Looks like we can put off the start of high school softball/baseball a while longer. The weather has dealt a curve, so to speak. We cannot be surprised by this in Minnesota. We sure got teased by a couple days of temperature in the 80s, at least according to my thermometer.
We can be in denial about this being a tease. Even us lifelong Minnesotans can get deluded into thinking the mild weather had set in for the long-term. I plead guilty for 2021. Who can blame us for being anxious in light of the toll the pandemic has taken on all of us? So I had a contractor come to the house to do an estimate for something. Such was my anticipation of pleasant spring being in the works.
Well, a little delay is called for. Put on the brakes, stay indoors longer, deal with the doldrums longer. I was in our public library a few days ago and actually thanked two of the staff members for just being available to engage in a conversation. I really meant it.
So we aren't getting an early glimpse of the new "softball complex" on east end of town. So I'll have to wait to see if this place really will have adequate accommodation for fans. I did learn recently that UMM softball fans watch just like before, standing, sitting on rear end in the grass or in (your own) lawn chair. UMM is a partner in the thing, n'est-ce pas?
Don't you think the whole thing is a muddy mess now? What about sidewalks? Money doesn't go as far as it used to. So maybe the $1.4 million project isn't going to deliver anything breathtaking. Or, maybe we'll just be continually told or lectured "the project isn't done yet" and then they'll say "fundraising will continue" - can sometimes be translated to mean "famous last words."
Maybe we'll be told certain things have to be done according to law - sidewalks for the handicapped? - and then if private funds cannot be raised, well, government will just have to cough it up. Are the local government entities wary of this? The City of Morris has tried to back off on further financial backing, and the city manager felt he had to make a public announcement re. this through the radio station and its site.
Wariness? Some seeds of doubt? How long is the girls fastpitch high school season going to be this year? A friend informs me: "It was announced that the high school softball games would be at Wells Park to start. Use of the new fields would be dependent on weather and progress with finishing the remodel."
Ever hear of cost overruns? Let's not be Pollyannish.
We all want the best for our community's youth, no doubt. But let's remember that fastpitch softball is just one sport and it involves just the female gender. Assuming that football stays in decline nationally - a good thing - we may find in Morris that girls have better facilities than boys! Funds are being raised for a new gymnastics gym, to my knowledge a girls-only activity.
OK, so it's nice to have facilities for girls. Poetic justice if they end up in superior position? Many will smile at this thinking, but seriously there needs to be an even-handed approach. If football survives, it just means more boys will be getting hurt, some seriously. The effects can crop up later. And no one is going to remember that your son's team beat Montevideo 20-12 ten years ago.
And why do we still have the model of "town vs. town?" Strikes me as a little anachronistic, like it's from the movie "Hoosiers." Provincial pride, bragging rights, chest-thumping at the barber shop!
Again I'll try to pump up soccer. Anyone listening? Talk to the Reverend Chris Richards about this. Problem is, too many of the influential people in Morris are softball-oriented. I could name names of course. It matters who you are in this town. So I'm amused considering how the Morris newspaper continues going out of its way to puff Hancock, a town markedly smaller than Morris. You wouldn't know this looking at the Morris paper. From an email from a friend:
You should purchase a copy of yesterday’s Stevens County, or rather the Hancock, Times. A photo of the Hancock basketball team with the runners-up trophy on the front page, a full half-page photo above the fold. Then in the sports section, 4-1/2 pages of articles and photos of the team. I wonder what the coverage would’ve been had they won. One of the advantages of having Ms. Erdman as editor, I guess.
(Katie Erdman's personal background is in Hancock.)
I like the Morris radio station and the work done by Marshall there, but it can be corralled by certain community do-gooders sometimes IMHO. This sort of thing might seem innocuous but I would demur. The public purse is being deployed. We must be serious.
An article from Jan. 24, 2020, on the kmrs-kkok site, I feel bent over backwards presenting the softball complex as something that the late Willie Martin would call "astronomical." The article touted "improved bleacher areas for spectators." So the project is on the record, and the radio station along with it, saying that accommodations for fans will actually be better. I suggest you go out there, walk around the place if you don't mind sacrificing a pair of shoes to the mud, and tell me where the fans are going to gather.
The dugouts are an obstacle for viewing. View from just outside the outfield fence? That looks workable but would this be close enough for the parents/fans? I won't rule it out but it seems dubious and I suspect the sun being low in the sky would be an issue from there.
Obviously all of this remains to be seen, to be learned. But we need to pose the appropriate questions now before government entities get hit up for $ again, wouldn't you say? Weren't a lot of you appropriately vigilant re. the proposed county jail a few years ago?
And the City of Morris says it has "difficult budget decisions" ahead?
Please penetrate the cloud of "happy talk" coming from community leaders who may not have the most objective perspective on things. The fund-raising is being led by a person who has a senior on this year's MACA softball team? Ah, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts. . .
Life would be a party!
The late Rick Lucken would be amused reading my blog posts about this.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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