Embedded inside a mellowed man is the word 'meow'

Christmas City - It was in the winter of 1977 that I was in Williamsburg, Va., with eight Cape track guys to compete in the Christmas City Relays at William & Mary College.  Early Saturday morning, I had two tickets to tour the Governor's Palace, and Chico Beckett agreed to go with me. Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson had lived in the palace, we were told by a woman all gussied up in Colonial garb.

So there we were, about 26 of us in the magnificent bedroom with a four-poster canopy bed and the woman went on and on about it until Chico raised his hand. “Any black people ever sleep in that bed?" he asked. She graciously began to give a treatise on historical context and Chico interrupted. “In other words, no.” I always wanted those four words on a T-shirt.

Coach Beideman - I spoke to Cape girls' soccer coach Robin Erthal, who has been to visit Coach Warren Beideman, now 80 years old and in nursing care in Bucks County, Pa., suffering from ALS.  I also received this progress report from Warren and Bernadette Beideman, Coach B’s son and daughter-in-law:  "My father continues to fight ALS every day. Every day brings new developments of this disease. He can no longer feed himself, which is where me and my wife come in and feed him every day. He has lost all movement in his legs and arms; just picking up a half-full cup of water is a effort for him. My father is on hospice at the moment but all the cards and posters that people have sent him are wonderful and he looks forward to hearing from everyone. He loves getting photos of the kids, and cards, just knowing that people are thinking of him.”

I found a 2007 picture of Coach Beideman standing alone on a windblown soccer field, a ball tucked under his arm. The caption read, “When all your fast friends have long since gone, Warren Beideman will be the guy still standing there.” Cards can be sent to 109 Woodbridge Court, Sellersville, PA 18060.

Baseline Barbershop - The 2002 film "Barbershop" starring Ice Cube, Anthony Anderson and Cedric the Entertainer made big money and launched careers because inside the black barbershop, that is the way it goes. I’m sure "Coming to America" in 1988 starring Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall has the all-time best barbershop scene, just like back in the day around these parts when the late and legendary Charlie Satchell was cutting hair on Road 265A and still in Milton where Bam Bam is the man. The mobile barbershop of strong sports opinions can be found along the front rows of high school basketball games. I think it's great stuff; honest and emotional commentaries sometimes make sense, oftentimes do not - who cares?

I’d like to run a Baseline Barbershop Basketball Blog just to capture classic commentaries like this one after one night of Cape basketball games resulting in two losses: “I'm a Caper, now you got the boys' coach taking the starters out that needed to be in, and the girls' coach leaving in the starters that needed to be out. This is crazy. That's why I do football. B-ball runs my pressure up. This rate, it’s going to be a long season.” - Amorette Johnson

Snippets - There is always more interest in who will be coach than who is the coach; it’s like we’re all in on some reality show job interview. The Cape field hockey job is now open, and I know the school district wants to fill it as quickly as possible. A few years ago I’d have put some candidate names out there in print, but I’ve mellowed and somewhere in there is the word "meow," which suggests something very marginally masculine about me. I walked on turf field two last Sunday to pick up granddaughter Lizzie from Eastern Shore lacrosse tryouts and there was the Zen Master of girls' lacrosse, coach P.J Kesmodel, who looked at me and said, ”Well, if it isn’t Mr. Field Hockey.” Now that is funny.

A formal proposal was presented to the Cape school board and superintendent from Susan (former hockey writer) and Dave (Mr. Field Hockey) Frederick weeks ago to change the name of the second turf field to Ivins Stadium. The request has been met with a deafening silence. In the words of Grandmom Rose, “There is no act, then you create one, then everyone wants to get into it. Got it?”

Go on now, git!