Some of my best memories growing up were those surrounding little league baseball. I played for the team sponsored by the local Lions Club. My dad was a coach, so I got an up-close glimpse of what that entailed – stowing the gear, scheduling practices, picking up teammates unable to find a ride to the game.
I don’t remember my dad ever talking about diversity, equity and inclusion, but it was the late 50s and early 60s and those concepts weren’t fully shaped yet into modern culture. Although it must be said that back then, from my perspective, it felt very inclusive, equitable and diverse. The issue wasn’t excluding kids, it was finding enough kids to include.
The poster boy for this was Tommy Miller who played right field. And when I use the word “played” I should probably use the word “stood,” because that’s what he did. He stood in right field, chewing his mitt chasing balls like a dog playing fetch. I can’t remember him ever catching a fly ball. But he loved to fetch. He chased down those balls with the tenacity of a Yellow Lab and threw them back in with the biggest toothy grin you can imagine. He loved it and we loved him.
Why?
Because he was a Glendale Lion and if you got somethin’ to say about Tommy Miller, say it to us all.
All this is to tell you that things have changed these days in youth sports.
For example, there’s a place in Northern California called Marin. It’s just above San Francisco and I spend time there when I’m not in Nevada and Arizona because we have some Battle Born Media newspapers there.
Marin has a lot of rules for little league coaches.
Here’s the latest: If you want to coach a kid’s team, you must first pass a government approved “diversity, equity and inclusion” training class. And, you must repeat the training every 365 days. I kid you not.
Apparently, in the wokery of modern culture new ideas hatch weekly as to what is diverse enough, equitable enough and inclusive enough. Therefore constant training is required.
Afterall, it was only 15 minutes ago when knuckle-draggers actually believed the fastest woman swimmer in the world ought to be a biological woman. Can you imagine having people coaching our kids who do not have their minds right on that?
It’s a brave new world, I guess. I hope every community can find good people to put up with the new rules but still remember that coaching remains largely about stowing the gear, making out schedules, and finding ways to make players feel lucky and good.
Kids like me and Tommy Miller. Go Lions!
FLIPPING SCRIPTS
I find the discovery that Joe Biden mishandled classified documents a highly amusing turn of events. Suddenly, all the usual Democrat suspects are defending President Joe Biden with the scripts that the usual Republican suspects used in defending Donald Trump. And visa-versa.
We live in a beautiful country in which two men may run against each other for president in 2024 with both having a special counsel investigating them. Weeeee!
OUR FLAWED MEDIA
Last week MSNBC had host Symone Sanders-Townsend cover the story of the classified documents in Biden’s possession. For the uninitiated, Sanders-Townsend, was a former top advisor to Joe Biden.
C’mon, MSNBC. Let’s get serious about covering the news.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
– Hunter Biden had a daughter, now 4, from a stripper. Her name is Navy and her mother is seeking to change her last name to Biden. But Hunter opposes the change in court because, he told the judge, it would rob her of a “peaceful existence.” Just when you thought Hunter Biden couldn’t be any more of a jerk.
– The secretary to Joe Biden, and the person most likely to get entangled in his mishandling of classified documents, was recommended for the job by guess who? If you said Hunter Biden, you would be correct, sir. Ding, ding, ding.
– And finally, are you seeing the details on this Penn/Biden think tank deal? Some of the classified documents were found in Biden’s office there. If I’m reading the stories correctly, the think tank was established, allowing the university to solicit and receive millions of dollars in donations to the university from Chinese sources. Biden, meanwhile, received a million dollars a year to head the think tank. Sounds like straight-up corruption to me.
ONE MORE THING
– Hungry clocks always go back four seconds.
– Did you hear about the machine that electronically castrates bulls? Yeah, these days, nobody buys a farm without power steering.
– Did you hear about the antiques collector who found an old Coca-Cola lamp? She was soda lighted.
Sorry about the bad dad bad puns this week. But, I’m glad to be back writing for you after taking a holiday break. Thanks for stopping by. As always, avoid soreheads, laugh a little, and question authority.
“Properly Subversive” is commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick, a Nevada Hall of Fame journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@ gmail. com.
