We all love sports along a continuum of personal priorities
Vigilance and ambivalence - I must admit to being ambivalent toward certain sports, which is a succinct way of saying, “I really don’t care.” I’m not for them or against them, and I’m sure I could write a great story with pictures if that’s what I cared to do, the “tell” with me is not all the places I appear across the sports scene but the places I don’t. Best ball , shotgun start, member-member - you won’t see me. Anything fishing, from white marlin to lawn casting on grass to picking flounder in the canal. Comprehensive coverage of a pickleball tournament. Who am I, the Don Ameche of sportswriters? ("Cocoon" reference). I don’t do travel tournaments or AAU basketball, never covered summer wrestling tournaments. I will cover summer soccer because it’s so slow I can multitask from the cab of my truck. The problem with all of the above is I’m a freaking photojournalist and a generalist who has covered everything from the NFL to the wowie-zowie wanker ultimate frisbee championship of the universe. I’m just joking around, to quote my grandson Davy, “You laughing?”
Caged Cape - Most sporting events are played inside a cage of chain link to protect the players from the fans who more and more suffer from a version of borderline personality disorder and think they can coach the team better based on recognizing rules infractions before they happen while only seeing one player at a time, usually their own kid. We all know who the people are, their own kids know, and it is just sad and sometimes delusional. You have blood in the game means you love a player wearing a number, and when things don’t go their way you get disappointed at best and furious at worst. I have always told athletes in my bloodline that their major job was being a good teammate. Moping about engenders no empathy; it should be saved for walking the dog, preferably an old dog with arthritis.
Snippets - Andrew Scrutchfield, a three-sport athlete at Cape in soccer, basketball and and lacrosse, graduated from Stevens Tech May 25 with a degree in civil engineering. Andrew's lefty at lax attack for the Ducks included 126 career goals and 72 assists. His senior season, Scrutch garnered 41 goals with 25 assists. He was presented with the Sims Award given to the person who contributes most to the lacrosse program at Stevens. Andrew will play in the North-South All-Star game this weekend in Philly. He graduates two courses shy of a master’s degree. He already has a job in Manhattan with three college friends who also have jobs and will live across the Hudson in Hoboken, New Jersey. Erin Ricker, an all-state field hockey and lacrosse player at Cape, just graduated from Lehigh University with a degree in industrial engineering. Both Andrew and Erin rolled down the track of student-athlete in college, excelling at both. The Phillies, 26-21, play at Chicago Cubs, 31-14, Friday at 2:20. Maybe someday Comcast will dedicate a high-definition channel for Philadelphia sports. The NBA playoffs have been hard to watch; too many lopsided games where one side simply stops playing. It’s not easy motivating millionaires, I guess. This is jamboree weekend for college lacrosse, and you need a college degree to locate the game with all those dumb ESPN channels and Apple TV and live streaming. The sports channel networks are also stacked with college softball and baseball games. Beating on a drywall bucket with an aluminum bat inside the dugout constitutes an illegal sound-producing device according to DIAA rules. A Tarzan yell and bird calls fall into the gray area. The 23rd Masser 5 miler is Sunday, May 29 at 7:30 a.m. Plenty of parking at Cape Henlopen High School.
Same-day registration opens at 6 a.m. I’ll be there begging for a free multicolored tech T-shirt so I can look like a giant paramecium when shopping for Gatorade at Food Lion. Grandmom Rose, “If a fish will bite bait, it will bite you too.” All those 4-wheelers with surf fishermen, just how many biting fish are out there in close? DeAndre Sheppard of Cape high jumped 6-feet-4-inches at the Meet of Champions, a personal record, to place fourth. Isaiah Morris of Lake was the winner at 6-6. Ce’yra Middleton, a Cape freshman, took third in the shot put at 35-9. Laron Profit of CR, Maryland and NBA was recently inducted into the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame. He is pictured with Linda Robinson, former first lady of the Caesar Rodney School District. Go on now, git!
