BALLOON DOG - The nation was outraged over the admission that Michael Vick ran a dogfighting ring and personally electrocuted and drowned nonperformers. It’s been written a million times that we are a nation of dog lovers - but not really. We are a nation of lovers of leashed dogs, but a dog on a leash is nothing more than a warm-blooded balloon dog.
I want to drive my 4Runner through downtown Dewey on greyhound weekend with a plastic rabbit tied to the trailer hitch. I want hundreds of them to chase me to Indian River attaining speeds of 70 mph. I want them to bark a message that I can understand: ”Rescue this!”
I have been stopped in nature four times in the last year by citizens on patrol who wake up in the morning, put their little ID badges around their necks, then head out to protect nature from citizens and their dogs while on patrol.
The latest was a wanker on a mountain bike at Cape Henlopen State Park - whose business is everyone else’s business - where Susan and I were enjoying watching Jesse snag a tennis ball from the ocean. There were no other humans on the beach except a lady south of the twin towers with a little cocker spaniel who was chasing birds and disrupting nature’s delicate balance.
Suddenly, I was being lectured about a dog only leashed at one end, I heard the words “warning and ticket” and I could hear Roy Orbison in my head singing with the Traveling Wilburys “Handle Me With Care.” I love the state park system in Delaware and all the rangers. I think they do a great job with nature and handling unleashed humans and dogs.
I am not a fan of the Citizen Park Patrol just like I don’t believe in giving a rent-a-cop a gun. I would never in a million years go up to some big guy alone with his wife and dog enjoying nature and start talking about rules and ordinance violations and spit out the word warning.
I would expect to be punched. I would expect the state park to tell me, “Don’t talk to the public! Phone it in and we’ll come and talk to them.”
And I ain’t saying I’m right, I’m just speaking up for what I don’t like instead of rolling over. Toss me a biscuit - you don’t have to cook it!
HUMAN TOUCH - “I ain’t lookin’ for praise or pity; I ain’t comin’ ‘round searchin’ for a crutch. I just want someone to talk to; and a little of that human Hook
touch; just a little of that human touch.”
- Bruce Springsteen, 1992
Take the job - take the heat! Every coach knows that - especially football coaches who get second guessed play-by-play by everyone not held accountable. Cape football coach Dave McDowell’s Vikings are 1-5, and if you think he isn’t getting hammered in the stands and at the Wawa coffee counter, you are a diehard idealist and should join the seminary. I have known the McDowell family since 1958 when I first saw brother Paul playing guard as a seventh grader for the St. Michael’s basketball team. Paul was my high school teammate in football and basketball. We won the Catholic League title in football and came within a minute of winning it in basketball. Paul went on to play at Army and is currently the comptroller at the University of Connecticut. Brother Eddie was a two-time, all-city player and he and I were inducted into our high school’s Hall of Fame the same year. Oldest brother Jack is a priest. Sister Mary was All-Catholic in basketball and softball. The youngest brother was named Joe. And then there was Larry, who was killed on Sept. 29, 1969. The next day Eddie McDowell scored a pair of touchdowns against Archbishop Ryan.
Last Saturday at halftime, coach Dave McDowell told the team a story about how he gave up a starting position to a senior and with two minutes left in a game the coach moved to put him back in, but he refused, saying, “I’m not a two-minute player. Put somebody else in the game.”
That December, over Christmas vacation, McDowell had a kidney removed and never played football again.
“I told the kids I believe that is why I have coached 30 years with enthusiasm. I’d give anything for those two minutes, and they need to play that way whether they are winning by 24 or losing because you never know when your two minutes are up.”
SNIPPETS - Speaking of the human touch, what is it about Special Olympics athletes that touch our hearts? It is not sympathy and certainly not empathy, and not “They make me appreciate the gifts that I have but fail to be thankful for.”
No, I believe there is a power in their presence and perseverance and how they can live in the moment without intrusions or distractions.
Last Monday I was the photojournalist guy at the Special Soccer Skills Day at Howard T. Ennis School. I always leave there feeling so much better about everything and everybody, and it doesn’t last but for a moment and I can live in the moment.
Kentucky football has beaten Louisville and LSU and this week gets Florida.
What former Cape player was a scholarship linebacker for Kentucky during the mid 1980s? Tony Zigman, who graduated from Cape in 1984 or ‘85 - maybe both? “Ziggy” was a four-sport sensation in football, basketball, baseball and track, and once had three hits and five RBIs in a game at Lake Forest, left in mid-game, slid under the fence, peeled down to track uniform and jumped 21-5 in a conference meet. Then back into the baseball uniform, under the fence and hitting a double with two men on base.
Do you think doing calf raises with 300 pounds on my shoulders is contributing to my lower back problem? I love being the dumb jock!
