Tending to cemetery plots, bird droppings!

Remembrance at our Summit Cemetery

All photos with this post taken by your blog host.

 

The peacefulness of Memorial Day weekend is fully upon us. Family members attend to graves at the cemetery. Usually I'll find a couple spots of bird excrement on our black bench monument. It's a must to get this precious spot tidied up for Memorial Day. You'll see a flag there recognizing my late father who was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. He was so fortunate to survive the war in the hellish Pacific theater. 

All of that war was hell of course. "War is hell," as stated by General Sherman in the post-Civil War years. It's actually a paraphrase. The people who utter famous quotes are not thinking of Bartlett's at the time. They say something in their normal train of thoughts, then years later it gains a life of its own.
"There stands Jackson like a stone wall." The statement might not have been made in an exclamatory way. Could it have been made up? The quote came from the losing side in the U.S. Civil War. The "myth of the lost cause" caused a fair amount of embellishing post-war. 

People did not focus on the record of the Civil War in the immediate post-war years. So many families had experienced devastating tragedy, it's easy to see why. Nostalgia for any time period or event takes a few years to take hold. Remember the "back to the '50s" phenomenon of the early '70s with Sha-Na-Na and others? The movie "American Graffiti?" Doo-wop was a musical style worth remembering. 

A major newspaper or magazine ran articles about the Civil War that elevated remembrance. Time passes and people start feeling some emotional distance from the war. Odd that any war could promote nostalgia. Nostalgia suggests some yearning for the elements of what we're remembering. We think of WWII and associate with the music of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman. Such music is fondly remembered. 

World War II is often called "the good war," a term that ought to make us wince. The expression may have started as a way of suggesting that the Vietnam war was on the other end of the scale. War is good in the sense that it extinguishes an evil enemy. 

 

Our Morris MN cemetery at twilight (B.W. photo)

Men monopolize power = conflict

Why did so much conflict come to a head in the mid-20th Century? One impulsive thought: men dominated power positions around the world. Women surely would have backed off from such terrible conflict. Women are nurturers by their nature. 

There's a scene in the great movie about Douglas MacArthur where the heroic character talked about the means for reconstructing Japan. Frankly he cited some political concepts that would be described (or derided) by many today as "liberal." I was struck by the scene in which Gregory Peck talked about letting women have the vote and building up trade unions. Make love, not war. 

And what direction is our United States headed in now? So hard to understand how ignorance is flourishing to create a new right wing in America. Could my generation of the boomers possibly have foreseen this when we were young? We were once kids admiring JFK and the Peace Corps. We admired elements of the LBJ presidency although Vietnam was not to be forgiven, ever. 

Could we ever have believed that an entertainer given to crazy hyperbole and paranoia would dominate our political discourse and foment such conflict? 

 

Defying credulity

Could we have envisioned anything like January 6? And further, could we envision one whole political party, the GOP, wanting to discourage an investigation into it? Can you believe that so many Americans continue to eat out of the hand of Donald Trump? Can you believe that they engage this enthusiasm with their Christian religious beliefs? It is a significant and ominous element in our USA now. 

Lindsay Graham says there is no future for the GOP without Trump. As if the lot of political conservatives rises or falls with the one man, a demagogue, named Trump. Can't you all see the absurdity of this? No one in the GOP can articulate a winning message, a message based on ideas, outside of the bombastic Mr. Trump? He's the end-all of your hopes and dreams? Wasn't there a political leader like this in Germany once? Can't our American education system produce citizens capable of more measured, reasoned thought? If not, what is its purpose? 

Is Trump's vision for America the kind of thing that would be worth going to war over? And if we did go to war, would it be in the American spirit of defending all that is good? Or would it be to prop up something else? The German leader certainly commanded loyalty. Trump expanded the military bureaucracy to include "space force." What kind of violence might result from such an asset - would it be to truly promote good? Under Trump? Can we rule out the possibility of Trump taking action to overtly promote the white race? 

Sam Smith statue at Summit Cemetery

Aren't all the new voter suppression attempts a means of winking when it comes to race? More than winking? And yet we are not collectively rising up to Trump to stop it? In a sense we have: Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, and the Democrats won the majority in both houses of Congress in 2020. But the GOP wields the filibuster in the most nakedly sinister manner. 

Matt Gaetz now talks about "Second Amendment solutions." Yes, a hint toward guns and violence. Many of us are waiting for all of this to flame out, as if surely it must. 

Memorial Day weekend is the time to remember when U.S. forces were needed to liberate the world. Oh, the Russians helped, quite a bit actually. And the British. Vietnam was a nightmare. We can even remember the U.S. Civil War if we go to our Summit Cemetery in Morris and observe the "running rifleman" statue of Sam Smith. 

Memorial Day weekend is so tranquil. Use it as a sedative if you're the type to have any positive thoughts about Trump's GOP!

I remember Darlene Olen talking about how "freedom isn't free!" I remember walking back to the Sun Tribune office after covering the outdoor Memorial Day service - the most peaceful feeling I could embrace during my career.

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

The Williams monument, Summit Cemetery. Photo taken before Mom passed away.

MACA girls dominate in I-94 game, down Melrose

Tiger softball got on I-94 for their Friday game. It was a rout. It was a rout favoring the Tigers by a score of 15-1. How much of this success can be parlayed into the post-season? Fans are looking ahead with anticipation. The teams from southern Minnesota have proven to be especially hard to beat. But maybe this year with the kind of attack that produced 18 hits on Friday, we can be the buzz saw. 

On to state? That's a premature thought. 

The trip back on I-94 was a pleasure in light of the boxscore that had so many Tigers with multiple hits. There were eight such Tigers. Sydney Dietz and Brienna Dybdahl each connected for three hits. Makenna Hufford's bat produced four RBIs, plus she scored a run. Brianna Marty scored twice and drove in three. Dybdahl picked up three RBIs. Dietz and Shannon Dougherty each drove in two. 

In the pitching circle it was Dybdahl doing the work, backed by so much offense. She did the job by allowing the one run which was unearned in her 4 2/3 innings. The success elevated the MACA won-lost to 17-1. Melrose came out at 4-10. 

 

Does public like new field?

What does the Morris area public think of the new softball field here? Let's consider the basic talk among fans in informal settings. Is it possible there is 100 percent satisfaction? Yours truly does not circulate that much, especially during recent times with pandemic limitations. So I cannot be certain. 

Is the public and fandom totally enthused? I would be surprised if the answer is yes. Let's put aside the totally hyperbole-filled speeches from the dedication day. Those people were programmed to speak like that. Assuming we can all make our own conclusions, we might expect some constructive criticism of certain kinds. 

It wouldn't really do any good now, because what remedies could possibly be applied? To tear up the new facility and start over? I mean, to start over in a way that a large number of fans can come and get a good view of the whole playing field? That would make total sense. 

I'm old enough to remember when the Metrodome in Minneapolis was new and the sports columnists had some reservations. One of them wrote "it is ours forever." His point being, that we had made our bed and would sleep in it. Years passed and we found that the old dome was not permanent. I guess, because nothing can really be considered permanent. 

Remember the sign in the background for games in the early days of the dome? "We like it here." Baseball stat analyst Bill James was amused by that and pointed out: "It's as if you're all saying 'we don't care what everyone else thinks.' " The old Minnesota defensiveness has faded, as we have become a rather "cool" state. Maybe Jesse Ventura established that, as governor. Then there's the late "Prince." 

Remember when the Vikings drafted Darren Nelson? Maybe you don't. A big picture on the front sports page of the Strib showed an obviously sullen Nelson. The story was that he felt Minnesota was uncool. He famously complained about how we "didn't have enough discos" here. Discos! Ah, how the cultural norms can change. 

 

Taking closer look

I took another walk through our softball facility out east of town the other day. I knew the established UMM field was a better place for spectators to watch, but I wasn't completely certain why yet. Finally it dawned on me! A chief reason is that the fence around the field is not as high as at the new place. An adult of average height has a completely unobstructed view of the playing field. 

The fence is an obstruction at the new field. I will not use the terms "softball complex" or "Holmberg Field." It is typical for clusters of fans to assemble outside of first and third bases. But at the new field, the dugouts are so long, fans get pushed outward a ways and must then see through the fence at an angle. There's a "door" along the fence that doesn't help either. Fans can sit there and try to enjoy the game, as some have, and maybe they would not wish to express a complaint (especially with the Tigers doing so well). I am sure these fans do not enjoy the experience as much as if they could watch from over the fence. 

UMM softball fans have gotten used to the established facility. They appear 100 percent happy at that facility, right across the street from the spacious UMM east parking lot which is free to use after 4 p.m. UMM fans have been very happy at the games. It's my understanding they will now hike over to the new, less fan-friendly field. It's a co-op thing, right? Like Big Cat Stadium for football? Football will only decline in popularity in the future as we learn more about the game's dangers. St. Cloud State erected a new stadium in 2004 and now has cut football. Can we assume the same outcome awaits here? Seems almost certain. 

Football seems anachronistic in many ways. The old testosterone-fueled male culture. A model for prepping men to enter the military and fight a war. All of that seems gone with the wind. Even Donald Trump wanted to say "to heck with fighting wars." Make love, not war. Play soccer, not football. 

 

Be patient with me

I feel foolish because in my considerable amount of writing about the softball field project, to date I had not touched on the height of the fences. Are the new high fences made that way to "protect" the fans, like from a foul liner? Is it a matter of regulations? Such is the nature of our society today. But man, the fans just seem to be getting short shrift. 

If fans were to observe Chizek Field for baseball and then drive by the new place, they'd conclude that prep baseball must attract much more fan interest than softball. For advocates of girls sports, this observation would be cruel. Objectively speaking, softball is just as fun to watch, 100 percent. 

So why the painfully minimal bleachers at the new varsity field? Three small sections, yes, but only from the middle section can you be guaranteed a view of the whole playing field. Recently I have written that fans on the ends, closest to the (infernal) dugouts, are denied a full view, but really, all the fans in the two outside bleacher sections get deprived. I sat around the bleachers when I was alone one day. Insult is added to injury with a small sign that is wedged into the fence. It's as if the fans' interests just don't count. 

Was this ever discussed during planning meetings for the place? 

Do the players like the place? It's quite possible they do, even if they'll be hit hard by wind in this location. A friend of mine says of the new field "it's just stuck out there." It is not seamlessly attached to its surroundings. Even if the players approve, any shortcomings for the fans could limit fan turnout, especially over time as the novelty wears off and fans notice the obstacles for them. And, fans ought to be an important part of the experience for the players. 

Does baseball have greater prestige or status? Oh my goodness, it should not. But look at the substantial bleacher seating for fans at Chizek Field. And then, park yourself behind the fence at the new place. I'd suggest it truly is a shame.

 

Baseball: Tigers 3, LQPV 1

The Friday chapter for MACA baseball had our team on top at Madison over Lac qui Parle Valley, 3-1. Brady Backman looked solid on the mound and gave up the one run which was unearned. He set down seven Lac qui Parle Eagles on strikes. He allowed five hits. On came Josh Rohloff to hurl in the seventh frame. Josh allowed no hits. 

The score was tied 1-1 when the Eagles had fielding miscues that opened the door for the Tigers to get the winning advantage. We plated two runs in the top of the fifth. 

At bat, Sam Kleinwolterink went two-for-four with an RBI and a run scored. Coach Kirby Sayles' crew came out of the day at 11-8. Yes, it's quite an over-.500 spring for our baseball and softball Tigers!

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

Dylan Rose drives in Brendan Hardy for game-winner

Tigers 4, Benson 3

A Dylan Rose base hit in the eighth made the difference for the MACA baseball Tigers Thursday. It happened in extra innings. Rose's hit allowed Brendan Hardy to score and give MACA the 4-3 lead which it held. The game was at Benson. 

The victory was the Tigers' tenth against eight losses. Benson is over .500 also and came out of Thursday 11-5. 

We surged forward in the fifth with a three-run rally. This put us up by one at 3-2. A little extra push would be needed. That's because Benson's Sam Grussing hit a run-scoring double in the seventh. The score was tied at the end of the regulation seven. So it was on to the eighth and Rose's difference-making hit. 

We made our hits count as we were out-hit by the Braves 11-8. Both teams played errorless ball. Benson scored one run each in the first, third and seventh innings. 

Brett Hansen was our starting pitcher. He struck out three batters and walked none in his three innings. Benson got five hits off him and scored two runs, earned. Hansen gave way to Brandon Jergenson on the hill. Jergenson became the pitcher of record with his five innings. His stats: four strikeouts, no walks, five hits and one run which was unearned. 

Grussing took the pitching loss. Grussing came on in relief of Matt Laumeyer who worked for seven innings. Laumeyer struck out four batters, walked two and gave up seven hits and three runs, earned. 

Let's examine how the bats performed and here we see three Tigers each with two hits. Ross Marty had a two-for-four line. Hansen had two hits and a run scored. Rose had a double as part of his two-for-four showing. He scored a run and drove in one. 

Riley Reimers had a hit and an RBI. Tristan Raths had a hit and a walk. Zach Bruns walked, stole a base and scored a run. Sam Kleinwolterink drove in a run, stole a base and drew a walk. Hardy had a stolen base in addition to scoring the game-winning run. 

Benson's Patrick Minchow was hot with the bat to produce four-for-four numbers. One of those hits was a double. He scored three runs and was a terror on the basepaths with three stolen bases. Another Minchow in the lineup, Isaac, had a two-for-four line. Josh Norby also rapped two hits. These other Braves also hit safely: Sam Lenarz, Grussing and Cole Hedman.

 

Softball: loss No. 1

The MACA softball team was brought down to earth in Thursday action, being dealt a 5-1 loss. Our juggernaut Tigers had won every previous game! 

Sometimes fans feel it's good for a favorite team to be humbled occasionally. So as to not rest on laurels or feel overconfident. Some fans might disagree, and I'm reminded of the old WCCO TV sportscaster Hal Scott, who, during some banter with a fellow news desk person, did not buy the thinking. 

"I don't think a loss is ever good for a team," Scott said. Most likely they were talking about the Minnesota Vikings of the 1970s who spoiled fans with such frequent victories. A loss put us all on our heels. As years passed, we came to accept losing better because it happened more often! The Vikings reached four Super Bowls during that era. And ugh, we were 0-4. Minnesotans began feeling a little defeatism and this was remedied with the 1987 Minnesota Twins' championship. For good measure, the Twins won the World Series again in 1991. 

It's wonderful to see your favorite team set such high standards. Yet athletes are not miracle workers, anywhere. They are mortals with the potential for failure sometimes, just like the rest of us. So our MACA Tigers in this milestone year for them - the unveiling of the new home field - experienced loss No. 1 on Thursday: 5-1 to Browerville/Eagle Valley on the road. 

Yasmine Westerman took the defeat in the pitching circle. Just one of the four runs she allowed was earned. Her stint was four innings. Our bats cooled off to just five hits. This was against a team that has fashioned an unbeaten record. Browerville/Eagle Valley has an elite look like the Tigers, owner of a 13-0 record. Wouldn't a re-match be interesting? 

Shannon Dougherty drove in a run for the Tigers.

 

Home track and field

Our MACA boys track team took No. 1 in the home meet held Thursday at UMM. The No. 1 girls team was Minnewaska Area. Boys highlights included Ethan Lebrija taking first in the 100m an 200m dashes. Kenny Soderberg was a hurdling whiz with his No. 1 in the 110m and 300m. The shot put saw Evan Oberg take the top prize. Also taking the top prize: our 4x100m relay team. 

The MACA girls were second behind the Lakers. Olivia Lebrija was #1 in the 100m hurdles. Kaylie Raths won the 300m hurdles and Lydia Fynboh topped the 100m dash. Our 4x200m relay unit took the top prize too. The meet is named for retired MACA coach Marv Meyer.

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

Beautiful rainbow blesses MACA softball game

It's Saturday morning at a time when we can have fingers crossed about things getting better. An easing of mask requirements or suggestions? Is this a hint that we might be drifting back toward our much-sought "normality?" Is it really possible? Should we pinch ourselves? 

We seek to follow the most sensible policies, knowing that total relief from health anxiety may be nigh impossible. And there's the old saying of how "the perfect is the enemy of the good." Frankly we'd like to flirt with perfection. The people who have "resisted" the vaccine are probably chasing shadows. What does it take to satisfy them? 

We hear of political Republicans being such an obstacle. Men primarily. So weird that politics enters in. Maybe the inevitably improving spring weather will be like a lifting of the shroud. The ominous shroud of the pandemic and restrictions that have hovered for so long. So, is the moderating weather like a liberating effect? 

You know what I found liberating? Last night's rainbow. I walked home from a visit to the MACA softball game. At that point I hadn't yet seen Mother Nature's magic with the rainbow. I became curious about if the softball game had gotten called because of rain. I actually assumed it had been. But a check of YouTube showed the game most definitely continuing. Still no graphics on the screen. The telecasts for softball are probably still a work in progress. 

Adaptation to the new field is somewhat of a work in progress, if not for the players then for the fans. I have no doubt that our MACA team will do fine competitively. Terrific in fact. With that as a given, I'm curious how the public is taking to the new facility. If you check my blogs - thanks if the answer is yes - you know this has been a subject of considerable interest for me. 

 

Message of peace, reassurance?

On YouTube we saw Friday's action continuing past the little rainfall. And you know what can happen as a rainfall subsides. A rainbow! An absolutely beautiful rainbow appeared on my YouTube screen. It got all my attention for a couple minutes. So I came to think maybe the spectacle was symbolic. One could easily deduce as much: the peace and splendor of a rainbow in the aftermath of a rainfall. Only God could weave such a sight. 

And we wonder now with the masks in retreat, might God usher in new circumstances for living, circumstances in line with what we'd consider "normal?" During normal times we wouldn't think in terms of normal. But after the profound disruptions of the past year, we most definitely have a taste for what "normal" is, and would give thanks to God for it. 

We're like the generation in the aftermath of the Great Depression. These people, the parents of my boomer generation, would never take normal stable economic times for granted again. We in the year 2021 will never take mask-free times for granted. Illness of varying kinds will always be out and around. We'll hear of influenza outbreaks. Actually we could practically wipe those out if we kept wearing masks. But I don't think that's the route we want to go. 

Face it, life can be fragile. The fragility makes me wonder about all the people who felt they had to be defensive about the vaccine. What a tragedy. So many of these people were "wired" to admire Donald Trump and watch the likes of Fox News. Those who needed a "stronger dose" than Fox came to like OANN and Newsmax. The rules around Fox News' own headquarters reflected total respect for the virus and its dangers. Has Tucker Carlson actually gotten the vaccine? I guess he hasn't said publicly. 

Any U.S. president other than Trump would have facilitated the proper preventive measures much faster. 

It appears we have a local covid casualty who resisted the vaccine. We have been through so much needless distress. We have a congressperson now who is a Trump loyalist. We have a state representative who has said he won't get the vaccine. Is it true our state senator is like-minded? They're Republicans. Times can change but at present, a majority out here have heads buried in sand and just vote Republican. Did all this start because of homophobia a few years ago? So dangerous that this one narrow and quite unnecessary issue could lead us down a path of so many ramifications. 

 

Beware autocracy

Trump is an aspiring autocrat and he'll be starting his rallies again soon, or so I have read. To be carried live on Fox News, I presume. My fear is that the next iteration of "Trump worship" could go full Nazi. His ascent has defeated the odds and flown in the sense of normal good judgment all along. So I cannot bet against him, bet against his vision of a Nazi-like hold on power. He will stop at nothing. 

And we still have a big blue "Trump-Pence" sign out by the highway on the north end of town by Greeley Plumbing. Again, not to say Greeley's has anything to do with it. 

Apparently the Chamber of Commerce has actually moved out to Greeley's. I thought someone was pulling my leg at first. It just didn't seem natural for the Chamber to be so closely associated with a particular business. But I suppose it can work and maybe even give a competitive edge to Greeley's? Just a thought. I don't know for a fact that they are not connected to the big Trump-Pence sign. 

"Keep America great, eh?" That was the motive behind the U.S. capitol uprising. People keep watching the likes of Fox News and they find justification for the attempted insurrection. 

In the face of all the disturbing stuff like this, we have the wondrous rainbow of Friday night, a spectacle transcending time itself. Meanwhile the Tigers were playing softball. As of this morning I cannot find details of the game anywhere except for the score: 16-1 win vs. Monte. Our local commercial news media should get with it: find a way to get their usual reports in front of the public after the Friday games. The newspaper website is loaded with Cougar stuff.

I readily worked weekends in my years with the Morris newspaper. I didn't even draw a line with Sunday. Maybe it was a mistake because it got sports parents' expectations raised too high. Sports parents are a particular animal within the human race. Recognizable spots, yes. We have a love/hate relationship with them. Their "blinders" are famous. 

I was attacked twice in letters to the editor by people who suggested I was lazy. And yet I bypassed church through all the years I was with the paper. I'd go to my church of First Lutheran to take a photo of something like "New Wine" occasionally. But to just attend? No one considered that a possibility for me. Only after leaving the paper, when expectations were lifted from my shoulders, could I just show up and mind my own business. 

The Morris paper published twice a week during all the years when I was there. High school sports itself went through a lot of changes in that time. While the ever-increasing sports offerings were a good thing, it put the newspaper scribes in a stressful situation of trying to keep up. 

Today? I can write selectively today. I have no obligations. I answer to no one. I can relax and feel some bliss. Would I like to go back to the old routine? I probably would if I could. Maybe I'm like the retired general character in the movie "White Christmas." Remember when Bing Crosby read the letter back to him?

 

Credentials? Well, yes

Do I have a foundation for commenting about the new softball field? I certainly can't claim to be a parent. But I can claim having covered Morris softball for the newspaper over a very long time. I think I had to give it up for a time when we had a school administrator who wanted to wrest it from me. I shifted to driving the company van a good share of the time. 

As a writer I had picked up some pretty serious "baggage" from a community controversy over prep sports in the late 1980s. If you weren't here then, you wouldn't believe it if I told you about it, really. 

I hung in there into 2006, which in my mind doesn't seem so long ago. Therefore I don't consider my car old - it's a 2004. I look back to "Y2K" of 2000 and even that doesn't seem so long ago in my mind. 

I traveled to cover the Morris softball Tigers in various state tournaments such as at St. Cloud (more than once), Fridley and Mankato. I had a felt tip pen that exploded in my pocket at Mankato. I remember staying at the Country Suites Hotel in Coon Rapids for the Fridley event. 

I traveled to section tournaments like in Pillager, considered kind of a pain with its distance to travel. If I remember right, Morris and Minnewaska made an appeal to have the games closer to here. Appeal denied. I believe I rode with the Exner family to Pillager. It warmed my heart to look down the road and see the El-Ray truck stop which I hadn't seen in years. Looked like a whole new building. Change just sweeps me away. 

I remember the Pillager field having nothing special - it was like a ball field at a school playground. My memory tells me that the Pillager people were pressured into having some sort of concession sales for day 2. It seemed like a mere card table, maybe with hot dogs? I pay attention to concessions. 

I covered Morris High School softball for the Morris paper in the program's very first year. Jimmy Carter was president. Nobody can ever take those memories away from me. 

Keep Friday's rainbow in your thoughts and hope for better times and "normality" (or normalcy).

  

Addendum: "Preventive" and "preventative" are both acceptable, but preventive is used more often.

 

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

Reimers double puts MACA boys in driver's seat

Tuesday was sure a positive day for MACA baseball and softball. Let's take a look at Tiger baseball where Riley Reimers delivered a most timely blast. It was a double with the bases loaded in the fourth. 

Fans at our Chizek Field cheered as MACA seized the decisive momentum. We went on to win the game 9-4 over the BOLD Warriors. 

The Reimers two-bagger resulted in MACA owning a 7-2 lead. We were on our way to our ninth win of the season against five losses. BOLD is having a comparable season and came out of Tuesday 9-4. 

Reimers had two hits and drove in four runs. Brandon Jergenson wielded a mighty effective bat as he posted a three-for-four line. He crossed home plate twice. Sam Kleinwolterink smacked two hits, scored a run and drove in two. Zach Bruns had a hit, a stolen base and run scored. Durgin Decker had a hit and two RBIs. Tristan Raths connected for a double, plus he scored two runs and drove in one. Ross Marty scored two runs and Jacob Boots scored one. 

Bruns and Brett Hanson shared the pitching work with Bruns getting the win. Bruns pitched five innings, struck out six batters and walked two. Hanson hurled for two frames, striking out four batters and walking one. The MACA line score was nine runs, ten hits and two errors, while BOLD had a 4-9-0 line. Three BOLD players had multiple hits: Avery Herdina, Aidan Elfering and Ryan King. Herdina took the loss on the mound. Braeden Tersteeg also pitched. 

 

Softball victory 14-3

The MACA softball world has sure been making the news this spring. Much of the attention comes from the new home field. The gala dedication is now past. So now fans can wonder just how much of an asset this new field will be. What happens the first time we have a big game and the opponent brings a substantial number of fans? Will the fan turnout be accommodated well enough with viewing opportunities that are good enough for all? I present this as a rhetorical question because I have doubts. We'll have to see of course. 

What is the timetable for getting a parking lot? I have a theory that if the organizing group lacks sufficient funds for this, our local government will proclaim that it simply must be done immediately, therefore government will have to pay for it. And so, could the project turn into a sinkhole, in effect? Such things do happen. Sometimes dreams turn out empty like "Humanities Phase III." Maybe I shouldn't bring that up. 

For the time being, we can certainly all be happy with the Tigers' Tuesday softball success: a 14-3 win over 'Waska at 'Waska. We exploded out of the starting gate! Seven runs came home for the orange and black in the first inning. Makenna Hufford connected for a grand slam homer! Emma Bowman had a three-run homer in the first. Still more power was to come: Brianna Marty hit a two-run homer in the third. 

Hufford was perfect on the day with a three-for-three line. LaRae Kram had a multiple-hit game and scored two runs. Pitching-wise, fans saw Yasmine Westerman handle 4 1/3 innings to get the win. One of the runs she allowed was unearned. The host Lakers were hurt by seven errors. Makenna Panitzke took the pitching loss. The Lakers are 3-10. 

We learn that the Tigers' win was No. 599 for coach Holmberg. She has reached milestones for so long, I personally wrote at least one feature article for the Morris newspaper on this. I suppose there will be another big feature when she reaches 1000. Maybe a statue of her will be put out by the new field. 

For the time being, I think she has gotten enough recognition. 

Well, the Tigers will play their second game at Holmberg Field tomorrow (Friday) against Montevideo. Action starts at 5 p.m. We'll see how fans take to the place. 

I have told friends that I would have made a financial contribution if I had been hit-up early-on. I'd love to have my name be on the same sign with Fred Switzer. We represent a particular generation of people served by the school. I was in the unforgettable "boomer" generation. Switzer and other administrators might have a different description of us. Remember Wally Behm? One of the more unforgettable characters from Morris history. Intelligent, capable, but maybe with trouble adjusting to changing times. Happens a lot in education. I thought he had a heart of gold regardless of whatever issues arose.

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

"The Cutting Edge" (1992) shows love as ethereal

You can't help but be a little misty at the end of "The Cutting Edge." 

Name a sport and there's almost certainly a movie that puts it out front in some way. I never saw the movie "Ice Castles" but I did see "The Cutting Edge." The first time was in a motorcoach tour, a setting where I certainly could not appreciate all the fine points. Still, I gained a good enough impression to realize the movie had legs. 

It had legs, yes, but in what context? As truly a sports movie with a sense of triumph at the end? I suppose this was the kind of plot that was parodied in the movie "The Comebacks." A formula gets overdone over time and then catches the eye of the parody artists. The treadmill got walked one too many times with music star biopic movies - the last straw was "Walk the Line" - so we got "Walk Hard" with John C. Reilly. 

"The Cutting Edge" is most certainly a showcase movie for ice skating. It follows the formula where our heroic characters have ups and downs that create suspense/tension. Doubt is weighed. 

There was a time when we could not count on the happiest of endings with sports movies. By "happy" I mean the most sympathetic characters achieving No. 1. Before the mid-1980s basketball movie "Hoosiers," sports movies might have our heroes stumbling at the end but getting consolation through realizing the best values, the most transcendent. I guess I'm thinking of the 1970s as when this story line might be expected. It was a Murphy's Law sort of decade in terms of the macro events and issues. So, movies felt free to show that being "number one" was not an end-all. Only in the '70s could we get a blockbuster star-filled movie about the Allies' biggest disaster of WWII. The disaster was Operation Market Garden and the movie was "A Bridge Too Far." 

How could we rationalize such movies? It's a tough question to answer now, as we have been bathed in an optimism-filled world for so long. We had the "go-go '90s" for Wall Street. And Wall Street penetrates new ceilings all the time, even with the cloud of the pandemic: strange. Might we be whistling past the graveyard? Well, not yet. 

 

Setting new meme

"Hoosiers" was the turning point movie in my view because it practically shouted traditional values at us: respect the authority figure, the coach. Gene Hackman's word was "the law," perhaps a dodgy proposition for the generation that grew up protesting the Vietnam war. Shall we go back to recognizing "Father Knows Best?" Well, coach knew best in the fictional Hickory, Indiana. 

There were no hippies in 1952 America. We might yearn for the orderliness of the time, the lack of complications with values. The romantic sheen of all that was rather myth. Under the orderly surface oozed a range of dysfunction. 

"The Cutting Edge" movie came out in 1992. Didn't the Internet basically start in that year? Seems not long ago but really it is. It is a defining movie for the sport of figure skating, to be sure. But something else supersedes that. It is the quintessential romance movie. By "romance" I'm indicating the mythical kind, what we Americans love to recognize. "Romance" in such stories is an ethereal thing that develops almost like magic. 

It is a disservice to our youth to suggest that an ideal partnership grows from such a foundation. I would suggest that if this is the desired model for romance - the kind of romance that sweeps you off your feet - it can easily lead to divorce. Life gets messy and complicated. Even Bill and Melinda Gates get divorced. No, young people should not think there's a mysterious, ethereal quality that will connect them to a partner. 

 

Contrast to reality

Marriage is a proposition that involves facing myriad challenges. And of course, such challenges tend to be the mundane kind, the kind you cannot escape, and are nothing like the glamorous world of international figure skating! So let's view "The Cutting Edge" as pure entertainment fantasy. Let's pretend that "love conquers all" just like in the movie, for at least the time you're in your seat at the theater. 

Hollywood is escapism and "the dream factory." Nothing wrong with that if you recognize it. 

So of course the movie has to give us absolutely beautiful people. Only young people who look like Moira Kelly and D.B. Sweeney could play these roles. Plain-looking and overweight people needn't apply! Yet I'm sure countless plain-looking and ordinary people with no extraordinary talent watched the movie and were enthralled. Yes, the movie objectified people. It admits we have a certain model in our heads for supremely attractive and desirable (as partners) young people. 

Is this benign? Maybe it's a rhetorical question, maybe not. 

Can't "beautiful people" have a depressing effect on the rest of us? So here in this finely crafted movie we see the American myth of the ethereal romance, epitomized. Love conquers all and gets you the gold medal. Sweeney as "Doug Dorsey" is the first to say "I love you." Kelly as "Kate Moseley" appears taken aback at first, flummoxed as it were by this statement that should not have surprised her. She composes herself and then instead of being distracted, comes on strong with the best focus of her life to wow the judges with her partner. 

 

Patriotism and love

Fans wave American flags to add to the tear-jerker quality. American patriotism and love. The father is present and beams. The ecstatic coach makes gestures to show his enthusiasm. All the characters who at one time or another were conflicted and showed human flaws, were in the end triumphant and flawless. We forget about the line earlier in the movie where Moseley confronts her father about how she "just wanted to be your little girl." In the '70s the movie's climax might not have involved a gold medal but it would have a revelatory sense by the father: "Yes, I love you because you're my daughter," period. Put aside the objectification. 

But typical of our contemporary optimistic times, everyone gets to have their cake and eat it too! And the following day we'd see the Dow Jones shoot up a couple hundred more points because, why not? My God, the "business news" of the 1970s was nothing like this. We were smarting from the catastrophic Vietnam war. We saw the fall of Saigon. And my God, Watergate came along in a time when there was no intimidating right wing media like Fox News to provide shelter for the wrongdoers. 

 

Sans pimples, yes

Are Americans of today comfortable with the romanticizing template of "The Cutting Edge?" And with the idyllic characters who we can assume never had pimples? Shouldn't we be troubled to have such a formula in our face: beautiful young people who meld by movie's end as if some spiritual force is at work? We must all realize that "real life" bears little resemblance to this. But if it is just a night of fantasy at the movie theater, well then who gives a rip? 

"The Cutting Edge" was directed by Paul Michael Glaser and written by Tony Gilroy. The story reaches its apex at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. The heroes' chief rivals at the end are Soviets. We wonder after the presidency of Donald Trump if "the Soviets" or Russians are really the bad guys anymore. And don't we have normal relations with Vietnam? Saigon is re-named? And we Americans just move on? 

We always move on for better or worse. And we ought to move on from the notion that "love" is this confounding but magical quality that operates beyond our understanding. When you marry someone, make sure both of you have a good economic foundation. So much more important than being "beautiful" or pimple-free. 

Escapism? Yes, "The Cutting Edge" most certainly is. Ice is slippery. Be prepared to fall on your a--.

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