Fish On! Get in the fighting chair or start telling jokes

Fish On - Trolling the blue waters of Baltimore Canyon, “fish on'' means game time – everyone to their battle stations, time to get belted into the fighting chair. At the Cape wrestling state championship ring celebration at Fish On in Lewes June 29,  coach Chris Mattioni gave out certificates and briefly spoke about the championship season, then said, “I’m turning it over to Fredman to say a few words.” “Fish on,” I thought, “what is this, the White Marlin Open?” Brevity is a virtue in public speaking. No one knows the stories you threw out of the boat. I called state coach of the year Mattioni and assistant state coach of the year Matt Graviet “Scoobie Pup and Marmaduke.” Everyone laughed and I thought, “Good crowd, maybe on the edge of raucousness but don’t push it.” The Delaware state championship of wrestling was first contested in 1957 – one big final meet scoring system, then went to the dual-meet championship format in 1993. That’s 64 years of team state titles before a place named Cape showed up in the winner’s circle. Hopefully DIAA will be back to both formats for the 2021-22 season. 

Squeezing the sandwich - College sports that are not football, basketball and baseball are backlogged with extra talent because of fifth- and sixth-year redshirts. Many graduated players journey to another program to have their master’s degrees paid for while representing a university in which they have no history. Boatloads of next-level high school players are finding that college coaches are like building contractors; as long as they’re fat, they most likely aren’t returning phone calls.  

Know when to fold up - And know when to shut up about your fantasy team and online DraftKings gambling account. I remember when fantasy football first permeated the professional press box. I was a grizzled old-guard guy. I predated nachos, but there was a cadre of soft and sketchy young bloggers in the box who looked like Matt Gaetz riding a catamaran. Sports was carried by the current of not what happened, but rather gambling on what might happen. And now in 2021 there is full-blown contamination of the product, blending the game with the media and professional gamblers even in Vegas. The pros know that the entire country is cutting in on their action. 

Eduardo Perez - The son of Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Perez was an ESPN analyst for the just-completed College World Series. Eduardo is bilingual, and he has the background and education to make a great Major League manager.  If I owned the Phillies, I’d eat Joe Girardi’s contract with mustard and a soft pretzel, and hire Perez at the all-star break. And I like Girardi. He's a good guy. It’s not his fault, by the way. How is manager Gabe Kapler doing in San Francisco? Best record in baseball 50-29 and .633 winning percentage.

Issues and answers - Sounds like a college class about issues and no answers. I am a veteran sports columnist of 40 years, and there are always new issues out there. I honestly don’t know how I feel about them, so I just kick back and read and listen and try to figure out what it is people are talking about. And let’s be honest; most people just enjoy talking and posting their position on an issue, then waiting for someone to just try to knock them off the block of certainty. 

Snippets - Question: If you are a multi-sport athlete, should you spend the most time on your best sports or your weakest?  Emily Monigle graduated first in her class this year, was all-state in field hockey and Delaware Player of  the Year in lacrosse. She is heading to Penn State’s main campus in the fall where she may play club field hockey and may try to walk onto the lacrosse team. Girls could dream of having an academic/athletic career with all those state championships won like Emily Monigle, one of the best two-sport athletes in the history of Cape. Valedictorian is just a bonus. Television on a hot July day: Do you choose soccer, tennis or the Tour de France? If you had to strap me into a “rent a recliner” leather chair, I’d choose soccer. The athletes are exquisite, it's easy to keep track of the score, and the announcers’ accented erudition drives home to me that even in a scoreless game I have no idea what I’m watching. At one point in a recent game, the announcer commented,  “Much ado about nothing-nothing.” My reaction, “You damn skippy!” Go on now, git!