So, varsity softball & baseball on tap for Tuesday?

April snow in Minneapolis (wikimedia commons)

The schedule says we're supposed to have high school varsity softball and baseball tomorrow (Tuesday). Monday greeted us with snow and fog. It's a winter wonderland at 9 a.m. Snow melts fast this time of year. But then we'll get "wet grounds." 

The high school sports schedule is so tentative this time of year. It happens to a degree every year: we'll see "PPD" over to the right as we try to browse scores from a schedule. "Postponed." These little announcements will appear through the media: "such-and-such a game is postponed." 

Maybe we could do better. By simply postponing it all? Not necessarily. 

Maybe some sort of indoor intramural sports season could be set up. A bridge between winter and spring. Boys play volleyball, girls play floor hockey. The competition would not be as intense as for varsity sports. In fact, wouldn't that be a very nice change of pace? A "breather?" Imagine, sports just being fun! 

We're all probably a little groggy still from the demands of state basketball. Many of you had to reach deep into your wallets. Three games in the Twin Cities. The Twin Cities are not as safe a place as they once were. It's not like when I was a little kid and my family would dine at the Forum Cafeteria, that's for sure. 

Naturally the prices have gone into orbit for state basketball. And can you blame them, if you all keep ponying up? Back off, stay home, follow these games on available media. Hey, maybe a lot of you have already started doing that. Congratulations. 

So, Tiger softball is set to play tomorrow (Tuesday) at the mess of a place called the softball complex. I had really thought sidewalks would be put in there. I had thought the whole place would be really super-duper by now. Maybe it would be, if the State of Minnesota had overseen the whole thing, applied its deep pockets. But now, I would suggest it has turned out rinky-dink. 

In fact, if I had been a donor, which I would have been if someone had just approached me at the start, I would probably be agitating for some sort of class-action lawsuit on the part of donors who are upset that the place did not turn out as promised. It's not done yet? UMM's official website has announced that it is, as of "the summer of 2021." Oh, that's wrong info? If it is, why has it been out there? 

 

City of Morris folly?

The city got talked into a financial stake. A councilman with whom I communicated recently struck me as a little defensive. He stressed that the city's only involvement is "monetary." Is this responsible? I mean, to give money to a project with no assurance as to how it will turn out? 

"Only monetary." So, "it only cost us money?" Of course, no layer of government really has money, it just gets money from the people. How do you feel about your property tax statement? You should know, if you haven't already suspected it, that the property tax is a regressive tax. Republicans don't want us talking about this. They just want the ultra-rich to have their interests protected. You haven't figured this out yet? You're still hypnotized by the foul-mouthed Donald Trump, who didn't even win the popular vote in 2016? Who calls one of the top U.S. generals a "fucking idiot?" This is your man. 

A majority of Stevens County churches probably feel more devoted to Trump than to God and Jesus. I have been around these people. 

So now we're approaching Easter, when we're told again in graphic terms about the torture leading up to Jesus' crucifixion. How incredibly gory, gloomy and depressing. I want no part of it. I celebrate Easter with chocolate bunnies from Willie's, $2.13. And, by watching the concluding scene from the Monty Python movie "Life of Brian." "Look on the bright side of life," the guy sings while nailed on the cross. 

 

The parking snafu

I shudder as I think of the dangerous parking congestion that we will likely see around the softball complex this spring. Cars parked along Prairie Lane, a road where cars proceed faster than on normal city streets. 

And, I am offended, as any sensible person ought to be, by these statements about how "we're still fundraising." Well, aren't we all? I'm "fundraising" to pay my property taxes, sort of. Everyone and everything needs money. But the donors for the softball complex probably made assumptions about how the project would proceed in an orderly way toward completion. They trusted the people. Trust and ten cents will get you a cup of coffee. 

Will the fundraising continue into the non-foreseeable future? Will the project just sit there half-done, or a quarter-done, indefinitely? Again, were I a donor, I would press for some legal action on the part of donors. I think it's ticky-tack to have the signs with donors' names in various place. Or for certain features to be "sponsored" by a particular individual or family. Do you see signs like this around the public school concert hall? No, but the concert hall was a grand and transformative project for the Morris community. It also "shafted" UMM because it meant that UMM would never get its "Humanities Phase III." 

I don't like the idea of UMM music concerts being at the public school. One of the special things about UMM in the community is that it has its own facilities. Now I hear that Cougar baseball will be playing at Chizek Field which is the high school or community facility. I must admit, the long-time UMM baseball field seemed awfully desolate. 

 

The bigger picture

Is UMM "in retreat" in general terms? Is anyone else bold enough to ask this question? Everyone is so intimidated by the "party line" in this community. I got some pushback recently when I wrote my revelatory blog posts about the U-Crookston chancellor also being UMM's "executive chancellor." I sure thought this was "news." 

No one has suggested that my facts were wrong. I think we all need to ask what it means, this situation now with UMM vs. UMC. I think it's pertinent to our future. You can't tell me the Crookston person's title relative to UMM is ceremonial. She is using this in applying for other positions like at NDSU (which she didn't get). 

We'll probably have to wait this spring for high school varsity softball and baseball to get going. But why is it, that this big high school sports "machine" never slows down? We're never allowed to come up for air. The student body is always invested in it, they can't just behave like normal students for a few weeks. 

The state basketball tournament included a major embarrassment for the Morris-CA endeavor. You know what I'm talking about.

Wow!

 

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