Nighttime and the dark as hazy buffer time

Does your mind work differently before the sun comes up? Do you even have a chance to test this, or are you simply too harried? Do you traipse off zombie-like to your worldly commitments, shortly after the sun comes up? Hopefully you have a chance to drift.

Time can seem suspended in the hours before daylight. It's like a relief zone from the so-called real world. At least that's how I find it. Today there's an increasing need for relief from the harried pace, from the need to check all your electronic devices all the time etc.
My own electronic assets have remained minimal. I use public computers. I don't use Facebook. I blog because I'm a lifelong practitioner of long-form journalism. I have two free email accounts.
The 20-year-old Brian Williams of 1975 would be startled reading those last two sentences. Blogging and emailing would have been mind-boggling in the disco decade. And yet, those two platforms are just scratching the surface for what people do today.
Heck, we would have been startled just learning of VHS tapes. It'd be a miracle punching in a movie and watching at your convenience, and watching it again. If there was something "hot" on TV then, you had to sit down at the advertised time and make sure to watch it then. You might not get another chance! Imagine that.
I used to go to our Morris Public Library to read Time Magazine. We'd use the "card catalog." The tech advancements have virtually crushed boredom.
We see the Butch Patrick character in "The Phantom Tollbooth" looking incurably bored in the 1960s movie. People my age can relate to him. He drags himself into his house at the end of a school day. There is no special stimulation available for him. If that movie were to be re-made today, the approach would be 180 degrees different: the Patrick character would need relief not from boredom, but from all the pervasive and tempting electronic distractions all around him, and on him.
"The Phantom Tollbooth" is a fascinating story much like "The Wizard of Oz." The movie uses mostly animation. A re-make would have real potential although with that different emphasis from the original. Butch Patrick, incidentally, played the little boy in the classic TV series "The Munsters."
In the '60s and '70s we never could have foreseen that boredom would someday be eliminated. It's one of the great miracles of history. Because the development proceeded slowly, we didn't notice it all that much. We grasped at each new development and then felt we were entitled to it - we expected them to get better too.
We erased from our minds those memories of when we had to get along without all that stuff. Time Magazine at the library! We had few tools for really asserting our own identity - our own creative talents. We had to accept creative people and what they fed us from a separate world, a world centered in the Northeastern U.S.
Stimulated as we are today, we need a respite now and then. We may have a hard time even finding enough time to sleep. We hear about sleep-deprived drivers. We hear about distracted drivers causing horrible, even fatal accidents.
Maybe we need to covet sleep more. Maybe we should take a long look at how we plan our sleep. Even with 10-12 hours of repose in each 24-hour cycle, we are left with plenty of time in which to energetically pursue our worldly aims.
Keep in mind that our sleep doesn't need to be continuous. It is fascinating to awake in the middle of the night and to rustle around, pondering some of your life's issues without the harried atmosphere of daytime pressing on you. The world can still be a most placid place, a place where time can actually seem suspended.
I have developed a pattern of retiring early at night. It might even be before 9 p.m. I awaken at 2 or 3 a.m. I brew some instant coffee and usually do some writing, by pen in a good old-fashioned spiral notebook. I'm quite contemplative at that time. It's a state of mind that can't seem to be duplicated at any other time of day. In experiencing this, I'm duplicating a lifestyle that was quite typical in a long-ago time.
Part of the experience is to return to slumber as morning approaches. This I do on the davenport. Finally ol' Sol comes up from the horizon. That middle-of-night episode seems as if it happened in another dimension.
Back in the days before gas and then electricity, my rhythm of night-to-day was standard. Nighttime projected a whole different atmosphere. It called for different sleep patterns. We were forced to slow down considerably. That's not to say our minds couldn't be engaged - they were engaged in a different way.
The forces of order were forces of light. Chaos reigned in the dark. The early modern period saw Europeans living in two worlds, one marked by light and the rules of society, and the other blending anxiety and fantasy in a dreamy kind of community. Terrors and dangers were courted when the sun went down. People got lost and fell into ditches. People could fear the mysteries of darkness even when inside, behind walls and shutters.
Candlelight spelled a fire danger. Can you imagine being dependent on candlelight? The North American colonies experienced this world. Nighttime was an alternate reality for a substantial portion of the pre-industrial population. Darkness could provide an alluring freedom. Just watch out for ditches.
People slept differently in those long-ago times. It evokes the same fears we might have when reading The Brothers Grimm. Our circadian patterns had not been altered by the persistence of light beyond sunset. Like yours truly today, people had a "first sleep" after which they'd awaken for a time, shuffling around and perhaps attending to minor business, and then go back to snoring for a time.
Modern lighting has altered the state of our biology, as well as our society. A character in "Canterbury Tales" decides to go back to bed after his "firste sleep." A doctor in England concluded that the time between the two sleep periods was "the best for study and reflection."
No LEDs or wall sconces. We seemed to follow the more natural rhythm of God's creation. Let darkness surround us, and let us adjust, even with some anxiety.
Maybe we weren't meant to totally conquer darkness. Maybe we're supposed to be humbled by it. Maybe darkness is the hand of God insisting we feel some humility at the force of his creation. Maybe he's telling us to just hunker down in a more limited world. Maybe defying or denying the dark is a way of dissing God's creation.
We hear so many people complain of sleep problems. Gas and then electricity has changed the nightscape into an extension of our worlds of work and play. Sleep was once segmented, whereas today we have the "consolidated" model for sleep, also called "mono phasic."
Some medical researchers think the old way was better. An academic named A. Roger Ekirch has researched and written about this. His main tome: "At Day's Close: Night in Times Past." It came out in 2005.
Ekirch pored over old diaries, medical books, court records and literature. People referred to their "first" and "second" sleep. The references vanished over a relatively brief time in the late 17th Century. Street lighting was improved. People who were uplifted by tech became more time-conscious as a result of efficiency.
So, we have the world of today, where people stream around zombie-like constantly connected to all the electronic stuff. We are totally caffeinated, all the time. We can forget it didn't used to be like this.
Boomers like me can forget. We forget boredom and the stupid things we used to do to deal with it.
Butch Patrick's character found escape in an animated fantasy world. "Digitopolis" was a city built on the importance of numbers. Another city accented words. Which was more important? We were made to ponder. An orchestra director would get on his podium and "direct" the sunset. There was no wicked witch, otherwise this world seemed much like Oz.
Today the escape place would not be from boredom and the mundane demands of a boring world, rather we'd need escape from the caffeinated reality we find ourselves in during daylight. We need a reprieve. We need a new approach to nighttime.
Maybe our ancestors benefited from the limitations they lived with.
Maybe we ought to feel a special fascination with nighttime. Let it cast its eerie spell on us. Let it humble us. Maybe that awakening period affords us a better chance for thought and reflection. Forget the hands on the clock. Let nighttime prevail with its distinctive, albeit somewhat scary spell.
But don't fall into ditches.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

World Cup? MN Kicks soccer once captivated us

All this World Cup Soccer buzz has gotten us thinking again: is soccer firmly implanting itself in our consciousness now? It would be nice if we could resoundingly answer "yes." It might mean that a big wave of young men would take a fresh and enthusiastic look at a sport other than football. No longer would football, a brutal sport, be considered some sort of rite of passage - a badge of machismo.

Football has been getting dragged, rather grudgingly to a degree, into the 21st Century. No longer is a dissing of gay people considered a prerequisite attitude for donning of the pads. Football is having to watch its back. The insurance industry will see to that, and lawyers. Meanwhile we have the sport embraced all over the world, soccer, lurking as the alternative.
Is the World Cup a turning point? It remains to be seen. Soccer has always gotten a periodic bump in popularity. The problem is to sustain it.
Time has separated us from the Minnesota Kicks chapter of Minnesota history. If you're young you might need a primer. You might need a primer about Metropolitan Stadium. "The Met" was that grand castle-like structure on the Bloomington MN prairie. It was built as a lure for major league baseball. But, we had to wait five years for the majors to come here.
Calvin Griffith brought his Washington Senators. Minnesota immediately fell in love with the team, re-named the Twins. My generation of the boomers got on board with the enthusiasm. We were transfixed as such iconic early players as Zoilo Versalles, Earl Battey and Camilo Pascual plied their talents.
The boomers could be a fickle crowd, though. By the time the 1970s dawned, we weren't quite so enthused about baseball. We were ecstatic about the purple Vikings. Perhaps we had gotten spoiled by the Twins' success of the 1960s. Our attention span always was limited. We seemed to be itching for something new. And, we certainly got it.
The year was 1976. We were bathing in the disco '70s. "Happy Days" gave us that ridiculous "jumping the shark" episode that grew into a popular expression. When a particular entertainment commodity got stale and started doing anything to jump-start its popularity, it had "jumped the shark."
Boomers learned of a totally new entertainment commodity that was going to sprout at the Met.
We had always known about soccer. We considered it a boring unit in phy. ed. We were supposed to jog around until getting close to the ball and then try to kick it. We never developed a refined sense of the sport. We might groan when informed by the phy. ed. teacher that we were going to play soccer. We much preferred "scatterball." But we developed a sense of what soccer was.
Through the media we learned of a certain mania that prevailed about soccer over much of the world. We were a little puzzled. Scoring seemed so limited in so many of the games. Players seemed to run about in a random fashion. Soccer was a curiosity.
Then in 1976, with "Fonzie" holding forth in our culture, we learned of a serious big league soccer venture that would make its home in Minnesota and out at our "Met." Hmmm. Could it captivate us? As I said, boomers had begun yawning about the Twins, a trend I didn't necessarily understand or support. My compatriots of that restless generation were ready for something fresh.
So along came the Minnesota Kicks! All hail the Kicks. Minnesotans as a whole seemed ready for something fresh. Casinos hadn't sprouted yet. Without gambling, institutions like the Carlton Celebrity Room just couldn't make it, try as it might. Minnesotans cast about, and led by its teeming boomer population, discovered soccer and the Kicks. It was an amazing episode in Minnesota history. We ought to be reminded about how the Kicks drew such huge fan numbers to the Bloomington prairie.
The Kicks came here from Denver where they were known as the Dynamos. The Kicks were born amidst a truly big league promotional and marketing campaign. The team got started with two road games, both losses. So, was the whole venture going to fade? It was Mother's Day, Sunday, May 9, when our Kicks strode onto the Met Stadium turf to discover 20,000 fans, quite affectionate in their disposition. We were neophyte followers of the sport. It didn't matter.
Food company executives were the team's investors. The temperature was a most pleasing 83 degrees for May 9. Only a few more than 17,000 tickets were even printed! Team officials were hopeful for a crowd of about 12,000. The game was slated to start at 3 p.m. About 17,000 fans already had their fannies in the seats. But outside, lines at the ticket booths were growing! Ah, the vagaries of the entertainment industry.
Jack Crocker, chairman of the Kicks, knew all about supermarket courtesy. He was the head of Super Valu. He did just what Paul Martin, our local Super Valu operator, would do. Our local Super Valu has always been "home of the people lovers." Crocker enlisted help to take rolls of tickets through the lines.
This action wasn't sufficient to diminish the rush. Team execs had to be pinching themselves. Crocker threw his arms up, in effect, but most delightfully, and decreed that anyone still waiting should be admitted for free. Nearly 3,000 fan hopefuls were given a pass for paying and they ended up out in left field, where no reserved tickets had been printed. This gesture was a public relations bonanza, endearing the Kicks to virtually the whole state's population.
The Met Stadium playing field was now a "pitch." The English-born players became known to us as "lads" and "chaps." We learned to describe a 1-0 score as "ace-nil." In that debut game on Mother's Day of '76, the Kicks defeated the San Jose Earthquakes 4-1. Alan Willey was a most popular "lad" as he scored two goals.
Remember the coach's name? It was Freddie Goodwin.
In 1977 the Kicks would play their opener at home. The date was May 8, an early date for trying to count on ideal weather, but again God seemed to bless the affair. The temperature was 76 degrees. Fair and mild conditions prevailed for the whopping 35,966 fans who attended. Willey had taken on the nickname "Artful Dodger." He scored all three goals in a most pleasing 3-0 win over Team Hawaii.
Fast-forward to 1978, the year I graduated from college: Now the Kicks took the field, or "pitch," before 36,057 admiring fans. The temperature was 60 degrees and skies were overcast. The Kicks prevailed 2-1 over Dallas.
In 1979 those vagaries of Minnesota weather came forth. It was a rainy and windy Sunday with the thermometer showing 42 degrees at the 3 p.m. start time. Still, 24,131 enthusiastic souls showed up to watch and to enjoy the Kicks' 4-1 win over Atlanta.
The vagaries of our weather turned up the heat for a July of 1977 game, a game played on a day with the mercury hitting a record-matching 100 degrees! We didn't talk of global climate change back then. The Kicks and a Swedish first division club named Hammarby took the field in the evening with the temperature having "retreated" to 95. This was a mere exhibition match. It didn't seem to matter much for Kicks fans. Joe Soucheray described the fan turnout of 24,032 as "scantily dressed even for a Kicks crowd." So, you can just imagine.
In retrospect, Kicks soccer has become known as sort of a faddish mecca-type gathering for the young boomers. Although I never attended a game, I can easily imagine all the distractions, foolishness and even debauchery that was engaged in.
Maybe I should say "especially" debauchery. I worked at a summer resort in 1973 where I observed behavior some of which I wouldn't even want to describe here. If your parents are boomers, you will probably find them tight-lipped or maybe even in denial about this. Today they believe in a strict work ethic, a structured and responsible daily routine and discipline. They might even be tea partiers politically: "To hell with everyone else, I'm just going to get mine."
Believe me, in the 1970s these creatures were quite different. We were hedonistic but at the same time altruistic with our personal political and philosophical attitudes. Does the aging process itself change us?
You would think the aging boomers of today would be gushing for the more lenient stance toward marijuana use sweeping the nation. However, I learn that we are not disposed this way, we are in fact advising caution, even though we once purchased Cheech and Chong LPs. You'd show up for fall classes in college and be assigned to a roommate who had that little bag of marijuana tucked away somewhere.
We reveled in the lowered drinking age. We partied and listened to deafeningly loud rock music, played on our "stereos." A good sound system was expensive. Vinyl records were expensive. Today you might get a souvenir CD as a freebie with a box of breakfast cereal. Wow!
The boomers with all their fun-seeking vices showed up en masse for Minnesota Kicks games. People joked about how all the "extracurricular" stuff was the real attraction for the youth, not so much the soccer. That was true but only to an extent. Minnesotans got a real taste of serious soccer thanks to the Kicks of the disco '70s. It was a quite extended run.
But it was destined not to last. These boomlets of soccer popularity seem always to fade, only to be resurrected later. The sport of football has to be whistling past the graveyard about this. Sometime that soccer popularity is going to reside permanently in our consciousness.
Think back to August 25 of 1976, when fans seemed to almost beat down doors to take in a soccer game at the Met. The Kicks' largest crowd ever turned out that night. The Kicks took on San Jose and won 3-1 in the Pacific Conference championship game. The official fan turnout was 49,572. Team officials were convinced that the extent of humanity was actually in the vicinity of 50,000-plus. They were assembled at every available vantage point - on the grassy knoll between the third base bleachers and the left field pavilion. They were under the scoreboard. They "stood like sentinels around the upper perimeters of the stadium," Soucheray wrote. It was a typically steamy summer night, 86 degrees, at a time when people were of a mood to cling to summer with school starting not far off.
I suppose it was State Fair time. The football goalposts were up for a Vikings exhibition. Fans celebrated by taking down those posts - a fact I hate reporting in light of Morris history (the death of a student here in such an episode). The sod got ripped up in souvenir-size chunks. "This must be the sports story of the year," Kicks exec Jim Ruben said. League Commissioner Phil Woosnam went a step further with his comment: "This is the sports story of the century."
What incredible memories. But they seem sort of lost now. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could resurrect all that? Will the World Cup be a catalyst for that? It could be, but no signs exist of this now.
Let's hope. Let's remember those glorious orange Minnesota Kicks T-shirts that became like a uniform for the boomer generation of the '70s. The memories are far more warm than for "Happy Days" and that shark-jumping. BTW I watched that episode at my St. Cloud apartment when it was first aired.
"Happy Days" could be "appointment TV" for us youth. Same with "Kung Fu" and "Mash." We had the "monoculture" in those days. We were way pre-Internet and pre-digital. Somehow we got by.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Be patient with miserable news - it can end

I swore as a kid that Viet Nam (the war) and inflation would be with us forever. Boomers have such memories.

The "baby boom cohort No. 2," of which I'm a member, is a little too young to have been threatened by the draft itself. However, we soaked in all the miserable news. Many of us had older siblings or friends of the family who were directly affected.
Michael Kinsley once wrote that inflation comes along once every generation, for a reason. The reason is that we can forget how ominous and pernicious it is. We forget, then we let it slip into our reality again.
It's true there are blips of inflation today. But hey, you young 'uns, you know nothing about what a dark cloud this can be - a world in which restaurants must have new menus printed often, such is the nature of price hikes.
The Morris McDonald's restaurant has hiked some prices too much for my tastes recently. The interval between the last two was too brief for me, so I have made a "statement" by deciding to go to Willie's in the morning where I can get a creme-filled bismark and free coffee (in a Willie's mug) for a total price of 65 cents. It seems too good to be true, which it may well be, so I'm holding my breath hoping that cost won't get bumped up. The only disadvantage is that I don't have access to the Star Tribune which I probably would have at McDonald's.
It doesn't seem as necessary today to view the Star Tribune. I have noticed of late, the mere existence of a "sports section" in the Star Tribune bothers me. These huge photos of athletes. Those reams of data about various sports teams. Are we really all that interested? Is the traditional "sports section" becoming a vestige of a bygone time?
Many of us remain interested in sports, to be sure. I have fallen out of those ranks. But the sports aficionados have endless data conveniently available to them through today's electronic media. Take ESPN for example. My generation could hardly have envisioned such things when we were young. No, we couldn't envision them. Movies that you could check out from the library, punch into a device and watch (or re-watch) at your convenience? And today, we're told that those old "tapes" are obsolete and on the way out. The library isn't adding to its tape collection, I'm told. DVDs are the norm of course. As a kid I would have considered the tapes nothing short of a miracle.
Our library in Morris has been through a disastrous summer. Summer is a time when families with young children use the library as a means of advancing knowledge and learning. These families have been challenged to fill the gap I'm sure. They'd likely have to spend some money to do so.
The library is a priceless public resource that relieves people of having to spend that money. Our Morris Public Library with that "flat roof" got done in by simple rain. Just to show that wasn't a fluke, the Catholic School was afflicted by the same debacle.
On Sunday I was told by a city council person that a "softball" was the culprit at the library, blocking drainage. A softball! I wonder how that thing got deposited up there. Kids fooling around, no doubt. I remember that when I was a kid at Longfellow Elementary, the big challenge for boys, the oldest of whom were in third grade, was to be able to throw a rubber ball up on top of the building. We'd play a game where a ball was thrown off the side of the building and then there was a scramble to see who could catch it. Occasionally one of the older boys could get the ball way on top.
If a mere softball can render our library more or less a disaster area, I'd suggest there are design flaws in the place.
The word on the street about the Catholic school is that a "wine bottle" blocked drainage. That's just as weird and disturbing, not to mention rather Biblical, one might suggest.
The father character in the movie "Spencer's Mountain" rejected religion because it frowned on drinking and some other vices that he had no problem with (like card-playing, dancing and kissing). Henry Fonda played that character. The movie has a distinction of giving us perhaps the saddest scene in all of movie history: when the tree falls on the old man, remember?
Us boomers learned the Viet Nam war could finally reach its end. You see, the losing sides in wars - we were the losing side - generally desist when they run out of money. As loud as the Viet Nam protests were, this element was probably less important than the sheer drain on our financial resources.
As for inflation, we learned that this, too, wasn't like some mysterious boogeyman that would hover outside our control. Economics is a science. There are ways to extinguish inflation if this is the desired outcome. Paul Volcker took over at the Federal Reserve. We took our medicine.
Boomers look at the Viet Nam war and pernicious inflation in the rear-view mirror. However, there is one very real boogeyman that persists. The boomers may well go to their graves seeing no relief from this. What I'm referring to, is the seemingly endless depressing news about the Israelis vs. Palestinians.
Dave Barry has written about this. Barry embodies the boomers' consciousness. Normally a humor writer, Barry wrote  with a quite serious tone about the annoying repetitiveness of headlines about Israelis vs. Palestinians. He even questioned the news judgment. "News" is defined as man bites dog. We don't go out to the airport to cover all the successful landings and takeoffs. Israelis vs. Palestinians isn't man bites dog, because it has become the virtual norm.
Barry wrote his piece at the time when "suicide bombers" were cropping up in the news. The first few may have been "news." But Barry argued that as this phenomenon became day-to-day, each instance didn't need to generate such breathless news coverage.
Right now we are getting the drumbeat of updates on that miserable conflict. My viewpoint is the same as Helen Thomas'. I won't elaborate.
What if we could wake up some morning and learn that the "Middle Eastern strife" was over? Well, Viet Nam ended as did inflation. Miracles happen.
Here in Morris, the upcoming Stevens County Fair should get us all cheered up. It has been a disappointing summer, what with the infrastructure disasters I cited, and the culmination of this very disturbing episode involving our high school principal. The only "winner" in that episode was the principal himself. Otherwise that episode leaves quite unsavory residue for the community. I'm very curious how things will go when activity picks up at the school and the school year nears.
Will parents truly be comfortable having this individual "back in the saddle," as it were? I'm not totally comfortable but maybe I've become more Puritanical in my advancing age. Perhaps my sense of morals and decency is actually higher than the Morris Area school board's. Perhaps I'm a hopeless prude, worthy of laughter as I continue my lifestyle of having hot chocolate before going to bed, retiring at about 9 p.m., rising at about 5 a.m., sitting on the portico in the afternoon and going to church and church pot lucks.
Go ahead and laugh at me, this is how I live. If drinking, bar cruising and recreational sex are your lifestyle, then you're on a different wavelength from me.
See you at the fair. You'll probably find me on a chair in front of the rest cottage. Say "hi."

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Osakis Legion boys carry District 7 banner

Osakis has the banner for District 7 in the upcoming state Legion baseball tournament. Osakis vied with New London-Spicer at the end. These quality units did battle at the Montevideo diamond.

The District 7 tournament is a long road. The double-elimination format spells lots of games and lots of excitement. The 2014 affair did not disappoint.
Not surprisingly, Ky Zimmel was a hero at the end. The score stood 6-6 in the seventh when Zimmel stepped up to bat. He's a marquee performer. Zimmel's Osakis unit represented the winners bracket. An RBI in the seventh would end the District 7 tournament and have Osakis advancing.
NL-Spicer was going to have to win twice. NL-Spicer was a gritty unit throughout the tournament and you couldn't bet against them. But Zimmel wasn't going to allow for any more suspense. Zimmel drove the ball to right. Would it land fair or foul? It "hugged the line," fair, which brought an ecstatic reaction from the Osakis players and fans.
Zimmel's double brought Jordan Frederick home from second, standing up. So, Osakis is the 7-6 victor and can prepare for more conquests in the spotlight of state.
Osakis led 4-0 at one point. Like I stated, NL-Spicer was gritty and in this game, fought to assume the lead at 5-4 when five innings were done.
Osakis was throttled for four innings vs. the pitching of athlete of note Ryan Vraa. Vraa was on in relief. Vraa couldn't shut the door in the bottom of the sixth. Osakis had the bottom of its order up to bat. No matter. Those batters ignited a two-run rally. So the score is 6-5 with Osakis back up after six innings.
The top of the seventh saw NL-Spicer's Brett Olson pull in at second base thanks to a fielder's choice and error. There are two outs. Osakis was error-prone in this game. No. 9 batter Tyler Gislason found a Frederick delivery to his liking. Pow! Gislason hit a drive into left. Olson eyed home plate all along. But it appeared at one point that he wouldn't make it. Ah, the relay from third went awry! Olson scores and the score is 6-6.
Frederick singled to lead off the bottom of the seventh. Vraa couldn't shut the door, and Zimmel took care of business with his sizzling double. Game over.
Jonny DeGeest was the NL-Spicer starting pitcher. He had arm trouble. Vraa had pitched six innings on Thursday. One day's rest would hardly seem sufficient. Whitey Herzog once wrote that a pitcher injures his arm on every pitch. It's an odd trait of the sport. Vraa sought to be undaunted going to the mound in the second. He ended up taking the loss.
Zimmel pitched four and a third innings for the victor. He fanned seven batters and gave up six hits. Frederick got the win with his stint of two and two-thirds innings (one strikeout, zero walks).
Frederick had two hits in four at-bats for Osakis, plus he stole a base. Jarrett Weispfening had a two-for-three line. Gislason was the only NL-S batter with multiple hits.
Osakis carries a superlative 17-1 record into state. What a ride! Luverne is the host site for state, set for August 1-3.
  

New London-Spicer 7, Madison 3

Madison's successful 2014 Legion season ended shy of state. Madison closes out its 2014 summer with a 15-5 record. These athletes are largely associated with the Lac qui Parle school. They were shown the exits in the District 7 tournament as the result of a 7-3 loss to New London-Spicer.
NL-Spicer shot out to a 6-0 lead through the first three innings. NL-S played errorless ball while Madison had one error. Madison held its own in hitting with nine safeties compared to NL-S's ten.
The nine hits weren't enough against NL-S's impressive stable of athletes including Ike Goetzman who doubled twice and tripled. Trey Austvold went two-for-four with an RBI. Ryan Vraa wasn't to be overlooked as this star doubled and scored twice as part of going two-for-three. Brett Olson went two-for-three, scored two runs and drove in one. Goetzman was a perfect three-for-three. Alex Goff tripled.
Tyson Gislason was the winning pitcher. The loss went to Austin Haas.
Brandon Hill made noise with his bat for Madison, going three-for-four including a double and triple, and driving in a run. I will bet that Brandon's dad is Bart Hill, well known to me through his youth in Morris and his own sports exploits!

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Hill pitches, hits well in 5-2 Madison triumph

Brandon Hill pitched the whole way and made noise with his bat Thursday (7/24). Hill's Madison Legion team got the upper hand over BOLD. The score was 5-2 at the Montevideo diamond. The Legion Division II playoffs are accelerating toward a climax.

Will Madison have what it takes to garner the District 7 crown? Madison is roughly equivalent to "Lac qui Parle." During the school year they're the "Eagles." At present they are eyeing high heights in the American Legion tournament season.
Brandon Hill was steady if not overpowering on Thursday. He fanned just one batter but walked no one in his seven innings. He overcame seven BOLD hits. The defense around him wasn't perfect. Each team committed two errors. BOLD actually out-hit Madison 7-6.
Madison owns a glittering 15-4 season mark. The next game is presented tonight (Friday). Game-time is 6:30 p.m. as Madison will square off vs. New London-Spicer. BOLD closes out its 2014 Legion campaign with a 12-5 mark.
Madison surged in the fourth inning vs. BOLD. Four runs came home, all but one of their game total. Madison had scored one run in the second frame, which made the score 1-1. BOLD went up 2-1 in the third. The stage was set for Madison's offense to make some noise in the fourth. That four-run rally ended the scoring for both teams, and Madison could prepare for further conquests while BOLD closed out its season.
Legion baseball is an enriching outlet for high school-age boys in summertime.
Brandon Hill had a two-for-four line in the boxscore and drove in a run. Ty Kanstrup had a double as part of going two-for-four, and he drove two runs across the plate. Garrett Olson went one-for-three with an RBI. Austin Haas added a hit to the mix and drove in a run.
BOLD has a talented stable of athletes too. Trent Athmann had two hits including a double. Trevor Nissen socked a double and scored two runs. Riley Kramer and Logan Sandgren each had a hit and an RBI. The attack was rounded out by Tyler Rock and Max Buchtel each with one hit.
BOLD employed the pitching arms of Lane Stadther (the loser) and Ben Steffel.
  
Oaskis 3, NL-Spicer 0

Jordan Frederick was quite proficient on the pitching mound Thursday. Frederick of Osakis propelled his team further in the District 7 action. He tossed a one-hitter at a quality New London-Spicer foe.
Osakis is rewarded by getting into the championship game. NL-Spicer will keep plugging away too. Double-elimination means there's no shortage of action at the Montevideo diamond.
Frederick had a no-hitter going for Osakis until the sixth inning. Ike Goetzman finally got to him with a single that led off the sixth. So much for that suspense. But Frederick wrapped things up in a workmanlike way. He ended up with seven strikeouts in his full seven innings. His control won a top-notch grade too: one walk.
The NL-Spicer fielding did not win a top-notch grade. The line score shows four errors while Osakis committed just one. Pitcher Ryan Vraa wasn't able to overcome those errors for NL-Spicer. Just one of the three runs that Vraa allowed was earned. He set down seven batters on strikes, walked three and gave up six hits.
Drew Fearing was Osakis' offensive leader with a two-for-three line and two runs scored.
It will be either NL-Spicer or Madison who will take on Osakis at 11 a.m. Saturday, again in Monte. Fans are feeling high anticipation.
  

School calendars arrive

Adults are probably more enthusiastic about the new school year nearing than the kids. Us adults pulled the new school calendar out of the mailbox a few days ago.
Pretty soon Labor Day weekend will be here. First there's the county fair, one of the last big "blasts" of summer. What a blast it is! Maybe the pattern of unpleasant weather will break and we'll have nothing but 80-degree temperatures and sunshine. We'll hope for rain if we need it, which right now I would say we don't.
MAHS will have its principal back. Many of us are curious how exactly that's going to go over. School is a big enough challenge to manage without salacious, controversial or legal entanglements. Can Morrissites put the mess of the past behind them? Honestly I don't think so.
Let me tell you my biggest fear: a fractious school staff. There is already evidence of a faction of teachers acting like absolute cheerleaders over the principal's return. I suspect another faction will have reservations, only because the episode of last year just doesn't pass the smell test, as it were. In my eyes, the smell test cannot be dismissed.
Wouldn't it be nice if that whole episode hadn't happened? How can you describe it as anything but a black mark?
I don't personally know the principal. I wish him well. But the road ahead could have its share of ruts as our school district seeks normalcy. I think the teaching staff might have to be mollified. These people should keep to themselves on matters not directly related to the awesome task of teaching. Defer to the school board.
Teachers are notorious for showing a guild mentality. At times their clannishness is overbearing and even annoying. I have observed this much through the years.
I'm just speculating, but I think the Morris board of education will try to ensure that the teachers simply "put their blinders on" when school starts.
Is it true that most school districts would have terminated the principal at the time of the legal charges/police report, and not waited for the legal process to play itself out? I have heard this analysis but am not sure of its accuracy.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Continued ascent by NL-Spicer in Legion ball

Attention turns to the Montevideo diamond for the closing stages of District 7 play. The Division II tournament is building up steam. The "final 4" phase of districts is on. Our Morris Post 29 team came up shy of that level.

Morris did notch a tournament win over New London-Spicer, score of 4-3. But now it's NL-Spicer that is climbing, while the Morris boys have hung up their cleats. Morris bowed in a re-match vs. NL-Spicer. Morris also tasted defeat vs. Osakis. The two losses spelled an exit from the district tourney.
The NL-Spicer boys triumphed Tuesday in Montevideo. Ryan Vraa continued with his hot bat, contributing two hits in the 10-8 win. Now the NL-Spicer crew is focused on trying to beat Osakis. NL-Spicer and Osakis will vie in a late-evening game tomorrow (Thursday) in Montevideo.
Vraa, Trey Austvold and Ike Goetzman each had two hits in the Tuesday win over BOLD. BOLD stays alive and will play Madison Thursday in an elimination game. Madison was a 4-2 loser at the hands of Osakis.
BOLD made a good bid to get past NL-Spicer. BOLD had a one-run advantage after three innings. NL-S got a burst of "mo" in the fourth with four runs. Undaunted, the BOLD crew plated three runs in the fifth, so a most interesting game was developing. The score is knotted up.
NL-S pushed forward with a two-run rally in the sixth. Still undaunted, BOLD scored twice in its half of the sixth. A deadlocked score once again! The top of the seventh was the pivotal stage. It was NL-S seizing the momentum with two runs. BOLD put up a zero in its half. Game over.
NL-Spicer gets to play in the winners bracket game while BOLD seeks to regroup. Will it be NL-S or Osakis capturing the winners bracket? Can BOLD or Madison find new life? Fans are eagerly awaiting the outcome at the Monte field.
Michael Arnold tripled and doubled for NL-S Tuesday, while Trey Austvold socked a triple, and Ike Goetzman and Wyatt White contributed two-baggers. Ryan Vraa made his presence felt at bat - quite typical.
Vraa has had a four-for-four game along the way. Against Morris in his team's loss, he hit a very unusual drive that had the ball get lodged under the fence. Had the ball stayed free, the score would almost certainly have gotten tied and NL-Spicer's chances would have been substantially enhanced. The lodging forced a "ground rule double" call that hindered NL-Spicer.
I have been present at at least one game where a "lodging" incident like this happened, and I have seen teams most chagrined, and in at least one instance there were charges of a "faked" stuck ball. I'm surprised fields aren't designed to simply prevent this. You might say it's "bush league." In the recent game between Morris and New London-Spicer, it benefited Morris.
NL-Spicer overcame that misfortune. They're eyeing the District 7 crown at present.
 
Osakis 4, Madison 2

Ky Zimmel at the fore! Indeed, this premier Osakis athlete made the difference Tuesday. This he did with his bat and pitching arm.
Mr. Zimmel drove in the go-ahead runs in the fifth. His decisive RBIs came in Osakis' three-run fifth. The game's outcome was a 4-2 triumph by Osakis over Madison. Zimmel worked on the hill for six innings. He showed prowess with eleven strikeouts. He allowed just two earned runs.
Jordan Frederick's pitching arm was called upon for the seventh. Jordan fanned two batters and was awarded the save.
Zimmel's productive bat was complemented by Drew Fearing who tripled twice as part of a perfect three-for-three line. Drew crossed home plate twice.
Madison committed costly defensive lapses. Pitcher Garrett Olson was victimized by that. Better fielding would have allowed Olson to work smoothly. Such was not his lot on this day.
Dylan Lillejord doubled for Madison and drove in both his team's runs. Madison is a quite fine team that now owns a 14-4 record. They can't afford to lose again. They'll strive to get past BOLD, hopefully with more reliable gloves. All eyes are on the Montevideo diamond.
  

Let's look at our community, sans hype
Sometimes I think we have the Garrison Keillor syndrome in Morris, feeling convinced we're all above average. Keillor's fictional town certainly pats all its young people on the back. The kids are all wonderfully talented, at least in their parents' minds.
We can rationalize this by saying self-esteem is important. Studies have been done showing that even though USA education lags on a worldwide basis, our kids' perception of themselves and by extension their schools is much more generous than that. Superiority seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Or is it?
Our Morris is a little like an isolated island. Because of that we can create our own delusions. The surrounding towns have declined or rather they have adjusted, adjusted to becoming quite nice bedroom communities or havens for retirees. The towns are happy places but in some cases, not what they used to be. As a newspaper person I covered countless lively special events at the Alberta school. What has become of the Alberta school? Also in my career I covered Cyrus High School events including gala graduations. Such things seem to be gone with the wind. Starbuck has been through a similar scenario.
"The cheese stands alone" in Morris where we have the grand or maybe grandiose Morris Area School. The campus seems a bit much to me. Somehow we got all that built so I suppose we should thump our chest.
We got our absolutely state of the art football field built - look at the artificial turf. Big Cat Stadium is a shrine built to a sport, football, that is absolutely under siege today. If education reflects enlightenment, we should realize that football is a throwback sport that increasingly seems ill-advised. Its whole culture seems anachronistic. It reflects a time when macho males occupied a special privileged circle - boys blessed with bodies that were bigger and stronger. So what? We needn't pay attention or keep reinforcing that culture.
Morris as a whole projects a feeling of being the "cock of the walk," affording the best of most anything. Maybe compared to the small hamlets around us (and getting smaller), such effusive pride is called for.
Our family occasionally visits Fergus Falls and I can't help but think this is just as progressive a town as Morris. I would readily compare its assets with Morris. I will bet they have a public library that has been open all summer. I'll bet it's a quite fine library.
Here, because of a whopping dose of negligence by someone, the library has been scarred by a rather routine weather incident. The city blames a roofing company but I'm not sure this is the last word.
That incident should have put up a red flag, reminding everyone to be vigilant about water damage risks. I have been vigilant around our own house. But weeks after the library debacle, the very same thing happened to the Catholic school, maybe even worse. It takes herculean efforts to remedy this problem. The cost? It would be interesting to know the figure for both buildings. Insurance is involved - I should certainly hope so - but insurance companies don't just routinely cut huge checks without ramifications for the parties involved. Rain may be an act of God but these disasters were not acts of God. It wasn't too much to ask for preparedness to be exercised.
Morris regularly proclaims its fantastic quality of life. We can certainly brag about UMM and justifiably so. But I wonder how the community is really faring if you were to take UMM out of the equation. Too few people look at our community that way.
It's in UMM's interests for the outside community to thrive and be inviting. Yet we have only one real grocery store in the county. Coborn's used to be an asset with its 24-hour schedule. Coborn's is now a building on the edge of town with a message on the side proclaiming that it's open 24 hours. Except the building is vacated.
We have a McDonald's restaurant but its prices are constantly going up (and portion sizes are reportedly getting smaller). McDonald's has a monopoly of sorts too. We used to have a Burger King.
Where can people enjoy outdoor swimming around Morris? Come on, tell me. We used to have an earthen pool out at Pomme de Terre Park that for a while at least, was quite the rage. There was even a concession stand out there. (I heard the concession stand workers were paid ridiculously well.) Lifeguards were positioned. That pool would be right along the bike trail that circles the area.
The pool was closed and deteriorated to a swamp. I might have been one of the last people to swim there. (I got a bloodsucker.) Today there's a mere "spray park" that doesn't seem quite the same.
Morris is located close to Alexandria where the lakes are a huge attraction and swimming abounds, like with the Lake Latoka public beach. Alexandria is tempting for Morris residents for many reasons: its array of dining establishments, big box stores and lakes recreation. Let's be honest: Morris really does not compare well.
This is a town where you have to be scared to see a police car. I doubt that such fear circulates in Alexandria.
I recently contacted our local humane society, a spokesman of which in a terse manner referred me to the Lakes Area Humane Society in Alexandria. "Our kennel is full," she said. I'm glad I have never made a monetary donation to our humane society. Incidentally, we were undecided about keeping a stray cat but we decided to keep it for the foreseeable future, if it can become a little less "hyper." We have had him to the vet! We call him "Toby."
Alexandria has a new public school campus, right? And I'll bet Alex has school administrators who are non-controversial and non-notorious with their behavior. Morris certainly can't claim that! So, I'm not sure we abide by Garrison Keillor's criteria for being so wondrously above-average, unless said perception is only in our own heads (which I think it is).
Maybe "I Love Morris" for the intangibles!

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Vraa stymies Post 29 in Legion playoff action

American Legion baseball fans gathered in Wheaton over the weekend to take in playoff action. It's a nice ballfield on the edge of town. Wheaton is a quiet community on the flat prairie. It grew abuzz for the District 7 North playoffs, with much at stake.

Our Morris team entered the weekend with no margin for error. We had been dealt a loss by Osakis. Two losses and you're out.
Click on the permalink below to read my summary of the Osakis game (score of 2-0).
http://morrisofcourse.blogspot.com/2014/07/bump-in-road-for-morris-legion-boys-2-0.html
  
A familiar opponent
Morris had beaten New London-Spicer. Thus, by the time Morris and NL-Spicer met again, each team was in the losers bracket. They met on Sunday.
NL-Spicer was clearly putting that defeat behind them. Don't ever bet against the athletes from NL-Spicer. During the school year they are rather like a nemesis for us. They were a nemesis again Sunday.
Ryan Vraa was handed the ball for pitching duties for NL-S. He's a premier athlete. I remember a Vraa in UMM Cougar sports history. On Sunday the young Mr. Vraa threw a three-hitter at Morris' expense. The score was 7-1 as NL-Spicer took charge and sent the Post 29 crew to the showers. Ryan fanned six batters and walked just one. The one run he allowed was unearned.
Noah Grove and Riley Biesterfeld did the Motown pitching. Biesterfeld was tagged with the loss.
The second inning was when NL-S began taking charge. Trey Austvold and Lucas Nordmeyer hit RBI singles in NL-S's three-run second. NL-S scored one run each in the first and third frames, while all the while Morris was putting up zeroes. Vraa and his mates ruled the day.
NL-Spicer tends to have "money" athletes, as it were. They won three games total on the weekend. They took second in District 7 North and are in for the District "Final 4." They were the No. 4 seed in the North. Now they'll play in Montevideo. Their next opponent is BOLD. NL-Spicer has nine wins total on the season.
Ike Goetzman rapped an RBI single in the fifth as NL-S went up 7-0 on Morris. Morris pushed across its only run in the sixth. Our line score was one run, three hits and three errors. NL-S put up 7-8-1 numbers.
The three Motown hits were by three different players: Corey Storck, Ryan Dietz and Joey DuFault. DuFault's hit was a double.
Austvold for the victor had a two-for-three line and two ribbies. Nordmeyer had a two-for-four showing and an RBI. Vraa socked a double. Wyatt White, Brett Olson and Goetzman each had a hit.
Morris fans can tuck away lots of fond memories from this summer of 2014.

  
NL-Spicer on a roll through weekend
The Saturday action had the New London-Spicer boys handling Clinton with ease via the 12-4 score. Clinton was the No. 2 seed.
On Sunday, in addition to beating our Post 29 team, NL-Spicer took care of business vs. Brandon-Evansville via a 6-2 score. We wish good luck to NL-Spicer, but we hope our high school athletes can turn the tables a little this coming school year!
Jonny DeGeest was the pitcher for NL-Spicer in the win over Brandon-Evansville. He was quite in command, striking out ten batters in his full seven innings. He walked just one and gave up four hits. NL-Spicer took charge in the third inning with a four-run rally.
More data vs. B-E: The NL-S bats produced nine hits total, and there was a nice "zero" under errors. Austvold went two-for-three. Nordmeyer had two hits including a double and drove in a run. Vraa continued his smooth play going two-for-four with an RBI. White, Gislason and Goetzman each had a hit. White and Gislason each drove in a run. Gage Olson of B-E hit a solo home run. The losing pitcher was Tom Bosek.
In Saturday's win over Clinton, Vraa was a terror at bat, socking a three-run home run and driving in four runs while going four-for-four. Oh, and he also tripled! Austvold went two-for-four in this 12-4 NL-Spicer win over the No. 2 seed. Nordmeyer went two-for-four. Brett Olson had a double and RBI while going two-for-three. Goetzman was a force with his three-for-four boxscore line and an RBI. White and Michael Arnold each had a hit, and Arnold drove in a run.
For Clinton, Wyatt Tritz and Kyle Lampert each had a double. Gislason showed his pitching prowess for the victor. Gislason struck out six batters in his route-going performance. Jordan Bauer took the loss.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com