The bulb of big ideas goes out and no one notices
Social network - The term "networking" became a tactic for job advancement or moneymaking many years ago, and as an experienced networked-into-many-groups-stagnant-income type of middle-class guy, I can tell you that just because important people know your name doesn’t mean you can exploit them for capital gains. An adult once observed about me, “Fredman, little kids seem to like you, why is that?"’ “Because I wouldn’t care if they didn’t.” And my carpenter friend Bruce Hefke once accused me of being the journalist Chia Pet of the upwardly mobile. Networking is diving into the aquarium with the rest of the air-breathing mammals and just enjoying their company, helping out if you can and they will help you back, except some won’t. That’s just the way life rolls and unfolds like a pod of tail-slapping porpoises.
Grounds crew - On Sunday night baseball, the Orioles were hosting the Yankees leading 3-1 at the top of the fifth inning. Radar shows a storm is coming, and the grounds crew crouches behind the tarp ready to roll. Hotdog wrappers are blowing all over the stadium. The Orioles tarp tribe got the job done on national television. I love when weather impacts sports and everyone has to duck and cover. Maybe last May’s six-day delay of the state championship girls' lacrosse game was a bit much but it did produce Cape's first coed state tournament doubleheader and double victory.
Cape Junior League - The Cape Junior League All-Star baseball team playing down to Roxana has won its first two games in the District 4 tournament, defeating Laurel 19-0 then Woodbridge 10-0. Cape continues to throw three pitchers in these “mercy rule” games and has only yielded one hit over two games and 10 innings. Sam Johnson, Connor Thompson and Austin Elliot combined for a one-hitter against Woodbridge. Team members include Austin Elliot, Zach Gelof, David Erickson, Connor Thompson, Zach Dale, Sam Johnson, Jason Xiong, Ben Ashby, Christian Miller, Reese White, Jackson Ostroski, Luke Mulcahy and Jared Kay. Cape will play Millsboro in a winners' bracket final at Roxana at 7 p.m., Tuesday, July 15.
Big ideas - The bright bulb of big ideas doesn’t burst - it just goes out while the rest of us cats just adjust and walk around in the dark seeing like it's daytime. The state-funded multifield sports complex proposed for Frederica two years ago with much press conference fanfare has evaporated like Delaware casino profits. And Henlopen Soccer had big plans drawn up for their own sprawling soccer complex including an indoor facility. I walked that field with Warren Beideman, but it fizzled like a long-term lease on Lewes Beach. (What did happen to the Tastee Freez?) A new action group has done due diligence research and organized a presentation for an aquatic center to be built on the Cape campus without state funding. Certainly the community kids need it and the swim team, to say nothing of those looking for a gravity break. I propose a tax of $500 on all joints replaced at Beebe Healthcare diverted to the pool fund we can call the Cape Cobalt Center. That’s my “no money big idea” contribution to the greater sports society.
Snippets - Many German Americans are snapping and representing after Germany won the World Cup, beating Argentina. I have always told my quarter-German grandchildren, “When the ball drops, rock the German genes." My grandfather, Franklin Krupp III from Fifth and Lehigh in Philly, had a favorite baseball player, the late great Heinie Manush. Heinie played for six major league teams and won the batting title in 1926. But what’s funny to me is how his proper name, Henry, was changed to Heinie just because he was German. I’m German and on occasion have been called a horse’s heinie, so I guess it makes sense.
Speaking of soccer, Cape has still not named a new head soccer coach. Cape is a plum job - great athletes and an incredible facility just waiting for the right person to replace the irreplaceable Gary Montalto. Certain coaches you don’t replace. I found that out when I was the first “how come you ain’t Tom Hickman" Cape track coach.
Tournaments and camps make money for the people who run them, in some scenarios lots of money. And college coaches want you to come to their camp where you have a chance to show what you can do and you pay them for the privilege of doing it. Go on now, git!
