I’ve never lost my faith that most people are good

ATHLETES SURVIVE - Last Wednesday late morning I was sitting in the Route 1 right-hand northbound lane just past the closed-due-to-drizzle Rehoboth Car Wash. In the cab of my Tundra I was listening to the deafening sounds of silence, more or less not moving, just looking around. I saw a young couple walking across the highway who had that “Russian, Ukrainian or Belarus” look about them. I thought, “too many variables, just not safe” and then it happened. The girl stepped into a diamond-marked bus lane and a car was coming. She looked to her right, gave a stiff arm and arched away from impact like a running back on the way out of bounds. She took a hard hit and was lifted, rolled onto the hood and dropped to the road.

Cell phones called 911. The frantic – not her fault - driver provided a blanket. A man with a stethoscope showed up. The Rehoboth rescue crew was there in minutes.

The young girl was conscious. She was fit and beautiful and no doubt her flexible athleticism saved her life and kept her from debilitating injuries. People who saw it happen were all helpful and concerned, which didn’t restore any faith in human nature for me because I’ve never lost my faith that most people are good.

I’M SO GAY - Last summer I read an article in Letters from CAMP Rehoboth magazine about the changing meaning of the word gay. An example was an AOL or state email address - just way gay.

Hand high school students a list of new rules just to obtain a hall pass and they may respond “This school is so gay.”

A few months ago I came out of the locker room at Gold’s Gym wearing black shorts with a thin red stripe and a black Under Armour shirt with red insets. A gay friend remarked, ”Hey Fredman, nice ensemble.”

Last Monday night, for the first time in my long sportswriting life, I brought a chair and umbrella to an athletic event. Now that is gay.

I was watching the championship of the YMCA summer soccer league in my green metal and canvas Sunny’s chair of medium height because I can’t do a graceful sit out and get up from a beach chair.

A Dogfish player chasing a ball out of bounds was slowing down as he gently collisioned me and my gay chair. Slowly I rolled to my right and came out onto the grass. I got up looking like a break dancer performing for the Arthritis Foundation ball. The chair sat permanently racked out of square. I stared at my chair, then at two girls on a blanket and nodded to them to check out the chair. I was my own cartoon panel.

“Is this chair gay?” I asked them.

“Leave them laughing,” my grandmother said. “In your life you may not have a choice.”

DRUNKS AIN’T FUNNY - Show me a dry wedding reception and I’ll show you a guy standing outside by his truck, but enough about me.

Alcohol is an insidious drug that can creep up and engulf a person who is not genetically predisposed. Others just have the disease and it is all over them. They can’t handle it at all, but can’t stop wanting it and can’t stop destroying themselves and everyone close to them which leads to depression.

Basketball player Eddie Griffin, 6-foot-10 and just 25, who graduated from Roman Catholic in 2000 where he led his team to a Catholic League championship and played at Cape in the Slam Dunk tournament, died last week when he drove through a flashing red light and wooden barrier into the side of a moving train.

“Great guy” and “nice kid” are the words most used in describing Griffin, but all the friends, teachers and coaches couldn’t save Eddie from himself.
The athletic culture of play hard and party harder is straight-up fun if you can handle it, but not everyone can.

SNIPPETS - Cape high school, with the help of attorney Craig Karsnitz, has sent a letter of appeal to the state board of education, the particular contents of which I do not know, but it basically requests a waiver from the penalty of forfeiting two years of basketball games for using a basketball player whose legal guardianship papers were judged to be not legal. There is a lawyer employed by the attorney general’s office who handles all written appeals of Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association board decisions.

Last Aug. 8 at the United States Lifeguard Association lifeguard nationals in Myrtle Beach, Kaleb Lemaire placed first in the 13 and under distance run, second in beach flags, fifth in the paddle board and eighth in the iron guard. Karissa Lemaire, competing in 11 and under, placed fifth in the distance run.

Jeremiah Trotter was cut by the Eagles and if he wants to attend the first home game he’ll have to find a ticket.

How long before numb-skulled fans react to the lack of loyalty and respect for character so prevalent in the NFL? Tommy Sheehan of Cape was a football walk-on at Temple about six years ago and earned his way into a full-blown scholarship because “Coach Wallace was afraid if we didn’t take care of Sheehan that he would be forced to leave and none of us wanted that because everybody just loves the kid,” said assistant coach Spencer Prescott, who played for me in high school. “Tommy may be the first-ever Division I football player ever to receive a scholarship for personality and character.” None of that stuff comes into play in the NFL and at some level it may be a bad money decision as well. Trotter is the loyalty teammate you want on your side because he has the heart of a champion and he will have your back.

Go on now, git!