Sun’s out! Guns out! Jeff Jablon dazzles friends with new fit body

Choo Choo Jablon - Jeff Jablon, 48, is the quintessential player to be named later. He is the guy who coaches the JV team, the guy who works security at the state wrestling tournament. Jabs bats second in a team teaching classroom model. He fields more jokes than he knocks out of the batter's box. His best jokes are at his own expense. Then he became involved in Morgan's Message, a high school group of teachers and students who work together on mental health issues affecting young athletes. Jabs is soulful and peaceful. Morgan’s Message motivated him to become a better version of himself. Now “Jacked-up Jabs” is a gestaltist: If it has anything to do with physical and spiritual fitness, he is all over it, from an app that helps you run in the dark, to hitting the gym, to doing yoga three days a week. Now instead of playing pepper with everyone's lame jokes, Jabs is fielding compliments. Retired wrestling coach Paul Joyce wrote under Jablon’s running photo on my Facebook page, “Sun’s out! Guns out!”  

Team 360 - A group of 320 runners eschewed heat advisories Saturday morning at the Jungle Jim’s 5K in an out-and-back course ending at the Lazy River inside the water park. Team 360 out of Salisbury brought a group where athletes assist each other by knocking down the distance, some rolling to the river. The wingmen work with athletes who are “differently abled” so they can take part in mainstream running and multi-sport events. I call it “people just being good to one another,” and if you’re not inspired, they aren't paying attention.

Pache Pase - Que pasa? Cristian Pache is a 6-foot-2, 25-year-old fluid and athletic outfielder for the Philadelphia Phillies who hails from the Dominican Republic. A brown-eyed handsome man, Cristian looks like he fell off the front of a baseball card. Willie Mays had that look, a face made for a ballcap and a Topps baseball card that came with chewing gum. Sunday at The Bank, as a late-inning defensive replacement in centerfield, Pache made a one-handed, over-the-shoulder catch with his back to the infield that reminded old-timers of the iconic catch by Mays in the 1954 World series at the Polo Grounds. Pache’s catch, 1954 to 2024, a cool 70 years later. Not a world series, never an iconic moment, but nevertheless crazy athletic. 

Jeremiah my Buddha - Sunday morning Jeremiah’s Place on Dagsworthy Avenue in Dewey, I am parked waiting for a 5K to start. Jeremiah, a 6-foot-3, tattooed, laid-back Buddhist when he was a senior at Cape, gave me a bottle of cold water. I joked, “People are so nice to me. I’m what assisted living is all about. A former student, now grandmother Tracy Savage, gave me a little red wagon to carry my stuff.” Jeremiah is one of those smart people who uses economy of language; there are no wasted words. “I don’t know, Fredman, every time I look and talk to you, it’s 1996 all over again.” My time is your time, remembering each other from our best moments together. 

Not all good - Something whack is happening across the summer sports landscape, and I say if adults want to lose their minds, that's one thing, but don’t drag your children with you. My theory has always been this: The No. 1 determiner of future athletic success is DNA. We are developing and encouraging a generation of sports assassins. Kids play against athletes from other places but rarely make any new friends.

Snippets - Streaming and beaming across multiple platforms, there are so many great sports things happening right now, it’s a full-time job to find them live – and get on outta here with your QR code. I love watching the Olympic trials in track and field but have already missed most of it. The best winning percentage in MLB as of Monday morning, June 24 is the Phillies at .662 . Are they the best team? I’ll go with one of the best. There are five teams playing better than .600 baseball including the Phillies, Guardians, Yankees, Orioles and Dodgers. Go on now, git!