Thursday, September 27, 2018

Sports this 'n' that

There've been some news stories the last couple of days that caught my attention, but also illustrate some of the fundamental wrongs in today's society.

Take, for example, the case of 8 year old Chloe Beaver, who has been diagnosed with Disruptive Mood Dysfunctional Disorder (DMDD), a rare ailment in which Chloe's emotional understanding is equated to that of a toddler. Chloe and her parents were at a Houston Astros game the other day, and Chloe's loud cheering for the home team upset an older fan one row in front of the Beavers. The fan simply told Chloe, "Enough", and the cheering stopped for a while. The fan didn't know about DMDD, and poor Chloe had to be encouraged by her parents and other fans in their row to go back to cheering.

Chloe's gotten encouragement from the defending World Series champs, including pitcher Lance McCullers, Jr., who's offered to leave a ticket for Chloe when the playoffs start. Watch. The cameras will be focused on this little girl, and her story will be told.
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In Washington, DC, a high school student was booted from his football team, not because of disciplinary issues, but rather, residential issues.

You see, Jamal Speaks is homeless, and has had to crash with friends during the school year. Luckily, Speaks is back on the team, but for now is ineligible to play until his residency issue is settled. He's gotten offers for housing, from what I've read, so hopefully, this has a happy ending.
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We reported on Tuesday that Troy High's soccer & tennis matches vs. Saratoga had been called off due to rain. Turns out their golf match was also postponed, and will be made up today. No make up date has been set for the tennis, as we alluded to before. As it turns out, it wasn't just the boys' soccer match that was called. Over at Picken Field, the women's match was also postponed, but just for 24 hours, as apparently Saratoga decided to cancel all of their sports activities on Tuesday, even though Picken Field has field-turf.

The women's match was played on Wednesday night, with Saratoga extending Troy's miseries with a 6-0 shutout. The Lady Horses have now lost five in a row, all via shutout, since blanking Schenectady two weeks ago, 3-0. Of the 11 losses this season, Justin Haviland's club has been blanked an alarming nine times. They've scored just six goals in twelve games this season, an average of 1/2 a goal per game.

It doesn't get any better for Troy, as they travel to Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake today. And if it's another shutout, well, a well known political icon of another era said it best....


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Now, try this one for size.

In Peoria, Arizona, senior wide receiver Cameron Torres scored a touchdown, but was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. It was his 2nd such foul of the game, leading to an ejection and a one game suspension.

Problem is, he'll miss Homecoming this week, and his violation was for what the official perceived to be "high stepping", as a way of taunting his opponent, which Torres clearly wasn't doing. He was dodging a tackle, not doing the can-can, like, say for example, Deion Sanders back in the day. The head of the state's governing body for football is standing by the official's decision, as biased as it seems to be, and that's wrong. Appeals are underway to allow Torres to play after all on Homecoming, which is tomorrow night. Stay tuned.

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