Category: The American Game

A nation turns its lonely eyes to you

~ susie

mone
Mo’Ne Davis, of course:

“She has an effortless media savvy,” says Peterson after a day at WHYY, talking on radio about the death of Michael Brown and unrest in his hometown of Ferguson, Mo. “Juxtaposed with the loss of Michael Brown’s life, the emergence of Mo’ne is a great relief.”

In his opening monologue, Oliver warned his audience that after a weary week of Israel-Hamas-Ebola-Ferguson, his show would treat some dark material.

But . . . Mo’ne Davis, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. As did Oliver. He used Davis/Taney as an antidote to the fear, anger, and hatred in the air – and as a comment on media themselves:

“In the world of sport, a new star emerged this week. I love this girl, but the best part of Mo’ne Davis is not that she happens to be female. It’s that she also happens to be awesome. Waving her fingers after strikeouts . . . and displaying remarkable self-confidence.”

Although often portrayed as modest, at least among her teammates, Davis can dish the TV athlete patois. On Friday she said, “I throw my curveball like [certifiably awesome L.A. Dodgers pitcher] Clayton Kershaw and my fastball like Mo’ne Davis.” She’s publicly challenged Kershaw to a pitch-off.

The smitten Oliver gushed:

“How is she that self-confident at 13 years old? I’m not that self-confident now and I have a TV show! But of all the wonderful things Mo’ne Davis did this week, this is my favorite. . . . ”

Right after her historic 4-0 shutout of Tennessee on Friday, ESPN’s Jaymee Sire asked Davis whether it was hard to handle all the sudden media attention.

“Not really,” Davis said, all old-trouper equanimity. “I can always say no, so that’s like my special weapon for the media.”

Oliver went bonkers over these wise words:

“Mo’ne Davis is incredible. Saying no to dumb questions from the media is a special weapon everyone should use.

“Who are you wearing?” No.

“What do you think of the 2016 candid-” No.

“If you were a tree, what tree would you-” No! No! No! No! No!

Taney, first and foremost, is a local story, with folks watching Sunday night’s 7-6 victory over Pearland East of Texas on TVs throughout the area – and on a big screen at City Hall. Tracking on Twitter suggests it’s not nationwide quite yet. According to the tracking site Topsy.com, Twitter’s mentions of the term Taney have, as you might expect, spiked for Dragon victories over the last week, hitting 10,000 tweets a day (high, but not nation- or world-class) but once, in Sunday night’s stirring come-from-behind victory.

According to the site Trendsmap.com, in the Philadelphia region as of Monday afternoon, five of the leading six hashtags concerned Little League baseball: #Philly, #Davis, #Taneydragons, #Taney, #Taneybaseball, and #Mone. Other trenders included #Believeindragons and #Zion, the last for Zion Spearman, stalwart Taney batsman.

Perhaps most important: On Topsy’s sentiment score, which measures the association of terms with other positive or negative terms, Taney scores a sky-high 91. Former Phillies manager Charlie Manuel tweeted: “How about those Taney Dragons! I see you!” So did many other prominent locals, and they better had, or else.

But there’s national love now as well. There’s all that ink. And according to Trendinalia.com, Philadelphia tied with Los Angeles for the greatest number of area-related trending topics from Sunday to Monday. National boldfacers have joined in: Michelle Obama, TV boldfacers Ellen DeGeneres and Diane Sawyer, basketballer Kevin Durant, and tennis great Billie Jean King. And, yes, Kershaw.

Peterson sees a heartening message in this media story. At a time when, elsewhere in the country, race relations are still in turmoil, Davis “radically presents you with the promise of black life and a powerful indication of progress,” he says. “With her sense of herself as being able to do anything, and her capacity for greatness, it’s inspiring. What’s beautiful is you can see it in her words, the way she winds up, the way she moves on the baseball field. I’m trying to figure out a way to get my family and me out to Williamsport for Wednesday’s game.”

The most beautiful sports moment I’ve ever seen

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

The shittier the news gets, the more I love baseball. I watched another great game in the Little League World Series last night: Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West vs. Rhode Island’s Cumberland Americans. Cumberland battled JRW’s batting powerhouse until the final out, but couldn’t pull out the winning run.

What was really amazing was the speech coach Dave Belisle gave to his boys after the loss:

After losing to Jackie Robinson West 8-7, Dave Belisle gathered his Cumberland American team from Rhode Island to let them know that even though they lost, it’s not a reason to be upset or disappointed.

As most of the kids in the huddle cried, Belisle made them all lift their heads and look him in the eye as he told them to be proud because they had their hometown “jumpin’, the whole state jumpin’, you had New England jumpin’, you had ESPN jumpin’.” He also told them the only reason he would cry after this run is because he won’t be coaching them.

Aww. ESPN was smart enough to leave the camera on for the entire speech, and all I could think about was all the damaged men I know whose dads weren’t there for them. I know we still have such men, because they were all on Twitter during this speech, calling him “soft” and “an example of the pussification of sports.”

But there were also guys on Twitter who said they played hockey for Coach Belisle’s many state championship teams, and they responded by calling him “a coach I’d run through brick walls for.”

If you coach sports (or if you’re a parent), here’s the whole speech. Memorize it, and when your kids fail, use it. You could do worse.

Taney wins during final play, 7-6

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

You need a little good news this Monday, right? Here it is: The Taney Dragons pulled it out in the very last second of last night’s game against Pearland, Texas to win, 7-6. And what a cardiac event this game was! From The Good Phight:

It was the bottom of the sixth in Williamsport, in a taut second round matchup between two of the first-round winners, Philadelphia’s own Taney and the team from Pearland, Texas, representing the Southwest.

Pearland led, 6-5, but the magic, multicultural local preteens showed no quit. Taney’s Scott Bandura led off with a bunt single, but a Jahli Hendricks strikeout and a Jared Sprague-Lott fly out to center left the kids one out away from a loss that would have meant a game tomorrow and a complicated pitching lineup that would have kept star pitcher Mo’ne Davis off the mound.

But Zion Spearman followed with a scorching ground ball past the shortstop that rolled all the way to the wall, and with Bandura running on contact, the game tied, and Spearman wound up on third, just beating the throw from the cutoff man.

With Spearman on third, Tai Shanahan followed with a groundball to shortstop that Texas shortstop Aaron Matthews fielded, but threw over the head of his first baseman as Spearman scored, and Taney walked off.

The game was played in perfect conditions in Williamsport, and a bus-trip aided throng of over 30,000 fans crammed every seat, nook, and hillside to watch the game, many of whom chanted “Let’s Go Taney!” throughout the game

If you skipped watching because Mo’Ne wasn’t pitching, you missed two-and-a-half hours of great edge-of-the-seat baseball. Jared Sprague-Lott (who I predict now as the series MVP) pitched a great four innings before giving up a three-run homer. But the pitchers who followed were solid, too.

I can’t imagine what it was like for young kids to play with that much pressure on them, with that many screaming fans. Williamsport is a four-hour trip from Philly, and there were so many Philadelphia fans made the trip, Little League officials decided they had to hand out tickets.
Continue reading “Taney wins during final play, 7-6” →

Me and the southern belle

~ susie ~ 7 Comments

I saw this go past my Twitter stream during the Taney game last night and just had to respond:

She describes herself as “Christian, wife, mom, Aggie, conservative, Aggie Mom. Lover of family, Texas Country Music, good friends, & a good drink.”

I couldn’t help but respond:

She answers:

And by “some,” I guess she means… well, I think we can guess.

I think she meant, “I guess y’all don’t…. bitch.”

I’m so glad I don’t live in Texas.

This makes me happy

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

This is exactly what I hoped would happen. Inner city baseball has been dropping off for years (mostly because equipment is much more expensive than a basketball), but a story like Mo’Ne’s and the Taney Dragons is getting kids interested again. Hallelujah!

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The Taney Dragons baseball team is playing their 2nd game in this year’s Little League World Series at 7pm Sunday against Pearlman, Texas.

The Dragons and their star pitcher Mo’Ne Davis are inspiring a lot of kids from the Delaware Valley to get out and play some baseball.

On most Sunday afternoons 12-year-old McKie Walker is usually at home watching TV or playing video games, but this week he’s with a few of his buddies at Fairmount Park sharpening his baseball skills.

“I’m inspired to play better, so I can try and make it to the Little League World series,” he said.

McKie says his extra jolt of motivation comes from Mo’Ne Davis and those Taney Dragons. “She inspires me to throw better pitches than I can do,” he said. “I’m learning how to throw a better curve ball, because I see she’s getting a lot of strike outs throwing gas, curveballs and changeups.”

But the coach of the team Taney beat for the state championship is filing a complaint that Taney broke the Little League rules. He says Taney has an “unfair advantage” because they can draw from the entire city.

Man. When I think of the resources suburban Little Leaguers have as opposed to the city (here, they have to travel to different crappy playgrounds and no, their parents don’t normally send them to summer clinics with former MLB stars), I just have to laugh. Hell, they didn’t even have real uniforms.

No crying in baseball, fellas!

Another shutout for Mo’Ne in World Series opener

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

mone

Today, Mo’Ne Davis did it again. In their first outing at Williamsport, she pitched a complete game and back-to-back shutouts. Slugger Jared Sprague-Lott pumped out a three-run homer in the first inning, and the rest is history.

The irony is, the Taney Dragons Little League team is succeeding against the odds. Our city playground maintenance has been cut to the bone, and so has our public school budget, where most of the Dragons attend school. (They couldn’t even afford uniforms, they had team T-shirts. The Phillies raised money last week to pay for the trip to Williamsport.)

Philly’s schools superintendent just announced another $38M cut necessary to allow the schools to open on time next week.

So when Gov. Corbett congratulations the Dragons on their first World Series win, let’s put that in some kind of context. Fuck him, go Dragons!

Taney shirts, hats available now

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Also bus tickets to Friday’s game at Williamsport!

Click here.

I just found out today Mo’Ne Davis was discovered playing football!

The rest, as they say, is history. Or, at least making it. Davis will be just the 17th girl ever to play in the Little League World Series when the Taney Dragons take the field Friday afternoon in Williamsport. She will be the first American girl to play in the tournament in a decade.

It’s no small feat. Davis started pitching her first season playing baseball, the same year Bandura discovered her. She’s honed her skill since then, but right from the beginning she had a knack for throwing strikes. In the younger age groups, Bandura said, that’s all a player needs.

As she’s gotten older, though, Davis has improved dramatically. Bandura said the physical differences between male and female players usually kick in between 10 and 12, but that hasn’t been the case for 13-year-old Davis. She can throw a fastball. She can throw a changeup. She’s worked on her breaking ball this year, too. Her shutout propelled Taney to the tournament.

“From the beginning, she had good control,” Bandura said. “She has incredible spatial awareness, or kinesthetic awareness — whatever you want to call it. If she’s doing something wrong, she knows how to fix it, what to do with her body to fix it. She knows what she’s doing wrong. She knows how to correct it and she corrects it. Because of that, she always throws strikes.”

And that’s something special. Bandura has coached scores of baseball players over the years, both boys and girls. He’s overseen plenty of talent at all different positions. But considering her age and ability, Davis tops his list. He said he’s even more impressed at how well-rounded she is; Davis is an honor student at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, one of the best schools in the area.

“At this age, she’s the best pitcher I’ve ever had,” Bandura said. “I’ve had pitchers that are now in the minor leagues, but at this age, no one’s had the control to go with the velocity that she has and the command.”

Bandura doesn’t coach the Dragons. This week in Williamsport, he’ll “just be a dad,” he said (his son Scott plays catcher to Davis’ pitcher). But he’s been handling media requests for the team lately, and there’s been a lot of them for Davis.

“I had to talk to her and let her know that it’s important that she does the interviews because she’s a role model,” he said. “The more we can get her story out there, the better for other girls — other inner-city girls, any girls.”