taxi.

Frenzied Friday - High school basketball begins Friday, Dec.  6, with a “what time is it” boys' game at Sussex Tech. The game starts at 7:30 p.m., and the place will be rocking and rolling for the junior varsity contest and is sure to sell out. Cape is missing Andrew Grau, sidelined for the season rehabbing from ACL knee surgery. This will be a show up and step up game. Cape has won four in a row in the series.

Snippets - Early warning signs that you’re an over-the-top sports parent: You watch closed practices from a parking lot using binoculars. You speak for your athlete with him or her standing right next to you. You send your kids to some distant college because they are getting $500 in athletic money.

Runners will be on the road Saturday morning from Rehoboth to Lewes, thousands of them. It’s a marathon, so don’t be critical. I found runners to be mostly admirable and heroic type athletes motivated for all kinds of reasons. Many have used running to overcome serious hardships in their lives, better than drinking - so I’m told.

Russell Wilson was the 12th pick in the third round of the NFL draft by the Seahawks, which tells you all you need to know about scouting sophistication and talent evaluation. The Eagles were set to pick Wilson when Seattle grabbed him. His dad was a lawyer who graduated from Dartmouth. Dad died in 2010 at age 55 from diabetes complications. A great young man and role model; I love Russell Wilson. Go on now, git!

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