Reflections on Rainbow Demolition, sports and politics

Connections: politics and sports - Susan and I were in the stands about 1992 at Maryland as the Terps were hosting UVA in a football game. My nephew Mike was a defensive end for the Wahoos. A parent behind me ordered drinks and hotdogs for his family, who took up two rows. I was a part of the pass-the-hotdog relay. I turned to the man and said, “I deserve a tip for this, so don't make a habit of it." He laughed. It was Jesse Jackson, whose son Yusef was a middle linebacker for UVA. In 1984, I was defensive coordinator for the Cape football team. I named the defense the Rainbow Demolition, a play on words with Jesse's Rainbow Coalition when he ran for president. We had T-shirts, student Rick Parsons wrote and recorded a rap song, and we broke the huddle with a clap, shouting "Rainbow!" Jesse Jackson, now 82 years old, has Parkinson’s disease. He was wheeled onto the stage at the DNC and waved to the crowd. I can also connect Steve Kerr and Barack Obama back to Sesame Street by the Sea; Kerr is connected to Eric Stancofski and Obama to Bryan Stevenson. Looking for a photo, I typed “Jesse” into my finder window but it only produced legendary Jesse Dog a legend from back before leash laws, scooper laws, sweaters and bandanas. Now every free-roaming dog is considered lost. Some dogs owned the bay and banks of the tidal estuaries; if you know what a canal tuxedo is, you understand. If Jesse could talk, she'd bark, "I am somebody!"

Little League World Series - ESPN does such a great job with coverage of this event. I was watching an 11-year-old from Venezuela up at the plate and I read on the split screen, “Favorite singer, Bad Bunny.” I had to check it out and found this on Wikipedia: “Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, known professionally as Bad Bunny, is a Puerto Rican rapper, singer and record producer. He is known as the King of Latin Trap. Bad Bunny is the first non-English-language act to become Spotify's most streamed artist of the year.” I think congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should change her name to Bad Bunny. 

Day trippers - We older people remember those who told us what we couldn't do when we were younger. We older people also have younger people look at us and tell us what we couldn’t possibly have done. I remember two young Cape guys 25 years ago asking me, “Fredman, my uncles told me back in the day that you were some kind of baller. That you had serious ups and could dunk a basketball. Is that true?” I responded, “Just remember you brought it up. Yes, it’s true.“ They looked at me and said, “No way that's true; why are you tripping?” I overheard a random grandfather wearing out an 11-year-old in a cast about his grandson. I listened to the high school and college information, checked out the story, and there isn't a shred of supporting evidence. Now, that is tripping.

Cortisone AutoZone - I limped from Peninsula Orthopedic Associates Wednesday afternoon after Jennifer Hazzard,PA-C, ATC, kneecapped me with an injection of cortisone as I was wearing $15 sunglasses from AutoZone. I thought a sign read “Chicken” above the show up early window, and I concluded Charlie Pollard was expanding his Kickin’ Chicken business, but then realized I had read “Check-in” not “Chicken” before I ordered a bucket of nuggets. I planned to step off Cape’s home football scrimmage Thursday night as I have less escapability than JaMarcus Russell, now 39 years old, who was fired from his job as a volunteer assistant at Williamson High School in Alabama (he played there) after taking a boosters’ club donation for weight-room equipment and depositing it in his credit union account. Speaking of social studies/coach guys like Tim Walz and me, I can just hear a Cape student: “Fredman, how did we go from cortisone to AutoZone to Kickin’ Chicken to JaMarcus Russell?” ”Wait, I have to tell you about the Hurricane Katrina/Fats Domino connection to Russell.” Life is more an abstract painting than representational art.                    

Snippets - Wilson Ingerski, Cape kicker and punter, is on the football roster at Shippensburg University. The Raiders will play at West Chester Oct. 5. Cape teammate Brenn Scott is on the roster for the Rams. As of Thursday morning, the Phillies led the Braves by seven games with 36 to play. If local fans want to count chickens, go out to Route 5 and wait for a truck to roll down the road. According to mlb.com, “If the Phillies (74-52) play .500 the rest of the season, they would finish 92-70, meaning the Braves (67-59) would need to go 25-11 (.694) just to tie.” The Yankees and Orioles are separated by .5 games. Paige Ballinger, an eighth-grade cross country phenom at Sussex Academy last fall who ran to get in shape for spring soccer, is now a freshman running for the Padua Pandas. Paige, with no track experience yet extremely talented, will get plenty of indoor and outdoor exposure running with the top girls’ program in the state. Go on now, git!