Friends share sports moments together

True friends - Last Saturday morning as the SoDel Cares 5K was winding down, a little girl on a bike rolled up next to me and said, “My friend got a medal for winning her age group. Will you come and take her picture?” “Sure,” I said, “let’s do this.” My two-friends-in-one-chair photo was my favorite of the thousand I took that morning. The guy riding a standard poodle like a Shetland pony is a close second. Runners are my most consistent social group. I describe my lifestyle as “sleep at night and prowl in the morning.” There are three races this weekend. I will be at them all.  

Camden aquarium - “You’ve got mail!” Stunned 76ers fans should send all varieties of digital mails to the Camden Aquarium because your team went in the tank. They went Steel Pier Diving Horse into the tank. Coach Doc Rivers and his Louie Armstrong-voice-sounding self should blow the trumpet and sing the blues. I read a hardback 700-page book on the history of the NBA and the author kept talking about “the secret” to winning teams, and in the final chapter, it was revealed that in the eyes of players across three generations, the secret was “chemistry.” The Sixers’ nuclear core includes a Cameroonian comedian and a brooding Australian, but when the pneumatic vise of playoff pressure tightened down, gaskets were blown and the engine came apart. Even Fred Carter, the MVP of the 1972-73 Sixers who claims to be the best player on the worst team (9-73) in NBA history, thinks the last two Sixers’ losses are tank jobs.    

Fredman all-stars - Some years ago as the school year ended, I selected my own all-star team and had certificates printed up. There was a handwritten one-sentence description of the athlete, then I signed it, Fredman. Each certificate was hand delivered. There were no votes, no processes, no input from anyone else; it wasn’t a really big thing, it was just my thing, a way to say thanks to an athlete who awakened in me something unsung that I saw in them on their life’s journey of being a good teammate. Young athletes want to know you saw them, that you understand who they are. It’s never about all-state or all-American; it’s simply about being appreciated. 

Walk away, Renee - I was at the North-South boys’ lacrosse all-star game at DE Turf Tuesday night. I went across the field at halftime to snap photos of all-state players getting their certificates. Then  some of those players were told they were all-Americans and their certificates were in the mail. When they started to read a list of academic all-Americans, I commenced to walk back across the field, hoping no one noticed that when I heard the word “academic” I scooted like a cat under a lawn sprinkler.

Social distance - The most effective way to socially distance is to stay home. Smother me with rules and restrictions leading up to an athletic event, and there’s a good chance I’m staying home like an old dog in the backyard under a shade tree. The University of Delaware is hosting the Blue-Gold All-Star game Friday night, June 18, I believe with reluctance. After all, it is a university campus that would like to fully reopen in the fall. I’ve been to several “wheels off the wagon” crazy fan games this spring and it’s been great, and I’m not ready to go back. DMV in Georgetown is still mask land with yellow police tape on every other seat. The place looks like a crime scene.  

Snippets - Nick Pegelow voluntarily stepped off as athletic director at Sussex Tech, but will remain on staff as a teacher. Nick is one of the good guys, affable and congenial, and he knows the names of all the muppets in the sports network. He has a son, Brody, an athlete, and Nick doesn’t want to miss his journey. Cape by rule 7.2 has posted the position for head basketball coach. There were applicants and now it's gotten murky. I’m out of all official loops, but I have my ear to the track in a town where the train don’t run. But I’m an old sports guy. I don’t need to be inside any loops. I am the loop, or at least loopy. Go on now, git off of my cloud!