Concern about football while we still watch

We see a major conflict of interest as we try to adjudicate the sport of football. Here in Morris is a prime example: Big Cat Stadium, a state of the art facility for high school and college football. Is it really necessary? It sits there all winter, dormant.
The last Tiger football game I ever covered for the print media was in Henning. There I saw the totally typical high school field from the days before these fancy artificial turf places. Am I suggesting that Henning is just as good? That's not really the point. The point is that we should not be investing in elaborate resources for football at all. We should keep what we have and begin preparing to phase that out.
I saw the movie "Concussion" a few days ago on DVD. I checked it out from our Morris Public Library. I'll insert a plug here for the library: I am very impressed by the availability of reasonably current movies there. You might have to request it and wait a few days - no big deal. Watching the movie at home is preferable to seeing it at the Morris Theater. You can follow the dialogue better. If I'm going to write about the movie online, I am going to want to hear all the dialogue well.
The Morris Theater has historically had sound issues. I have always felt this was because of the sheer size of the place: it's hard to distribute high-quality sound over all the space. The last movie I saw at the Morris Theater was "Tropic Thunder." At present, my system of getting movies from the Morris library is 100 percent satisfactory. Again, kudos to our library.
Word is, our library director isn't going to be staying there much longer. I'm very saddened by that. These plans can always change, as we are learning with Jacqueline Johnson, UMM chancellor. Remember, Bud Grant came back to coach the Minnesota Vikings! There I go making a light reference to pro football. We are so imbued with images and the history of pro and college football.
Football did not have that kind of position in our culture when I was in elementary school. It was almost marginalized. My parents gave the impression that it was a foreboding thing, not to be admired, because of the obvious violence. We saw football enter the real mainstream of our culture in the mid to late 1960s. I would say that was because of TV tech advancements making the picture sharper. Football steadily became an absolute opiate in our culture.
The popularity meant that boys and young men were going to push themselves ever harder to get bigger, stronger and faster, so as to become heroes on the gridiron. I heard coaches at banquets implore their young charges to "lift weights in the off-season." The idea was to knock opposing players on their keister. What a Neanderthal activity.
It belongs in an earlier age, an age when football was consistent with getting young men ready for military service and combat. We possessed the common sense in that earlier time to be fully aware of the dangers of football. Even if those dangers were merely physical and not related to the brain, football was a sport that should have been discouraged.
I will repeat: Any sport that is too dangerous for girls is probably too dangerous for everyone. Maybe it's time we excise this one last "masculine" sport. It's not the way we think nowadays.
I will also repeat: Why can't our entertainment industry do more to erode the popularity of football? It seems the whole entertainment machine slows down and capitulates to football at football's prime times of the week. Those times themselves have expanded, as you all are aware. When I was young and football began its burgeoning trend, football was confined to some quite specific times of the week.
Consider this principle of marketing: scarcity or the perception of scarcity has a lot to do with the popularity of something. The market can get saturated. But is the football market saturated yet? It ought to be. Unfortunately, or tragically, football casts this incredible allure that we just can't back away from. The young men playing the sport, much bigger and faster than they once were, are punishing themselves horribly out there.
I am fortunate in that I never had the potential to play football in anything like a competent way. But what about all the kids who get sucked into this sad obsession called football? Logic demands that we withdraw from the pastime of playing and watching it. If people stop watching, the  boys will stop playing. We are culpable: us fans.
Some people will read this and want to gnash their teeth. So many of us want to gloss over or ignore football's unavoidable dangers. We have watched football with such glee over such a long time. Getting rid of an addiction can be a painful process involving denial. What would our Sunday afternoons be like without football? What about Saturday when the collegians play?
There is so much money involved. There is so much marketing. Towns that invest in these artificial turf fields are going to want to keep feeding the monster. What if the boys, emboldened by the new knowledge, watching the movie "Concussion" among other things, just start walking away? They could so easily find more productive channels for their energies and interests after school. They could be friends with their peers from other communities, those young men who in football would be their "enemies" on the field, feeding pathetic small town parochialism of the type we saw in the movie "Hoosiers" (Gene Hackman).
In the early '50s we accepted the undesirable model. We are well into a new digital, information-infused age in which major wars and football should be put aside as relics. We fight pinprick wars today and even those are sad. There was no conscription for the Iraq War, unless you want to count the involuntary participation of National Guardsmen. The National Guard? Why did we call on our Guardsmen to fight a foreign war? Today there's an ever-growing consensus that that whole mess was a mistake. Including the cost of treating wounded soldiers, the cost to us was something like $6 trillion.
Centuries from now, wars and football will be seen as sad curiosities from an earlier epoch in human history. The movie "Concussion" might be seen as a little quaint because it seemed to be walking a fine line: showing us the obvious about football while still acknowledging its hallowed place in our lives and culture.
Given the demonstrable facts about football, our only conclusion is that it must be phased out as fast as possible. If we stop watching, the kids will stop playing. Think about the kids.

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

Tigers of softball, baseball end 2016 road

The diamond sports are done for the 2016 season, for Morris Area Chokio Alberta. Double-elimination can make things interesting in the post-season, although I can often get confused. You lose twice and then you're done.
The MACA softball girls had the fleeting exhilaration of beating New London-Spicer. Could they parlay that quality into subsequent games? Yes and no, as the Tigers split their next two tournament contests, before having the curtain come down on their season in a 10-7 loss to the Thunder Hawks of Montevideo, on Wednesday, June 1, at Marshall.
It seems a premature end to a a season that had so many highs: dominating wins, power bats etc. We might have expected more. Normally we expect the main challenge in the post-season to come from the teams way down south who seem to possess some mystical quality. Montevideo is generally not seen as in that category. But the T-Hawks had the tools to prevail in the June 1 game. So it's on to the summer months for Morris athletes, before the leaves start turning brown and we can look forward to volleyball. Remember last fall when the volleyball Tigers made state! Boffo.
 

Tigers 5, Windom 2

The first inning says it all in connection with this MACA softball win. We scored all five of our runs in the first inning. We played errorless ball. We scored the five runs on just three hits, while Windom had four hits. Windom committed two errors. This was one of two games the Tigers played on Tuesday, May 31, at Marshall.
Ashley Solvie connected for a two-run home run in the first inning. She had two RBIs. The other two MACA hits were by Lindsey Dierks and Madison Wevley.
The pitching department saw Solvie get the win and Brooke Gillespie the save. Solvie struck out a batter, walked one and gave up two hits in her four innings. Gillespie fanned a batter, walked one and gave up two hits in three innings of hurling. The losing pitcher was Faith Willard. Ellie Maricie also pitched for Windom. Willard's bat produced two hits.
 

Martin County West 4, Tigers 1

MACA dropped into the loser's bracket as a result of their Section 3AA loss to Martin County West. This was a winner's bracket semi-final game on May 31. Our bats were mostly quiet as we managed only two hits. Piper Gibson doubled and drove in the lone Tiger run in the fourth. Nicole Solvie had the other MACA hit. Karli Siegel scored our lone run.
Brooke Gillespie pitched like a trooper but was tagged with the loss. She fanned two batters, walked none and allowed eleven hits in her seven innings. She was out-dueled by Sierra Williamson of MCW. Williamson set down six Tiger batters on strikes. She walked two and gave up two hits in her seven innings.
MCW's Jessica Kilma had four hits in four at-bats. Jordan Gregory powered a double and a home run and drove in three runs. MCW scored two runs each in the third and fifth innings, while MACA plated its lone run in the fourth.
Our fielding was quite flawless: zero errors. MCW had two fielding miscues but they had other strengths to compensate. Surely hitting topped that list: eleven hits compared to the Tigers' two.
Alas, we were now in the loser's bracket and had no margin for failure. Failure occurred with that 10-7 loss at the hands of Monte. There would be no state tournament in the Tigers' script for 2016. There were plenty of successes along the way, to be sure. Plenty of memories to embrace from the diamond.
Now we'll start getting ready for fall sports. A key question: Will we see a drop-off in participation in football? Hopefully the answer will be "yes." I watched the movie "Concussion" with Will Smith a couple days ago on DVD.
 

Baseball: New London-Spicer 8, Tigers 5

The Wildcats of NL-Spicer always seem to be hovering out there as an obstacle for our MACA Tigers. It applies in baseball like in softball. The baseball Tigers came up against the Wildcats in loser's bracket play.
MACA fans were heartened by a strong start by their squad. The orange and black shot out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning. But MACA would not score again over the next five innings. That hurt. The Wildcats began clawing away, first with a two-run third inning. Then the Wildcats made a big step forward with a four-run rally in the fifth. The Tigers kept languishing at bat, while NL-Spicer moved forward with a two-run seventh.
MACA managed a feeble one-run rally in the bottom of the seventh, which wasn't going to be enough. We lost 8-5. Season over. It seemed our offense was slumbering too much in the closing stages of the season.
NL-Spicer had a line score of eight runs, eleven hits and three errors. Fielding was certainly no problem for us, as we had zero errors. Our hit total was eight.
The winning pitcher was Will Roguske who fanned five Tiger batters while walking two and allowing four hits. Matt Spaulding pitched 2 1/3 innings for the winner.
Sean Amundson was tagged with the pitching loss for MACA. He worked 4 1/3 innings with a strikeout total of three and walk total of three. He gave up seven hits. Toby Sayles hurled for 2 2/3 innings and fanned five batters while walking two and allowing four hits.
Sayles handled the bat well, recording two hits and driving in a run. Brady Jergenson had a pair of safeties and drove in a run. Robert Rohloff's bat was good for two hits in three at-bats. Philip Messner had a hit and a run scored. Sean Amundson crossed home plate once. Ryan Dietz came through with a hit, plus he drove in a run and scored one.
Two NL-Spicer batters had three hits each: Wyatt White and Evan Haugen. John Perkins went two-for-five for the victor.
 

Baseball: Minnewaska 2, Tigers 0

Austin VerSteeg's name is a most familiar one for MACA sports followers. This Minnewaska Area Laker was a thorn in our side in basketball. His talents flourish in the spring too. VerSteeg tossed a no-hitter at the expense of our MACA Tigers, leading his Lakers to a 2-0 win on May 28 at 'Waska.
The Lakers were seeded No. 2 in Section 3AA-North, while our Tigers were No. 3. Our loss put us in the loser's bracket.
VerSteeg set down eight Tiger batters on strikes, while walking just two. Brady Jergenson held up the Tigers' pitching just fine. Brady fanned five Laker batters, but struggled with control some, walking six. He allowed just three hits in his six innings. One of the two Laker runs was unearned.
The Lakers scored one run each in the second and third. Those runs were scored by VerSteeg and Matthew Gruber. The three 'Waska hits were off the bats of Matthew McIver, Matthew Gruber and Justin Amundson. We hurt ourselves with three errors while the Lakers committed one.

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

Trying to understand Summit Cemetery

I stopped out to Summit Cemetery yesterday (Tuesday) to see if I might remove the flag that I had placed in the ground next to my father's name on our family monument. I half expected it to be gone. I should have fully expected it to be gone. It was of course gone. I had placed it there Sunday morning. I also discovered that I had to wipe off a little bird excrement from our otherwise handsome monument.

I'll repeat: anyone visiting Summit Cemetery is welcome to use our bench monument to sit a spell. That's what I got it for.
The question is the extent to which visitors are even welcome at the cemetery. There continue to be two "no trespassing" messages at one of the entrances. One says "no trespassing" and the other says "trespassers will be prosecuted." So much for a visitor-friendly atmosphere.
I know, I know, our cemetery is located right next to a college, where we might expect the kids to cause problems in an immature way. Personally I don't think college kids are as inclined toward destructive behavior as they once were. Secondly, if any college student who chose to cross the cemetery, in a totally innocent way, were to actually get a trespassing citation from law enforcement, I think a judge would look down on it.
There is a fixture out there that was once subject to vandalism by youth who probably just didn't have enough to occupy their minds. I won't specify what the fixture is, because I don't want to give anyone any ideas. It got repaired and put back into place with some ceremony, and ever since it has sat there just fine - no further problems.
As for my flag, I do have a theory. I believe there is a veterans organization or its auxiliary that places flags around the cemetery, on the official vet markers that have a little hole for inserting the flag. And then I assume these people make the rounds at the end of Memorial Day weekend to retrieve all the flags. Am I correct?
Well, our family monument is not like an official vet marker. My father's service in World War II is specified on our monument: "USN WWII." He was a gunnery commander in the Pacific, very fortunate to have survived all that mayhem. I have written a blog post about Floyd Lange who was not so fortunate in the Pacific. His ship, the USS Luce, was attacked by kamikaze planes in the last stages of the war when the Japanese got desperate. I invite you to read the post:
http://morrisofcourse.blogspot.com/2014/06/floyd-lange-gave-last-full-measure-of.html
 

I had heard the name Floyd Lange for a long time when reporting on the Gold Star Mother/Sister recognition at the Memorial Day program. For almost my entire press career here, I covered those programs at the old elementary auditorium. I remember such a peaceful and soothing atmosphere as the people gathered at that auditorium, listening to Eleanor Killoran playing "It's a Grand Old Flag" on the piano, among other songs.
I buy my own flag each year because I assume we won't automatically get a flag, due to my father's monument not being an official vet marker (with that hole). I bought a package of two flags this year at Family Dollar for a price of $3. So I have a flag left for next year. But I sort of wish it wouldn't disappear so quickly. Why can't the flags remain for a week or two?
I hadn't been to our monument since last July. Last July I found it excruciatingly tempting to pull into a little patch of wide open ground, so as to reduce my mother's walking distance by one-half. My mom is 91 years old, set to turn 92 on June 8. I was sharply verbally reprimanded by a cemetery attendant who was standing about a block away. He couldn't take the trouble to just walk over to us to speak calmly. I subsequently had a little exchange with this individual who said: "We've had idiots drive all over the cemetery." He used the word "idiots" twice.
I contacted two people who I knew had some involvement with the cemetery: Jim Morrison and Bob Stevenson. I used email. I made repeated queries about cemetery parking policy or "etiquette." I couldn't get an answer from either. So finally I decided to bother Blaine Hill, city manager, with an email regarding this. I have known Blaine a long time, going back to when he coached VFW baseball. I once wrote a blog post about Blaine's father Bennie and his amazing service in WWII. Here's a link to that:
http://morrisofcourse.blogspot.com/2013/12/survivor-of-flaming-aircraft-bennie.html
 

Blaine, classy person that he is, answered and said the city had no connection to the cemetery. I searched for a possible Summit Cemetery home page on the Internet. I was hoping to find a list of the board, but no, couldn't find anything. So I'm still adrift in some confusion about policy, about whether visitors are even welcome at Summit Cemetery, and whether you're "donating" a flag if you place one in the ground.
I had always thought a cemetery was like a public park with a relaxed atmosphere, and welcoming of visitors. I have been disappointed to find this is not the case.

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

Forest or the trees? Watch "Truth" movie (2015)

Remember when you learned the term "superscript?" It was probably in connection to that "60 Minutes" thing with George W. Bush and the National Guard. Steve Sack of the Star Tribune did one of those cartoons that prompted laughter out loud from me. The drawing included Rather's name with the "th" presented as superscript. Rather had a black eye.

Many of us were capable of looking at that whole matter with levity. You might think it was a matter of great gravity: alleged journalistic malpractice at the highest level. Oh c'mon. I'm 61 years old and am totally aware, with all my peers, how even the most upstanding young men sought to avoid service in Viet Nam. Not only was it an ugly war, we had the draft. Is it possible today to even relate back to that?

There was a time in my formative years when I thought the Viet Nam war would go on forever. Much of my cynicism was built consuming the endless news coverage of the war, and just as important, the domestic protests against it. My generation fully understands that young men sought escape from the war, going to Australia if necessary.

It is elementary, too, to realize that young men from upper-class families might well use that "pull." It is totally plausible to believe that the young George W. Bush used his family's status to do a popular end run around war service, by getting accepted to the National Guard. Everyone back then knew the National Guard was an escape hatch.

So, regardless of whether "60 minutes" crossed the line into unacceptable journalism, we pretty much know what happened here.

The Viet Nam war was not only totally tragic at the time it happened, it left scars and issues that we had to deal with for many years. The "Swift Boat" attacks on John Kerry were an example. Kerry ran against Bush in the 2004 election. That's when "60 Minutes" launched the expose that wasn't as sharp or as certain as it should have been. Documents purporting to support the expose's case began looking suspicious.

The whole thing blew up partly because of the Internet. Special interests from across the political spectrum were finding their home online, and finding empowerment. No longer would the big network news operations have primacy.

 

That distant age of typewriters

Let's draw another contrast over time: We used typewriters in the 1970s. Those relics bore no resemblance to the word processing of today. Nobody ever really liked to type on a typewriter. The electronic typewriter wasn't that much of a step forward. You corrected mistakes using "white out." Or, you just went in with a pen and made notations. It wasn't the kind of thing you did for fun, not like today when you can do corrections and re-writes so cleanly.

Superscript barely existed with the equipment available at the time of the Bush/Guard episode. People simply didn't write or type as much. People kept details in their head more. Maybe it helped us be sharper. We simply "did" things instead of concentrating so much on documenting what we were doing. We used Kodak Instamatic cameras. Vinyl records ruled.

Were the famous "Killian documents" an outright fraud? Weighing this is like weighing whether the Kensington Runestone (of Minnesota) is genuine. Many high-ranking academics will kick and scream and say for sure the Runestone is a fake. And yet, that argument never takes over. The thought of authenticity is so tantalizing.

It seems to me, that if the Killian documents and the Runestone were blatant fakes, it would be easy to put the matter to rest, for all of us. The Killian documents, regardless of who wrote them, seem to indicate intimate knowledge of everything that was going on at the time. The authors were aware of the idiosyncrasies of all the principals.

The docs also easily support what everyone my age senses is likely: that Bush indeed used his family's pull to get in the National Guard, and then didn't have his heart in his service. Who can blame him? This isn't a decision he would have made were it not for the war and draft circumstances. My generation would shrug and say: that's just how it was back then. We don't like being reminded of it.

All this stuff comes from a dark hole in our collective memory.

The movie "Truth" came out in 2015. The story centers largely on Mary Mapes, a CBS TV news producer. Dan Rather figures in just as much. It's fascinating seeing Robert Redford in a role so similar to what he did in the old "All the President's Men," where his sidekick was the chain-smoking Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein.

"Is there any place you don't smoke," Redford (as Bob Woodward) says to Hoffman as they step out of an elevator. Smoking and manual typewriters were the norm of the day.

Redford plays Dan Rather in "Truth," a match I would not have expected to be effective. It is very effective. Redford exudes the celebrity of the old network TV anchor.

Walter Cronkite was described as "the most trusted man in America." It's too bad we were at the mercy, as it were, of such a small celebrity-like cluster of men known as "anchormen." Today we take for granted our endlessly diverse universe of news/commentary offerings.

If you were to step into a time machine and go back to the '70s, you might faint from culture shock. In the '70s we thought things like "Studio 54" were important. We watched "Laverne and Shirley." No one admitted they really liked to watch TV. We read reports that people who watched a lot of TV suffered from depression.

 

Bush vs. Kerry in 2004

The movie "Truth" takes us back to the time leading up to the 2004 presidential election. Mapes and Rather enter a firestorm after the airing of a report that President Bush had, in the early 1970s received preferential treatment from officials of the Texas Air National Guard. In other words, we should be shocked that there is gambling in this establishment!

Key memos in this expose went under the microscope from many outside sources. Suspicion built that these "Killian documents" were generated from Microsoft Word. From the '70s, no.

Did I like the movie? I have watched both "Truth" and "Spotlight" in recent weeks, and give both an A-plus grade, exploring as they do the world of journalism and what it can do for us. "Spotlight" showed flawless investigative work vs. the Catholic Church in Boston. "Truth" shows us how journalism can struggle when its stories aren't absolutely airtight. But hey, those of us who were products of the '60s and '70s have a very strong sense of the veracity of Mapes/Rather.

The documents may not have been a slam dunk. But we all have very reliable insights into what likely happened, and it surprises us not at all.

One online reviewer asserted that "Rathergate," as it came to be known, "caused a major blow to the journalistic reputation of CBS News. It also damaged all American journalists, indirectly."

Oh no it didn't. Someday if George W. Bush ends up on that proverbial deathbed, he might well reveal that the whole Mapes investigation was really accurate. There is within all of us an innate urge to see the truth told, to have lies dismissed. That way we can find peace.

Another online reviewer asked: "Have we reached an era of journalism in which Internet nitpicking and clickbait forces news readers to examine each individual tree instead of considering the entire forest?" This is the quote that ought to be left in our minds after viewing the highly engaging movie "Truth." I would give this movie the maximum number of stars, just like for "Spotlight."
As Rather would say, "courage."

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

MACA softball turns back NL-Spicer 7-6

MACA held off a late New London-Spicer surge to win in Section 3AA play on Tuesday (5/24), here. Those Wildcats are often a nemesis for our Tigers in girls athletics. Any win over them is a plum.

The game was less than a masterpiece as shown by the team error totals: seven by NL-Spicer and five by the Tigers. But the only numbers that mattered in the end were the run totals. We had seven runs, the Wildcats six.

The Wildcats mounted their late surge with three runs each in the sixth and seventh innings. The Tigers benefited from a hot start, having scored two runs each in the first and second. Our line score was seven runs, eight hits and five errors. The NL-Spicer numbers were 6-6-7.

True, we're in post-season play now, but the Wildcats are not eliminated. Double-elimination is in effect. That can make things complicated for journalists like me. I'll just take one game at a time.

MACA plays next on Saturday. Now we're in the southern phase, set to travel to Marshall. We have been having trouble getting our basketball teams to Marshall. Our softball Tigers will play Martin County West at 12:30 Saturday. Those Wildcats will play Jackson County Central at 11 a.m.
I suppose we may not be done dealing with New London-Spicer.
Generally speaking this time of year, our biggest worry is those teams from southern Minnesota. Don't know why that is.

MACA led by as many as five runs Tuesday. Our pitcher Brooke Gillespie was able to help us hang on for the triumph. Gillespie set down four batters on strikes. She walked two and gave up six hits. Three of the runs she allowed were unearned.

NL-Spicer also had a pitcher go the whole way: Olivia Christopherson. Just three of the seven runs that Christopherson allowed were earned. She was very sharp much of the time as she achieved eight strikeouts. She walked three batters and allowed eight hits.

Becca Holland scored two runs and had a hit for MACA. Bailey Marty was a perfect three-for-three and crossed home plate three times. Lindsey Dierks had two hits in as many at-bats, and scored a run. Gillespie showed her usual productive bat with two hits in four at-bats and three RBIs. Piper Gibson drove in a run, and Courtney Storck scored a run.

For New London-Spicer, Mya Rohman socked a home run and drove in two runs. Alyssa Fredrick had a double as part of going three-for-four, and she scored two runs. Espi Austvold and Shea Oman also hit safely for the Wildcats.

 

Baseball: Minnewaska 8, Tigers 0

The MACA baseball offense has fallen into the doldrums. The outset of the Tuesday game vs. Minnewaska was embarrassing for our orange and black, as we made errors on the first four 'Waska batters. Well, I certainly couldn't do any better. Those errors set the tone in this humbling 8-0 loss to the Lakers.

Oh my, our offense was limited to two hits, both off the bat of Sean Amundson. The game wrapped up our regular season with a won-lost mark of 12-7.

The Lakers shot out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning. They added one run each in the second and fourth, and two in the sixth. The line scores really tell a tale: eight runs, seven hits and no errors for the very sharp Lakers, and 0-2-8 numbers for the Tigers. We could erase this disappointment in a hurry with post-season success.

Our pitching was shared by three players Tuesday: Toby Sayles (the loser), Amundson and Ryan Bowman. Colin Richards was the winning hurler for 'Waska. Going the whole say, Colin fanned eight batters and walked just two.

Riley Kinney went two-for-four with two runs scored for Minnewaska. Chris Claussen hit a double.

 

Baseball: BOLD 3, Tigers 0

The Tigers failed to push any runs across in the Monday game against the BOLD Warriors. The Tigers were humbled by BOLD pitcher Hayden Tersteeg, who had to keep his arm loose and alive in the face of an extended weather delay. 

Tersteeg tossed a one-hitter gem at the Tigers. His team prevailed 3-0 in this West Central Conference game. Keep an eye on this budding Warrior as he's just a freshman! He walked just one Tiger and fanned seven. We had just three baserunners in this frustrating game. The Warriors manufactured their three runs behind Tersteeg.

Our four errors certainly didn't help. BOLD committed just one error.

Jared Anderson had our only hit. The four BOLD hits were by Luke Ryan, Hunter Evenson, Logan Nissen and Dawson Vosika. Ryan's hit was a triple. Evenson and Nissen both doubled.

Brady Jergenson was the losing pitcher. Ryan Bowman also pitched.

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

Ryan Bowman shines on the hill for MACA

Shutouts don't mean as much in big league baseball as they once did. Same with no-hitters. That's because of the pitch count. Complete games were once a badge of honor in major league baseball. Today a pitcher's health is paramount.
When I was a kid, many promising young pitchers threw their arms out within 2-3 years, maybe sooner. So, what's behind the change? Are we more benevolent and sensitive today? Or, is it that big league teams have such a huge investment in their players? Whatever the case, it's a positive development.
 

Tigers 3, LQPV 0

Ryan Bowman of our Morris Area Chokio Alberta Tigers baseball team almost had a complete game shutout Friday. He was one out shy. Ryan showed signs of possible fatigue in the seventh when he issued a walk and hit a batter. Coach Mark Torgerson, playing it safe, called on a fresh pitching arm to finish this one off.
Brady Jergenson was called upon. Jergenson got the out to preserve this 3-0 win over the Lac qui Parle Valley Eagles at LQPV. Our record now: 12-5.
Jergenson had the most potent bat for the Tigers. He had three hits in four at-bats. The Tigers scored one run in the second inning and two in the third. We played flawless defense with a "zero" for errors in the line score. We outhit Lac qui Parle 7-2. Lac qui Parle committed four errors.
Trent Marty had a potent bat for the Tiger cause as he tripled as part of a two-for-three showing, and drove in a run. Philip Messner went one-for-three and Sean Amundson went one-for-four. The LQPV hits were off the bats of Joey Devorak and Isaac Gerdes.
Cole Bungarden and Tyrone Molden shared the LQPV pitching with Bungarden taking the loss. Two of the runs that Bungarden allowed were unearned. He struck out five batters while Molden fanned one.
Bowman of the Tigers struck out two batters, walked three and allowed the two LQPV hits. Jergenson set down one batter on strikes.

Click on the permalink below to read about the following: the MACA softball team's split of a doubleheader vs. BOLD, and the baseball team's 6-2 loss to Melrose. This post is on my companion website, "Morris of Course." Thanks for reading. - B.W.
http://morrisofcourse.blogspot.com/2016/05/maca-softball-splits-with-bold-readies.html 

 

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

Was Hanley harassed for racial/political reasons?

Rodney Hanley

The abrupt withdrawal of Rodney Hanley has been cloaked in mystery, publicly at least. It made no sense: this dynamic man wanting to come and lead our U of M-Morris, winner of an extensive search and interview process. It looked as though he would be an inspiring leader for our "jewel in the crown."

And then out of nowhere: an official email announcing he's not coming after all. It strained credulity, to say the least. Also puzzling was the lack of any sort of official explanation. There was nary a clue as to why this reversal happened. The vagueness surrounding the official announcement seemed almost disrespectful to Morris, as we really ought to know what happened as the culmination of the chancellor search process, a process that presumably cost money.

In a snarky way I suggested that maybe U President Eric Kaler was so accustomed to money getting wasted in athletics, he was numb to such a thing. Surely the Man from Stony Brook is not numb, but his statements regarding the UMM chancellor situation seemed a little maddening, as if the significant development could be explained away on vague "personal" terms. Oh, it was just one of those things.

One might expect President Kaler to express some anger or hint some anger. No such sentiment emerged vs. Dr. Rodney Hanley, the appointee as UMM chancellor. I had to sift through all of this for quite some time, trying to arrive at a nugget of truth. Maura Lerner of the Star Tribune had no success trying to reach Hanley for a comment. Strange, since Hanley's action seemed to impede the continuity of an important public institution in Minnesota's higher education system.

Curiouser and curiouser.

I think I have broken through the fog. This morning (Thursday) I finally read in its entirety, the article profiling Rodney Hanley in the April 28 issue of the University Register. That's the "good" student newspaper on the UMM campus, as opposed to some other (reactionary) ones of late. The whole front page is devoted to Hanley's appointment. There are two photos of the guy, one taking up nearly the whole top half of the page.

The article by Jon Antonsen, news editor, is very well done. We come away with a most positive impression of the appointee, coming here from Nashville TN (one of my favorite cities).

Before reading the article, I had it in the back of my mind that maybe, just maybe, he had given a quote or two in there, or maybe revealed some background in there, that rankled some Neanderthal types.

Here's a hint: Remember that guy with the last name of Stock who sent those anonymous and scary letters to people with adopted children of color, or members of inter-racial marriages? That term "inter-racial marriages" strikes me as quaint now, as we have steadily moved beyond putting labels on people based on "race." See, I put "race" in quotes.

UMM is a campus that has tolerated the "Counterweight" and then the "Northstar" papers. Remember how "Wayne's World" morphed into "Beavis and Butthead" in terms of the tasteless evolution of youth-centered entertainment? The morphing process was similar, from the Counterweight to the NorthStar.

Maybe at age 61 I'm getting too old to understand the currents of thinking among 20-year-olds. Like, the kind of thinking that has now given us "gay devil worshipers" on campus. I feel like a stranger in a strange land.

The people behind the reactionary publications strike me as ugly. It seems they will stop at nothing. There is no way to morph any further from "NorthStar." So, where do we go from here? Do we go to literally harassing a self-defined political progressive and racially nurturing person? I have a theory now. Keep in mind that unless and until the U reveals the real background as a matter of fact, we are forced to speculate. And yes, the real reason may in fact be too unpleasant to report, to Maura Lerner or to me or to anyone.

Let's look at Jon Antonsen's fine article in the Register. It reveals that Dr. Hanley and his wife "adopted two children from two different countries in Africa, and after all that has happened in recent years - like the shootings of African American teens and general direction of American politics - he wants to create a safe and productive space for diverse populations."

Hanley is quoted: "I wanted to do something that would help in some small way in reversing what was happening in the United States. When that opportunity arose, I took it."

Cheers, Dr. Hanley, you articulate my sentiments along with how all proper-thinking people out here on the prairie feel. Was it a political statement? Yes it was.

First we have the fodder for racists re. the adopted children, the kind of thing that would have brought a revolting letter from Stock, and then the implication that American politics has been sliding in a regressive way. It's certainly a legitimate opinion.

Conservatives want all the breathing room in the world to express their opinions, to be sure. Look at that meeting with Mark Zuckerberg. There ought to be another meeting prompted by progressives who want to be sure Facebook doesn't cave or get intimidated by "conservatives." I use quotes because of the large number of conservatives who are in fact reasonable, the conservatives who in a previous age were spoken for by William F. Buckley. I learned about conservative thinking by reading a couple of his books. Responsible conservatism plays an important role in our political system.
But then we have the kind of people who would put out "NorthStar" at UMM.

Hanley would have come here from Fisk University, Nashville, one of the nation's top historically black colleges. More fodder for the Stock types. I suspect some threatening messages may have been sent Hanley's way. This is getting to be an uncomfortable subject for me to write about. So I'll stop here. Peace. Or as Dan Rather would say, "courage."

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