ZimTown

On Jason Collins

Last Monday, NBA veteran Jason Collins announced his intent to continue playing pro basketball as an openly gay man.

I spent much of the week reading about it, seeing a level of ignorance and hatred (in comment sections and social media postings) that was almost impossible to comprehend, but also plenty of support; clear evidence that the tide has turned, and that Collins is more than likely going to be accepted, and others will follow him.
Still, writing about what Collins has done is not easy. I do so knowing I’m wading into shark-infested waters.

I could easily identify myself as being ‘pro-Gay’, but I think that’s actually kind of stupid. I’m not ‘pro-Gay’, I’m ‘pro-People’. I don’t think gays deserve special treatment, I think they should just have the same rights we all do. I still struggle to figure out why I’m supposed to respect someone’s desire to deny someone else basic constitutional rights as a valid opinion to which they’re entitled. If someone told you they thought blacks shouldn’t be allowed to vote, you wouldn’t say, ‘Well, that’s your opinion and I respect it.’ You’d think they were a retrograde jerk.

You can be ‘opposed to that lifestyle’ all you want. But in the realm of sports, understand that Collins is likely the tip of the iceberg. And if he’s not, if his coming out backfires and keeps others in the closet (which I highly doubt will happen), it won’t change the fact that gays permeate every sport at every adult level. Even here in South Dakota. There are gay players, gay coaches, gay refs and umps, gay administrators, gay commissioners, gay journalists and broadcasters and lots and lots of gay fans.
To pretend that sports is a hetero-only club that needs to be roped off and kept safe from homosexuals is incredibly silly and ignorant. To any player that says, ‘I could never play with a gay teammate’ — guess what, you already have. Amazing that they didn’t try to rape you in the shower, I know (sarcasm font).

A lot of people I know or engage with in social media took the ‘I don’t care one way or another about an athlete’s sexual orientation’ angle when the Collins story broke. Which is great, but if you really ‘don’t care’, then you shouldn’t care that he came out. That’s exactly what ‘not caring’ means.
Some people are saying he should keep it to himself, but how far does that go? What does it even mean? OK, he doesn’t make a public announcement, but is he allowed to go out in public with his significant other? Bring another man to the team Christmas party? Share photos on his facebook page? Or would that be ‘shoving it down our throats’ to quote one of several ignorant talking points.
I get the feeling a lot of folks that say ‘I don’t want to hear about it’ are really saying ‘I don’t like to be reminded of the fact that I’m prejudiced towards these people’.

But you know what? Jason Collins didn’t make this announcement for you, the straight white person who has extreme difficulty seeing anything from any viewpoint other than the straight white person viewpoint.
He made it for the people out there who are gay and feel like they can’t tell anyone. Sure, the potential influence on athletes in team sports is the one getting talked about the most, but there are people out there afraid to tell their parents, their siblings, their lifelong friends. If you’re one of the people out there flinging homophobic slurs or ranting and raving about what the Bible says about homosexuality, stop for one second and consider there may be someone very close to you who is gay and feels trapped, helpless and unloved because of your words and views. People kill themselves over this. Someday it could be someone close to you.

I agree that calling Collins ‘a hero’ or comparing him to Jackie Robinson is a stretch — but to downplay what his announcement means to others is to merely make it obvious how tone deaf you are to the fact that other people may experience the world differently than you do.

And spare me the Jason Collins/Tim Tebow comparisons. No one ever killed themselves because they were afraid to come out as a Christian. No one in today’s America is denied rights because they like Jesus. That’s why Collins is getting headlines and Tebow isn’t. You hear an athlete praise God in an interview every day. Tebow is not unique in that regard. There is no double standard.
And Tebow, for all the scorn he has admittedly taken from certain circles, has been celebrated in the media every bit as much as Collins has. But I guess people with a persecution complex conveniently forget that this guy became one of the most famous players in the NFL largely because of his faith. It sure wasn’t his play on the field.

The real reason I hate talking about this kind of stuff and dreaded writing about it is because it inevitably devolves into a religious argument. Which is silly, because for one, this is a secular country (no really, it is), and two, well, I know the 10 commandments by heart and they don’t say anything about homosexuality.
Well, unless you count the one about adultery, and I don’t see the internet blowing up with Christians condemning Tiger Woods or Kobe Bryant to a fiery eternity.
The Bible is also against shellfish, mixed fabrics, divorce, and well, a bunch of other weird and irrelevant stuff.
And remember, to have any sex (even hetero sex) before marriage is a no-no. If everyone who had premarital sex is going to hell there’s going to be an awful lot of prime real estate in heaven.
And again, none of this should even matter, since no religious doctrines have any authority in this country, anyway. Separation of church and state is supposed to be a real thing.

The sad part of writing this, I’ve realized, is that the people in my life who I most wish would read it probably won’t. The overtly religious, the staunch republicans who blame the president for everything from the BCS standings to the weather — they probably stopped reading this as soon it made them feel even the slightest bit defensive.
They’ll dismiss this as the propaganda of a liberal, never stopping to ask how they think Jesus Christ himself would treat Jason Collins.

But the thing is, this isn’t about right vs left, conservative vs liberal, republican vs democrat. I personally wouldn’t dream of self-applying any of those labels. Ever.
It’s about human decency. Homophobia is antiquated and obsolete. Those who cling to it only make themselves look cruel, cowardly and anti-intellectual, like those who believed in slavery or wanted to deny women the right to vote.
You can hold on to those beliefs until your death if you wish, but when you die, they’ll die with you.
Jason Collins has opened a very heavy door, and only those with hate or fear in their hearts will try to block the way through.

Jurassic Park has aged far better than The Graduate

I’m not sure exactly how far back the trend of bringing old movies back to theaters goes — I seem to remember a high school girlfriend trying (and failing) to drag me to a showing of ‘Grease’ in the late 90s — but I’ve never participated. Star Wars, ET, Jaws — I’ve never felt compelled to pay $8 to see a movie I’ve already seen.

That changed when Jurassic Park was recently re-released in 3D as part of its 20th anniversary.
I was a dinosaur geek as a kid, and although I’d largely grown out of it by the time my age reached double digits, I bought a copy of Michael Crichton’s novel when I was in 6th grade after seeing a friend reading it in class (it was, I have to admit, the cover that piqued my curiosity).

Certainly it wasn’t a book intended for 12-year old audiences, but I remember it surprisingly well even today. The scene  where Dennis Nedry (Newman from Seinfeld in the movie) is killed by a Dilophosaurus remains one of the more terrifying pages of literature I’ve ever read. I still remember much of it word-for-word:
He suddenly knew he was holding his own intestines in his hands.
The horror of that realization was followed by a final wish that it would all be over soon.

I remember that John Hammond (the Richard Attenborough character) was much more sinister in the book (and died in the book), and for some reason I pictured Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) as a black guy while reading it. His character died at the end of the book, too, and I’ve never understood how he was somehow ‘revived’ for the sequel, ‘The Lost World’. I never read that book, but I assume there’s some (weak) explanation.

Anyway, when the movie Jurassic Park was released in 1993, it was, of course, hugely anticipated. We were going to see dinosaurs and they were going to look and sound very real. This was perhaps the most can’t-miss movie (from a box-office standpoint) ever released.
I went to a matinee with three friends, but it was kind of weird because they were all just there to see the dinosaurs. I wanted to see the dinosaurs, too, but this was also a visual representation of a book I’d read and loved.
Either way, we all loved it. That maybe didn’t mean a whole lot then — what 13-year-old wouldn’t love a movie with ‘real’ dinosaurs — but of course, Jurassic Park is still on TV all the time, and I almost always watch it when it is. It’s still a great flick.

And when it was re-released into theaters, I couldn’t resist the chance to see the dinos on the big screen again, even though I own it on DVD.
I’d never been to a 3D movie, because I’m not generally interested in the kinds of movies that lend themselves to 3D. This seemed like a good time to finally pay the extra $4 for the dorky glasses.

And, well, it was the same movie. The notorious T-Rex scene didn’t actually strike me as any more impressive in 3D, but the part where they find a sick Triceratops on the trail did, as well as the scene near the end where the kids are hunted by a pair of Velociraptors.

But 3D or not, Jurassic Park just holds up really well. Amazingly, the special effects seem just about fully up to par with what we see today, 20 years later. By contrast, when it was released in ‘93, movies that were 20 years old at that time typically looked ancient.
Sam Neill and Laura Dern aren’t exactly your typical stars for a Hollywood blockbuster, but that was actually intelligent casting. The dinosaurs were the stars. Having someone like Tom Hanks play Dr. Alan Grant might’ve been, I don’t know, disruptive.
And while Jeff Goldblum is an easily parodied actor, I loved his portrayal of Ian Malcolm even more than I liked the Malcolm in the book. Twenty years later, Goldblum is still by far the best (human) character in the movie.

So if you liked Jurassic Park 20 years ago, by all means, go see it again. It’s a near flawless blend of adventure, horror, suspense, comedy and awe-inspiring visuals.

Fast forward a couple weeks (to yesterday).
The lady friend sent me a text in the afternoon asking if I could be done with work by seven. I said I could if I hurried, why?
Because there was a one-time showing of ‘The Graduate’ at the Century East theater (not in 3D, of course, but come to think of it, I don’t know who wouldn’t be interested in seeing a thirtysomething Anne Bancroft in three dimensional glory). This is one of the lady friend’s favorite movies, and she desperately wanted to go. I could tell it was important to her, so I raced to get my work done in time.

I had never seen ‘The Graduate’. I was well aware of the fact that it’s regarded as a classic, and that it helped popularize a bunch of horrible Simon & Garfunkel songs. And I knew the basic premise was that a hot older lady messed around with a young Dustin Hoffman.
But I’d just never gotten around to seeing it. I fully expected to like it, so we went.

I guess it might not be quite fair for me to say a movie hasn’t ‘aged well’ when I never saw it in the first place, but how or why this is considered one of the all-time greats is beyond me.
Yes, it was funny at several moments. Yes, there were some neat camera tricks that were probably revolutionary in 1967. Yes, I liked the ending (which I had no idea was the inspiration for the much-funnier Wayne’s World 2 ending).
Yes, Anne Bancroft was hot (she was also the only character in the movie that wouldn’t make you want to stab yourself in the eyes after five minutes of conversation).

But c’mon.
The kid has a lengthy affair with the neighbor lady, then goes on a date with her daughter. In that date, he is impossibly rude and cruel to the young girl, intentionally humiliating her by taking her to a seedy strip club, which he later apologizes for by kissing her rather uninvitedly.
They plan a second date, but before they can go, Mrs. Robinson steps in, forcing the kid to tell his new date that, yes, I’ve been sleeping with your mom.

Daughter runs off to college, and the kid decides to go after her to ask her to marry him. Remember, they’ve had one (very bad) date. Also, he did her mom. A lot.
He moves into her town and stalks her, finally confronting her on a bus. She tries to brush him off, he persists in a manner worthy of a restraining order.
Later, she comes to his place to tell him to stop stalking her and mentions that, oh, by the way, my mom said you raped her. He tries to tell her the real story, but she starts screaming and eventually leaves. Later that night, she returns and asks him to kiss her. He does, and asks her to marry him. She says, ‘Maybe’.

Did you get all that? On the same day that she accused him of raping her mother (which turned out to be “only” an affair), she is now considering marrying a guy who took her on one date (during which he treated her like an animal) and stalked her afterward.
What the hell? Serious? As it was happening I thought it was a dream sequence, but no, I guess we’re expected to believe that’s a plausible path to romance and marriage.
If you don’t know how it ends, well, watch the Wayne’s World clip.

Walking to the car after the movie I knew I should probably keep my mouth shut, but I couldn’t. I had to ask the lady friend to explain how anything in the second half of the movie made any sense at all.
She tried to defend it by saying that’s the point of the movie, that they get to the end and realize, ‘Hey, maybe this is kind of stupid’, that the whole theme of the movie (based on a book, which can’t possibly be as lazily written as the film) is young people’s urge to rebel against the conventional expectations and desires of their parents.
OK, fine. But that probably could’ve been done without making Dustin Hoffman’s character into a dim-witted, socially-stunted stalker-creep; or making the girlfriend into a character that’s insulting to brain-owning women the world over.
Also, five separate uses of ‘Scarborough Fair’ is probably four too many.
Maybe 45 years ago it was OK for movies to pretend that women are really that stupid. Maybe young filmmakers thought there was something heroic in a guy stalking and then proposing to a woman he’s been on one date with. Maybe they thought that songs containing lyrics about cambric shirts were profound.
That would perhaps partly explain why ‘The Graduate’ was ranked 7th — seventh! — on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest movies back in 1998.
It’s easy to see how and why ‘The Graduate’ was hugely influential on hundred of movies that came after it, and like I said, it was funny and the ending is entertaining if completely ridiculous.

But still…
Jurassic Park > The Graduate. It’s not close.

I saved a mouse’s life. Also it’s live chat day.

Since it was nice out again Monday but probably won’t be again for a while, I took the opportunity to give my dogs a bath.

I do this by holding their leash in one hand and dousing them with ice cold water fired from a hose-gun at close range. Tiger, the springer spaniel (and the one who more often needs a bath), actually kinda likes it, especially when it’s hot out.

For the last couple weeks I’ve noticed both my dogs barking at the rockpile that makes up the landscaping in my backyard. I figured they were barking at the frogs that often hide out in the rocks, but yesterday while hosing down Tiger I saw a flash of brown out of the corner of my eye. I instinctively pointed the hose-gun at it, and saw the tiny brown spot flop awkwardly into the rocks and spill end-over-end to the side of the house. I got up close and realized I was looking at a mouse.

I expected it to scamper away, but it didn’t. I assumed I’d killed it. I didn’t want to kill it, even though I felt kind of like I should (my dad has programmed me to treat every brand of rodent alive as a threat to personal property that must be rubbed out immediately). I looked closer and saw it was breathing. A faint chattering sound was coming from its mouth.

I didn’t know what to do. I did not have it in me to kill it, even if I wanted to, which I didn’t.
I poked it gently and it barely moved. Now I wondered if it was dying and if maybe killing it was the more humane thing to do. But what was I going to do? Step on it? Throw it against the wall? No way.

I gingerly picked it up by the hairs on its back, and it hung from my fingertips like a wet noodle. I carried it to the side of the house where it was out of the reach of my dogs and in the sunlight and laid it on a patch of warm concrete. It laid there, barely moving. Like this.

I inspected it close, checking to see if maybe the force of the water had broken one of its legs or something. But it was lightly moving all four legs in a pedaling fashion, like a sleeping dog dreaming of chasing rabbits.
I got down on all fours and got closer. It was shaking, almost violently, and again, that chattering sound. That’s when I realized it was freezing to death. The ‘shaking’ was actually shivering, and the chattering, I think, was its teeth.
So what did I do? Went into the garage and got a towel and laid it over the little guy to help him dry off and warm up, of course. I went back to the dogs, dried them off, put them back in the house, made dinner, and after a half hour or so, couldn’t resist going back out to check on the pest that I was nursing back to health.
When I first moved into my house after it was built, I killed dozens of mice with mouse traps in my garage, so it’s not like I have a soft spot for mice. But for some reason, I didn’t want this stupid mouse to die from water pressure injuries or hypothermia that I had inflicted while washing my dogs.
I peeled back the towel, and it was still wet, but at least lifted its head up off the cement when it saw daylight.

Another half-hour later I went back again, and this time he was next to the concrete, rolling around in dirt. But it didn’t run away when I pulled back the towel. It still didn’t seem to have the strength to walk/run/whatever.

Eventually, the lady friend and I decided to go to the gym for a late workout. Before we left, I said, ‘Come here, I have to show you something.’
I walked her to the side of the house, and when she saw a towel lying on the ground and realized there was something underneath it, well, I kinda wonder what she thought she was going to see. I pulled the towel back, and this time the mouse was pretty much fully dry, and its fur was big and poofy from the bath. It was alert, its eyes wide open and its nose sniffing around the dirt in front of it.
‘What is it?’
‘A mouse’, I said, and explained the story. She reached out to touch it, but I said, no, don’t touch it. I tossed the towel aside, and after a brief pause, almost as if he was waiting for permission, it scampered away, down the hill and directly back to the hole he’d dug right next to the rock pile in my backyard.
In other words, this whole process will probably take place again next month.

If only the mouse could talk. We would’ve had the plot for an Adam Sandler movie. Only not quite as dumb.
When I got back from saving the mouse, this was the look I got from Tiger. He wasn’t happy.

Live chat is today at 2. We can talk spring football, NFL draft, Twins, Stampede, Jason Collins, etc.

TWTW: RIP George Jones

I’ve been aware of country music legend George Jones for a long time, dating back to early in my childhood, when I saw a video on TNN (remember TNN?) for a song called ‘I Don’t Need Your Rocking Chair’ which, I discovered this week, is every bit as corny today as it was then.

When you’re a kid, country music, especially ‘authentic’ country music, is pretty much the epitome of uncool, but even as I got older, and an interest in Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan led me to seek out some of country music’s greatest legends, George Jones never made much of an impact on my listening tastes.

Then in 1999, while I was a sophomore in college, Jones released ‘The Cold Hard Truth’, his last original album. The song ‘Choices’ surprisingly got a fair amount of airplay, and soon became one of my favorites (Note: That song is what country music is supposed to sound like). From there, I sought out more of Jones’ complete catalog, becoming a fan of his incredible voice (this picture of George was even my twitter avatar for awhile, because it’s a cool picture).
When you think of the words ‘Classic Country’ — the stuff that Marty Stuart and Ralph Emery pimp on late-night informercials — you think of George Jones.

It’s kind of ironic that he died a week after Pat Summerall, as they’re both men who will be forever loved and remembered for their sweet, stoic and inviting voices. Hearing either of them always takes me back to a place and time in my past, and that’s….comforting.

Obviously there were plenty of tributes to leak out in the aftermath of Jones’ passing, but my favorites came from Shooter Jennings, an awesome country singer in his own right (and yes, the son of Waylon) and the Star Tribune’s Pat Reusse, one of my favorite sportswriters.

I watched part of this year’s American Country Music Awards last month, and was fairly appalled that what I saw apparently now qualifies as country music, and that makes George’s death even sadder. It’s a long fall from George Jones to Blake Shelton.

Vikings Draft Reaction

A defensive tackle that some draft pundits had going in the top 10?

A cornerback?

A wide receiver?

No Manti Te’o?

Yeah, I’m happy.

The Twins top prospects are off to a hot start

Much has been made of the fact that, while the Twins aren’t expected to contend this year, and possibly not next year, either, there is light at the end of the tunnel with the resurgence of the farm system.
Thanks to the draft, international signings and the trades of Denard Span and Ben Revere, the Twins have been able to quickly get their minor league talent back to a very high level, with most publications that rate the minor leagues ranking the Twins prospects in the top five in baseball.

That guarantees nothing, of course — just ask the Kansas City Royals. Tools are great, but production is what matters. Good news for the Twins: Their top prospects are producing so far this season.
Here’s a quick rundown of the Twins top prospects and how they’ve fared early on.

Triple-A
Before getting called up to the Twins, outfielder Oswaldo Arcia was hitting .394/.474/.727. He’s hitting just .167 as a Twin, but had a game-winning 3-run homer on Tuesday, and frankly looks more ready for the big leagues than Aaron Hicks. When Darin Mastroianni comes off the DL, it’ll be interesting to see if Arcia goes back down or if Hicks is sent back to Rochester.

Kyle Gibson was expected to compete for a spot in the rotation this spring, but struggled. And while he’s 0-3 with a 4.43 ERA in four starts for the Red Wings, his peripheral numbers are encouraging. The 25-year-old righthander has pitched 20.1 innings, and allowed 19 hits with 19 strikeouts and seven walks. He’s allowed just one homer. I expect him to debut in the majors soon.

Former Jackrabbit Caleb Thielbar is not one of the Twins top prospects, but it’s worth mentioning he has a 3.68 ERA with 18 Ks and just two walks in 14.2 innings in 8 relief appearances.

Double-A
Alex Meyer, the 6-foot-9 righthander the Twins acquired for Span, is off to an excellent start for New Britian. Granted it’s just three starts, but if it continues, Meyer could debut in Minnesota as soon as this season.
The 23-year-old has allowed three runs in 16 innings, with 19 strikeouts, seven walks, 13 hits and zero homers allowed.

Trevor May, the righty that came to the Twins along with Vance Worley in the Revere trade, threw a 7-inning shutout last night as part of a double header.  In 21.1 innings he’s walked 13 and allowed three homers, but has 23 Ks and has allowed only five runs for a 2.11 ERA. May is repeating Double-A, while Meyer is making his Double-A debut.

Michael Tonkin, a relief prospect, has allowed six runs in 8.2 innings for the Rock Cats, but has seven Ks and two saves.

High Single-A
Miguel Sano might be the No. 1 overall hitting prospect in baseball by next year, and he’s off to another monster start. Playing for manager Doug Mientkiewicz in Fort Myers, Sano is hitting .384/.439/.740 with seven homers and 19 RBI in 19 games. Still only 19, Sano could be in Double-A by the end of the year, making it at least plausible that he’d debut in Minnesota sometime next year. While 2015 seems more likely, Mientkiewicz has gone on record that Sano could hold his own in the big leagues right now. His defense at third still needs a lot of work, and some scouts insist the former shortstop will eventually wind up at first base.

Second baseman Eddie Rosario is hitting .338/.368/.500 for the Miracle. He’s now hitting .312/.362/.535 in 237 career minor league games, but equally encouraging is that the 21-year old converted outfielder — who hit 21 homers in 67 games in rookie ball as a 19-year-old — has not committed an error in 19 games at 2B.

Tom Stuifbergen, a 6-3, 260-pound righthander from the Netherlands, is 1-1 with a 2.88 ERA in four starts for Fort Myers. In 25 innings he has 17 Ks and zero (0) walks.

Not sure if he really counts as a prospect, considering he’s 25 and still in Single-A, but former Gopher catcher Kyle Knudson is hitting .432/.512/.649 for the Miracle. Which means he’s a better hitter than Drew Butera right now.

Low Single-A
Byron Buxton might be giving Sano a run for his money as the top hitting prospect in the organization before long. The centerfielder who was the No. 2 overall pick last year is hitting .404/.514/.614 in 16 games for Cedar Rapids in the Midwest League, where Jake Mauer is his manager. Buxton hit .248/.344/.448 with 5 homers and 11 steals in 48 games at rookie ball last year, so to get off to that fast of a start as a teenager is impressive. If he keeps it up, Buxton will be one of the very top prospects in all of baseball before long.

Shortstop Niko Goodrum, in addition to having an awesome name, is hitting .288/.383/.385.

Pitcher Jose Berrios, who had Gardy raving in spring training, has made one start and went five innings, allowing two runs on seven hits with five Ks and two walks.
Hudson Boyd (14 innings, 13 hits, seven walks, 12 K) and Mason Melotakis (12.2 innings, 12 hits, seven walks, 11 K) are two others in Cedar Rapids that have been identified as possibilities to move up quick.

Catching up on Augie and USF spring sports (Live Chat)

I’ll be honest. I haven’t been able to keep up with spring sports at Augustana and USF too well. Obviously, the weather has wreaked havoc on the spring schedules, but my duties with the Stampede (Game 5 tonight!) and Storm, not to mention my trip to San Antonio, have also prevented me from covering all the stuff I’d ideally be able to.
So here’s a somewhat crude attempt to get us all caught up.

Augie
The Viking baseball team is on a 10-game winning streak, having swept four straight from Northern State, two from Upper Iowa and four more from Minnesota Crookston (UMC is now 0-29 on the year, by the way, with a team batting average below .200 and a team ERA over 11.00).
The Vikings are now 26-15 and 14-6 in NSIC play, good for fourth place in the conference. The top eight teams make the conference tournament.
Marcus O’Neill leads the team with a .402 average, while Jake Petersen (.378), David Borchardt (.372), Jack Goihl (.354, and this week’s NSIC player of the week), Tony Viger (.348, Nate Hewes (.333), Brian Duxbury (.328) and Kye Winter (.321, team-high four homers) have all been good with the stick. The Vikings are hitting .332 as a team, with a .420 on-base percentage. They have 74 steals in 99 tries.
Augie’s top pitchers are Bennett Johnson (3-1, 3.19), Grant Larson (4-4, 4.55), Ben Heairet (3-4, 4.58), Jordan Milbrath (6-0, 4.88) and Derek Quame (2-0, 2.57, 8 saves).

The Augie softball team is just as hot, having won 13 of their last 14 to run their record to 28-9. They’re 15-5 in the NSIC, which puts them in fourth place. They’re one game back of UMD and MSU, who are tied for second, but three behind Winona State in the loss column.
Super sophomore Jenelle Trautmann has led the way, hitting .358 with 18 homers and 44 RBI while going 23-6 with a 2.16 ERA in the circle. Theresa McMahon (.392, 7 homers), Jenny Brown (.326), Erin Kempf (.324, 3 homers), and Emily Heinz (.312, 5 homers) have been strong producers as well.

The women’s golf team continued to dominate the NSIC, winning their fourth straight conference title, by a full 61 strokes over Minnesota State. Allie Ostrander won medalist honors, shooting a 75-80-78-80, while Maggie Leland was second, Marisa Toivonen fourth and Emily Kvidera fifth.
The Vikings men’s golf team finished sixth at the NSIC championships, with Tyler Jensvold placing eighth as Augie’s highest finisher.

The women’s tennis team also kept up its dominance, winning a third straight NSIC tournament crown on Sunday with a 5-2 win over Winona State, which followed the regular season title they won by going 12-0.
The Vikings got singles wins from Katie Jesperson, Jessa Richards, Hannah Gebauer and Jenna Helleberg. They’ve earned an automatic bid to the Central Region tournament, and will find out where they’re headed at a selection show today.

In other news, Runa Falch clocked the fastest time in Division II this year in the 10K run to provisionally qualify for the NCAA championships. Her time was 34:50.1, which I might note, is nearly as fast as I run a 5K.
Kristin Brondbo also qualified for the 1,500 meter run, as did Travis Beniak in the 3K steeplechase.

USF
The Cougar baseball team has won five of six to move into sixth place in the NSIC at 10-10 (15-19 overall), putting them in position to reach the conference tournament. Too bad they had four games against 0-29 Minnesota-Crookston canceled and two more against Northern State, they’d probably be 15-11 or 16-10 in league play.
Corey Vasquez (.371) and Keith Cutler (.347, 3 homers, 25 RBI) and Noah Durkin (.343) have been USF’s top hitters.
The Cougars pitching has been, as expected, a strength. Derek Fisher (this week’s NSIC pitcher of the week) is eight in the league with a 2.77 ERA, though he’s just 3-6. In 55 innings he has 50 Ks with just 14 walks. He’s got five complete games, two shutouts and two saves.
Noah Coleman has been almost as good, going 4-3 with a 3.05 ERA, while Eric Brothers (3-3, 4.35) and Andrew Christensen (1-1, 5.06) have also had their moments.

The Cougar softball team looks like it’s going to miss the NSIC tournament. They’re 8-14 in NSIC play - 12th place — and 13-23 overall.
Ultimately the Cougars’ bats have let them down, as they’re hitting just .231 as a team with only 8 homers.
None of their full-time starters are hitting over .300. Shelby Thompson leads the team at .294 with 2 homers and 21 RBI.
Bailey Bouman (6-8, 4.64 ERA, 3 shutouts) and Amanda Walters (7-14, 4.70, 15 complete games) have battled in the circle.

The men’s golf team had a strong showing at the NSIC championships, finishing third behind St. Cloud State and Minnesota State. Jordan Mueller shot a 71-82-80-84 to finish 11th as the Cougars’ top finisher. Nick Gottsleben and Andrew Nelson tied for 19th.

The USF women’s golfers finished fourth, with Tavia Rutherford finishing 9th and Sara Swaney 16th. A pair of top-five finishes definitely qualifies as a strong NSIC debut for Jenny Coluccuio’s teams.

The women’s tennis team qualified for the NSIC tournament in their debut season, but as the No. 8 seed, that merely meant getting matched up with Augie, and the Vikings breezed by the Cougars 6-0. But still, the 8-10 (6-6 NSIC) season was a solid debut for the Cougars. Alison Kauss, Rachel Hussey and Karlee Sieve were their top individuals.

It’s also been a good spring for USF’s track teams. Kayle Coffee won the pole vault at the Kansas Relays, an event that also saw Billy Brockmueller place second in the 10K.
Jazzelena Black won the 100 meter at the Vance Butler, where Brigitte Gross, Coffee and Kristin Majerus all hit the NCAA automatic qualifying marks in the pole vault. Black also provisionally qualified for the triple jump.
Scott Greenman and Jagger Gran provisionally qualified in the pole vault as well.

In basketball news, the women landed a Division I transfer in Taylor Varsho of Colorado State. Coach Travis Traphagen had been on Varsho hard out of high school, and she averaged 3.6 points and 2.9 rebounds as a true freshman for the Rams. She’s the daughter of former major league outfielder Gary Varsho.

Chris Johnson added a recruit as well, signing Mack Johnson, a 6-3 guard from Roseville. Johnson was all state and All-metro for both the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press. He holds his school records for 3-pointers made in a game, season and career.


You’ll notice no football news. Sorry, but between the weather and all the other stuff, I haven’t made it to a single practice yet. Hopefully that changes this week, especially with USF’s spring game scheduled for Friday. That’s still on schedule from what I hear, but it obviously could change.

Live chat today at 2. Hope you want to talk Twins or Stampede or something.

Letter from an old friend

I got a letter the other day. Not an email, a hand-written letter that was delivered to the Argus Leader, addressed to me.
There was a short note and a newspaper clipping. I scanned the newspaper clipping and saw that it included a quote from my 80-something grandmother. Then I read the note, and saw it was from an old ‘friend’.

Here’s the clip and the note.

In case you can’t make it out, the note reads:
Matt -
I saw this item in the Canby News and wondered if it was related to you.
Haven’t seen you in some time but still have your story on my trophy room wall.
Gerald Armitage

I immediately recognized the name. Eight years ago, when I was still relatively new to the Argus Leader, I was sent to Armitage’s home to interview him over a recent triumph at the Senior Games in Pittsburgh, and ended up spending about an hour there, talking about baseball, tennis, golf, running and Armitage’s grandkids. It was a memorable experience, and the story that came of it remains one of my favorite that I’ve written for the Argus.
He was 80 years old then, and while I haven’t seen or spoken to Gerald since, I think about him often because I routinely drive by his house, which is just across the street from Augustana’s Elmen Center and baseball/softball fields.
I’ll be honest, I sometimes wondered if he was still with us. But he is, and by my math would be 88 years old now. I bet he’s still active.
I guess this means that I’m going to have to dig up a stamp and an envelope and try to remember how to write an old-fashioned letter. In the meantime, here’s the story I wrote about Armitage back in 2005.

A champion of the sporting life

From Satchel Paige to marathons, Gerald Armitage has story to tell

BY MATT ZIMMER mzimmer@argusleader.com

Gerald Armitage is the guy you hope sits down at the bar stool next to you.

He’ll make the 3-hour plane trip or back nine fly by a little faster.

An 80-year old retired farmer originally from Canby, Minn., Armitage sat down in his Sioux Falls home in front of a sea of trophies last week to discuss his June 11th victory in the 1,500-meter run at the National Senior Games in Pittsburgh, and talked rather modestly about his exploits on the track.

He doesn’t really need to be modest. His winning time of 7:19 in Pittsburgh would likely beat many younger athletes. And furthermore, he has a lifetime of sports memories that would make almost anybody jealous.

Armitage can talk about good times on bowling lanes and golf courses, running marathons and about the time he stepped into the batter’s box against Satchel Paige with surprising results.

On the wall next to the trophy collection is a Peanuts poster, featuring a dejected Snoopy holding a tennis racket and muttering, “It doesn’t matter if you win or lose … until you lose!”

Armitage acknowledges the poster proudly, as if it has served as the theme for his 60-year career in sports.

“I’ve been in sports for so long, and I do all these things because I love it,” he says. “But I’m still competitive.”

He got his start running track at Exeter High School in Exeter, Calif., in the early 1940s before moving back to Canby. He also played baseball and later softball.

Football?

“No way,” he says. “I was a skinny 96-pounder. I wasn’t going to play football.”

Armitage was playing baseball and softball in 1964 when a barnstorming team featuring Cuban All-Stars and famed Negro League pitcher Satchel Paige visited Canby.

Paige was regarded as one of the greatest pitchers of all-time, though he didn’t debut in Major League Baseball until 1948 when he was 42, after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier a year earlier.

Paige retired from the majors in 1953, but still played. By 1964, at age 57, Paige typically threw the first inning or two to give the fans a thrill.

Armitage was the manager of the Canby team, but he couldn’t pass up the chance to bat against an all-time great, so he sent himself up in his brother’s place.

And homered.

“He didn’t have the speed anymore,” Armitage remembers of the lanky right-hander Paige. “He wasn’t trying to throw anything past you, but he had that damn thing that … moves in on ya (mimics the path of a slider).

“I was a left-hand hitter, and he left one of those things a little too far over the plate and I hit it pretty good. I had some good days and bad days. I guess that was my best day.”

It is worth noting that one year later, at age 58, Paige signed with the Kansas City Athletics, and pitched three scoreless innings against the Boston Red Sox.

Today, such an accomplishment would be commemorated by encasing the ball in a memento and locking it in a safe, but there wasn’t such an emphasis on memorabilia back in the 60s.

“Nowadays the first thing they do is grab the ball for ya,” Armitage says. “I’d have made (Paige) sign it and nobody ever would’ve touched it. But they just hopped over the fence, threw it in, and we kept right on playing with it.”

But Armitage did get to meet Paige after the game.

“What a cut-up,” Armitage remembers. “You ever see what they make him like in movies? He was exactly like that. He was fifty-something years old and he just wanted to be one of the boys.”

So who won the game?

“Oh, hell, the Cubans,” Armitage laughs. “I don’t remember the score, but they beat us pretty good.”

As the years went by, Armitage, like many athletes, gravitated towards golf and bowling. He is still a very good bowler. He carries an 185 average and just two years ago rolled a 279 game.

It was in 1979 that he found a renewed calling.

As part of the town centennial, Canby had a five-mile road race. At age 54, Armitage entered and was hooked.

“In 1980 I entered probably 10 races,” he says. “It just evolved. I just really enjoyed it.”

Armitage was running often enough that he stayed in terrific shape. He admits he took a great deal of enjoyment out of beating men in their 40s even as he approached 60.

He ran his first marathon in 1981 and won it.

After crossing the finish line in the Brookings race, Armitage told the Argus Leader’s Ron Hoffman, “Right now, my legs wouldn’t cross the street.”

His legacy of championship running is being carried on by his grandson, Jarvis Jelen, who won the Class AA state cross country title in 2003 for Lincoln.

Jelen said he plans to run his whole life and that his grandfather’s success proves it is possible.

“He’s really been getting into it,” Jelen said of Armitage. “It’s just cool to know it runs in the family. That he can still compete.”

Armitage and his family moved to Sioux Falls in 1986. He appeared in his first senior games in 1989. The senior games consist of a variety of events - mostly running, bowling and golf - and this year his running took him all the way to Pittsburgh, where he won the 1,500.

“If you’d told me 30 years ago I’d be here I’d have said you were nuts,” Armitage admits. “But,” he says, holding up his championship medal, “this has made me as happy as anything I’ve done.”

Armitage lives in a little house on Hawthorne Lane in Sioux Falls, just a few blocks away from Augustana College, where Jelen now competes in cross country and track. His wife, Luella, died in 1999, though she and his children and grandchildren are present in photographs in his living room.

It’s those grandchildren that help keep Armitage young.

“All my grandkids are in sports,” he says, mentioning that he hopes to catch a little league game this week. “Watching them gives me more joy than anything I’ve ever done. That’s what it’s about for me.”