most reckless action
perpetuated in the name
of college football

Christine Brennan of USA TODAY, a writer I like and not just because she is a Michigan Fan, wrote today in her article, I love college football but just can’t watch amid COVID-19 concerns, In what has to be the riskiest roll of the dice in the history of college sports, 76 universities, many of them in the South and Southwest, are embarking on the most reckless action ever perpetuated on college campuses in the name of athletics, pressing on with their quest to play football in the middle of a pandemic.

Ms. Brennan states, “The worst thing you’ll be able to say about those schools is that they were too cautious about the health of their student-athletes.

What’s the worst thing you’ll be able to say about the schools that allowed football and other sports to continue? That answer will come in a few months.

But at the moment, what we do know is that the dozens of schools playing football have no idea if by allowing fall sports to be played, they will bring illness, hospitalization and even death to their campuses and communities. They can’t know what they will unleash. They’re just guessing and hoping.”

For longer than there has been a pandemic I have been suffering from a near-terminal case of Harbaugh.

I even talked my Doctor (a Notre Dame Grad but here in the south, what you going to do) to put ‘Suffers from Harbaugh’ on my official Medical Record.

That being said, I like Jimmy “I lost the Brown Jug” (in case he thinks I forgot about Rickey Foggie and Lou Hotlz’s one year with the Golden Gophers) Harbaugh.

And I understand, if not Jimmy then … who?

I don’t think His Evilness Urban Myer will come out of retirement but I would … well …

So I resigned to being good but not great.

And the only real goals left for me as a Michigan fan is to be 1) The first team to 1,000 wins (sometime now in 2024) and 2) not let Ohio State pass us in all time wins in the Michigan – Ohio State series … in my lifetime (58-51-6) so they got to grind out a few wins in the next 8 years.

So what do I have to say?

I agree with Ms. Brennan.

Michigan Football was here before I was born and will be here after I die someday.

I feel the pandemic is real.

I feel we can take time to pause and be safe.

I can wait.

And, as Coach Schembechlor said, “Those who remain will be Champions.”

no baseball today
missing player in right field
he played the game

According to Major League Baseball guidelines for field dimensions for professional baseball, “The rulebook states that parks constructed by professional teams after June 1, 1958, must have a minimum distance of 325 feet between home plate and the nearest fence, stand or other obstruction on the right- and left-field foul lines, and 400 feet between home plate and the nearest fence, stand or other obstruction in center field.”

Notice that these guidelines only list a ‘minimum distance’ between home plate and the nearest fence.

The University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences released in 2001, a guide baseball field layouts including field dimensions, construction tips, and materials necessary for building a baseball field.

This guide lists ‘recommended placement of outfield fences’ by level of play.

Again, these are just ‘recommendations’.

No where, in any rule book, is the maximum distance or depth of an outfield listed, defined or manadated.

For me, I accept that an outfield wall or fence is just an arbitrary barrier that limits but not defines the field of play.

If a batter playing in Detroit’s Comerica Park, hits a ball into the first row of the bleachers, it is a home run.

If the same batter hit a ball 2 miles away and it landed in the Detroit River, it would be a home run.

The ball would not be declared ‘out of bounds.’

The lines of a baseball field extend to infinity.

Defined only right and left foul lines extending out from homeplate.

These means, to me anyway, that anywhere you stand, anywhere in the world, you are standing in someones outfield.

(I admit this not an original thought for me but one I stole from WP Kinsella. What bugs me is that I can’t find the quote. I am pretty sure it is in Iowa Baseball Confederacy but I can’t find it)

If I am standing in someone’s outfield, there is a good chance I am in someone’s rightfield.

If I am rightfield, there is a good chance I standing near the man who played right field for the Detroit Tigers for 24 years.

If I was, I would be happy just to be there.

That would be enough.

To share right field for a play or two with Al Kaline.

I wouldn’t mind if he said hello.

I wouldn’t expect it though.

Not that Al wouldn’t say hello.

But if there was a game on, that is where his focus would be.

Man meets myth.

This time Man wins.

Al Kaline.

If you know what I mean, you know what I mean.

If you don’t know, that’s okay.

Suffice it to say, there is no joy in Mudville.