First
if you'll permit me, which you probably don't want to do, I'll shed
some light on our nation's macro picture with this quote from "Justin"
on "Yahoo! News":
How are gas prices?
How are grocery prices?
How are housing prices?
How is the current cost of living?
What is the current national debt?
How are our depleted munition stores after starting a war for Israel?
Trump single-handedly turned the United States into a complete dumpster fire.
Celebrate school!
We're
entering the most exhilarating week of the school calendar for most
area schools. Graduations are a real "rush" for everyone. And then
there's the hectic nature of spring sports reaching their climax.
My
long walk on Saturday took me past the softball complex in Morris where
a tournament created excitement. Fans got in the best position they
could for watching - not easy out there.
Baseball!
The boys sport has been going very well for the orange and black. A 4-0
win over Grand Rapids on May 16 put the Tigers' record at 14-5. The
schedule says we'll be wrapping up the regular season on May 20 against
Minnewaska at home. A 5 p.m. start time. Fans have the benefit of
grandstand seating for baseball.
Click
on link below to read about the baseball team's 10-0 win over
Minnewaska on May 11 at 'Waska. This post is on my companion blog site
"Morris of Course." Thanks as always. - BW
We
are past the UMM and Hancock graduations. I have a long memory of
covering all area graduations when I was with the paper. That includes
UMM. Every year in Alberta for the 2 p.m. start time on Sunday of
Memorial Day weekend, like clockwork. But these days it's in Chokio.
I
learned that Alberta could no longer have a high school if it was just
six miles from Morris. One
of the receptions I'm invited to is for a C-A grad.
I forfeited
Memorial Day weekend as a time for "time off" for years and years and
years. And in the end, was I shown any appreciation or consideration for
that, at least from masters of the newspaper? Well no. Paper was owned
by the Forum. The Forum has since disappeared from here, callous souls.
I
remember Lyle Hettver at the C-A event proclaiming with such gravity,
"Thank God for small schools." I knew exactly what he meant. I sat along
the front row of folding chairs.
I
was a student at the Morris school (eons ago) when it was inclined
toward the "liberal" approach to things. I saw kids in the hallway
carrying around the book "Autobiography of Malcolm X." I later read that
book in college and thought to myself, "My God, was this actually
assigned for high school kids?"
The
MACA baseball Tigers sure took charge in their Friday away game versus
the BOLD Warriors. It was a rout, score of 17-5. We hesitated not a bit
in showing our superior caliber of play. Seven runs came in, in the
first inning. And holy cow, five more runs in the second.
A
bleak afternoon for the BOLD fans who watched at the Bird Island
campus. These are stressful times for the BOLD school district: a
"criminal investigation" in connection to school finances. The baseball
team provided no salve for that.
The
Tigers ended up scoring in every inning. Our line score was 17-9-4. The
BOLD numbers were 5-6-1. Congrats to the Tigers who had a number of
individual contributors. Hunter Smith had a hit in his only at-bat. He
stole a base and delivered a SAC fly. He walked twice, drove in two runs
and scored two.
Travis
Buss also had a SAC fly. He got on via HBP, drove in a run and scored a
run. Brayden Carlson showed patience at the plate with three walks
received. These put him on base to score two runs. "A walk is as good as
a hit." I guess we were reminded of that in "Moneyball."
Hunter
Westerman scored three runs, walked twice, got on via HBP and stole two
bases. Jack Kehoe had an active bat with his two-for-three showing, and
his RBI output was a robust four. One of his hits was a double. He
scored three runs, walked and stole a base.
The
BOLD pitching was a little wild as we see that Ozzy Jerome also reached
on HBP. He also reached by walk. He drove in a run and scored two runs.
Alex Asmus went two-or-four with two runs scored. He walked and stole a
base.
Davis
Mundal had a hit in his only at-bat and drove in a run. Riley Asmus had
a hit, two runs scored, walked twice and drove in a run. Kye Suess had a
hit in his only at-bat. Plus he drove in a run. Riley Saito went
one-for-three, drew a walk and drove in a run.
Carlson
was our pitcher and he set down eight batters on strikes in his five
innings. He walked only one. Just one of the runs he allowed was
earned.
Lots
of highlights for the orange and black fans to celebrate. I wonder how
many were present at Lions Memorial Park in Bird Island. Remember the
old novelty bumper sticker "Where the hell is Bird Island?" From the
1970s. It inspired a copycat in Cyrus: "Where the heck is Cyrus?"
(Cleaned up the language!)
Winning softball
Do
the MACA softball fans find a lot of the games boring? Such one-sidedness so
much of the time. Does Mary Holmberg exude some sort of magic touch or
what? She reaches one new career milestone after another. I covered
Tiger softball for the Morris paper way back when it all began. 1979,
right? Games at Wells Park! State tournament in St. Cloud! Exciting
times.
And
here we are all these years later. And how far will the 2026 Tigers go?
The real question is: can we get past the southern Minnesota teams in
section? Speaking of magic touch, the southern teams so often seem to
have that. We'll see.
"Maxpreps"
tells us that Tiger softball blew out two opponents on Saturday here.
Man, 15-0 over Alexandria! Over the "big town." And 15-0 over Grand
Rapids too. Another big or at least well-known town. We can handle the
northern teams. Soon we'll find out about the southern ones like JCC.
"Minnesota
Scores" has our record at 20-3. We won on three successive days with
the success coming vs. West Central Area 14-4, DGF 8-4 and Border West
4-3. The Border West game was a rare challenge. They are a top Class A
team. Includes Herman, CGB and Wheaton.
Our
pitcher Haley Kill has reached the 500-strikeout plateau. This came in a
game versus St. Cloud Cathedral. She passed Mackenzie Weatherly in MACA
annals. Kill is over 50 in career wins. On her way up she passed Tammy
Kukla who I remember well and wrote about for the Morris paper back in
the day. The radio station website has Kukla's name spelled wrong but I
of course remember.
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| (Image from KMRS-KKOK site) |
- Brian Willilams - morris mn minnesota - musicstuff54@gmail.com
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