“Clemente”

Several weeks ago I wrote a column about a book I had read about one of my child hood heroes, Pistol Pete Maravich. As soon as I finished that book I picked up another book about another sport hero from that same era. At the risk of turning my column into a book review, I have to write about the book that I just finished titled Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero by David Maraniss. The book caught my eye in the book store because I was a young boy during his heyday with the Pittsburh Pirates. Clemente also had a connection with Nicaragua, the homeland of my wife, and we had just traveled there back in the spring (yes I know that I wrote about that too).
For those that might not remember him or know who he was, Clemente was arguably the best right fielder to ever play the game of Major League Baseball. He won 12 straight Golden Glove Awards, four National League batting titles, was a 10 time selection to the All Star team, was National League MVP in 1966 and World Series MVP in 1971.
I can’t say that I idolized Clemente as a childhood hero. He played baseball and to be honest most of my sports heroes were football and basketball players. I followed the game of baseball though, as an Atlanta Braves fan (Rico Carty, Felipe Alou and Hank Aaron) and knew enough to realize that Clemente was a special athlete.
The book, which is well written, highlights some aspects of Clemente’s life that I was unfamiliar with. Aspects such as his temper, his disdain for most sportswriters who he felt portrayed him as a hypochondriac, his overwhelming pride in his homeland of Puerto Rico and his battle to end unfair treatment of minorities in pro baseball. Clemente was a black Puerto Rican, so in his mind he got a double dose of discrimination.
But the book also details his humanitarian efforts and his kindness to many a child who looked up to him. That humanitarian side of him is what eventually led to his death. He had coached the Puerto Rican All Star teams in the International leagues several times when they journey to Nicaragua. He developed a fondness for the people of that country and in 1972 was dismayed at the devastation caused by the massive earthquake in the capital city of Managua. He organized plane loads of relief for the country and was tragically killed in a plane crash en route to Nicaragua on New Year’s Eve, 1972.
Clemente had a saying, “if you have a chance to make a difference in someone’s life and you don’t, you’ve wasted your time on earth”. Simply Put, he didn’t waste his time and we shouldn’t either.
From the front porch: Uncle Bob said if the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, you can bet their water bill is higher.

“Tough Times For JV Football”

I wrote a column two years ago about this time of year regarding the Cottondale Hornet’s football program not having a middle school football team that season. The good news is that the Hornet’s middle school football program returned last year and once again they will field a team this season.
The bad news for football programs in the county though is that three of the four football programs in the county will not put a junior varsity team on the field this season. Cottondale has not had a JV football team for several years now, and that is one of the things I lamented on two years ago with the cancellation of the middle school team for that season. It meant that for some kids they would not begin organized football in a school setting until the 9th grade. And then that organized football in a school setting would be as a 9th grader on the varsity.
Joining Cottondale this year with no junior varsity teams are Graceville and Sneads. In talking with all three Head Coaches at these schools, they are the first ones to tell you that they would much prefer to be able to field a JV football team. And they would be the first ones to sell you on the importance of a JV team to their overall football program.
So what is the problem? It’s a numbers game. Or to put it another way, they do not have enough players to adequately field a team. And that’s a shame. Ninth and tenth grade kids at Cottondale, Sneads and Graceville now must play at the varsity level. And while you might occasionally have a ninth or tenth grader ready to play at the varsity level, by and large most are not.
For those that are not ready for play at that level, it can’t be much fun. Just imagine, you get beat up all week long in practice by the older players and then for the most part are a benchwarmer on Friday nights. Unless they have a tremendous desire to play football, it won’t take long for some of those young players to hang up their cleats and call it quits. And even if they stick with it, they are not getting playing time like they would at the JV level. So their skills and talents are not being developed as they should.
The end result is that this can not be good for football in our county. Hopefully things will make a turn for the better next year. Until then, Simply Put, these are tough times for JV football.
From the front porch: Coach said if you don’t know where your going it doesn’t matter which road you take.