The blog, Bryce Brown, MAYB, softball (not necessarily in that order)
Aug. 1, 2008 @ 12:31 p.m. by Joannaby joanna
I’m out at the South Y’s Farha Center. Very nice place. I’ve never been in here before, but it’s spacious — it’s nice and cool in here — there’s a lot of courts, every game is moving along nicely. I’m liking it. I haven’t paid too much attention to the game’s — it’s fourth- and fifth-graders, and lots of people I don’t know. I’m working on a story for Tuesday, so that’s been my focus, kind of.
I’ve been distracted by a few things, though.
My lack of wireless. There is wireless here, I do get a connection, but I can’t get a site for anything. I’ve talked to our tech guy, he said it’s something here. So I’m on the director’s computer. Nice guy letting me use it so I can satisfy my need to blog (it really is a sickness.)
The parents. My goodness. Seriously, folks. They players are what, 10 years old? Yet you’re yelling at the official, who’s making, what, $20 bucks a game, as if this is the NBA and there are millions riding on this game? Settle down, just a tad. (Don’t I always write about this after seeing a summer game? Drives me nuts. One guy told me that in the very first game, some parents were on the court complaining. Nice. Real nice.)
I was also distracted by Bryce Brown. We must have talked for 30, 45 minutes. I’m not even sure. He came to see a family member play and I monopolized his time. But he was fun to talk to. Our conversation ran the gamut, too. We talked about all the other players who impress him and I extended an open invitation to him to call me sometime and just talk about what players he likes. He was pushing Joe Randle and Demarcus Robinson, questioned why Randle doesn’t get more pub, talked about how Blaize Foltz is doing in college (I have an update on him that I keep running out of time to do).
Bryce loves to talk and he is enjoying talking about anyone but himself. We talked at length about Chris Harper and his chances of being a true stud at Oregon.
We talked about how Arthur is doing, about how good East is going to be (he says this team has a real chance, that it has all the components — QB, offensive and defensive lines, even the new linebackers. Bryce is such a talker that he had me buying in.)
He blew me away when he said he was timed in the 40 at 4.28 the other day. No one believed it, so he ran one right after it and was timed at 4.31. His previous best was 4.32. That’s impressive.
Bryce and I also talked about the haters. I asked him how he handles it — he reads nothing on the Internet or the paper. I said I didn’t understand why there were so many hating on him and his brother. My point is they aren’t thugs, they aren’t getting into trouble, they are qualifiers, they make Wichita look good just because they’re from here. So my reasoning has always been that it’s like this everywhere, that it’s not just Wichita being evil. From what he said, he’s talked to other top recruits and they don’t get this. Said guys from Nebraska, for example, don’t hear the hate. It’s really too bad. That’s not what this is about.
We talked about basketbal and how fifth graders are being touted as studs. I said I didn’t know if I wanted my boys to deal with that. He was surprised and asked me why. I thought that’s just so much pressure to deal with at such a young age, but as he pointed out, you can tell at that age if a kid is skilled. Good point and very thoughtful (like I said, I enjoyed the conversation.)
We also talked about the newspaper. Arthur and Bryce have always talked to me, and I respect that. I told him that my job is to write what happens, whether he goes for 300 or he fumbles. He said it’s not so much the stories as it is the people commenting on it.
Which brings me to my final distraction — the blog and softball. I’ve seen a number of posts saying that this blog is about hating on people, people coming here to dog someone out, people venting here.
Um, that’s not what this blog is about. I’m here to inform you about issues, games, athletes. Maybe I’ll bore you along the way with the random comments about my kids or the random questions I throw at you to keep you guessing (like, what things annoy you — I loved that one!) But this blog does not exist because I’m looking for folks to hate on someone, whether it’s Bryce Brown or Mark Griggs.
If we could have lots of lovin’ going on all the time, that would be fine with me. Even a mild disagreement here and there would be fine. The softball stuff, I just don’t get. It’s conversation, yes. Conversation I certainly never expected to get when I asked a simple question of whether athletes should specialize.
But do you know that in my nearly year of doing this blog that I’ve only been asked to take down two posts by readers because of the commenters? And do you know that the two both had similar topics brought up by commenters — softball and Griggs.
I just don’t even know what to say here. I write about a wrestling honor and get no comments. Griggs comes on and puts a huge comment on and a couple days later people are e-mailing me to stop the madness. It’s crazy!
August 1st, 2008 at 1:24 pm
My guess is your watching kids that will be going to school at either TIS or Collegiate.
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August 1st, 2008 at 2:13 pm
That is exactly the point, Joanna. I have been reading your blog for a long time now and thoroughly enjoy so much of it and how you try to keep the focus on athletics and the athlete. So many of them start with a great topic and soon become something totally distorted.
I appreciate your journalistic integrity and that you are keeping that first and foremost and trying to keep these blogs on track. I also understand that you are also a person and a mother and when you interject your personal experiences and opinions, I enjoy and appreciate that perspective as well. I read these blogs because I want to find out FACTS about athletes…all athletes, regardless of what school or team they represent. These athletes represent our state and we should be proud that we have a talented base of young men and women out there who have achieved success at what they do best.
I just get sickened when I read these posts (and I would guess most of them are from kids from opposing schools or teams) from people who just couldn’t wait to sink the knife in and start turning. Why? Let’s talk athletics, folks.
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August 1st, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I may regret this but here I go. Re: Mark Griggs. Nobody can deny that Mark has put together an organization that provides girls the opportunities and facilities to help them achieve their goals. Undoubtedly, he has helped many young softball players improve both their skills and their level of exposure to college recruiters. Additionally, Mark brings to his organization a level of passion for the game and his teams that is unparalled. However, that level of passion is usually his downfall. And ultimately, the reason for the negativity that seems to shadow him. You see, his passion has been manifested by behaviors that often draw the ire of the officials, opposing teams and fans. So many of us have witnessed his tirades, outbursts and beratements that it’s difficult for us to offer to him the level of respect that he might otherwise deserve. His behavior casts a pall over his organization that his players, coaches and parents do not deserve. I know there are many wonderful people involved in the Mustang organization. But, unfortunately, Mark’s polarizing reign as king of the Mustangs decreases the public (softball community) perception of his entire club. I think that is why you receive so many responses when Mark posts on your blog. There are very few people who haven’t been privy to his behavior and those who have been have definite opinions and perceptions. It really is too bad. As I said earlier, he has done many positive things for the sport of softball and the girls who play.
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August 1st, 2008 at 4:23 pm
That was the Great American Novel of blog posts. I feel like I just watched Jerry Maguire! Inspirational!
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August 1st, 2008 at 4:23 pm
yes “haters” 4.28 !
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August 1st, 2008 at 9:35 pm
For some reason that’s the way Wichita has always been — good athletes, homegrown athletes — seem to provoke more hatred than anything in their own city. It’s pretty sick. And we wonder why our top basketball players don’t even take a whiff at WSU. ‘Cause they’re sick of getting hated on left and right.
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August 2nd, 2008 at 6:41 am
Im sorry, but at least on the basketball players wichita (as a whole) has never “hated” on the great ones. All I ever remember was almost everyone rooting for Antoine Carr,Darnell Valentine, Ricky Ross, Greg Drieling (well maybe a little, but not until he transfered from WSU to KU!), Brandon Polk, Taj Gray, Karl Papke, Aubrey Sherrod, Most of the South Kids, and there has been several more. But my point was that usually everyone I talked to will pickup the paper to check out how the wichita kids are doing at whatever school they happen to be playing at. As far as the Perry Ellis thing goes, I don’t think people wanna to talk bad about him, but there is a few people that wanna hype the kid up so much to the extreme, that some people then get sick of hearing about it and it makes them say things to the other extreme when they would probably just not say anything normally. But In his case I have heard people say (when he is only an 8th grader) that he is gonna be a lottery pick! and has not played one high school game. That’s crazy. When the odds of this kid playing in the NBA are still not very good. Rickey Ross, Antoine Carr and Darnell Valentine are probably the three best high school players at least that I Ever saw in Wichita. Even middle school games were just packed Antoine Played Ross! And they were ACTUALLY (not talked about maybe someday being one) first team high school all americans, but were never hyped in the way people have done the Ellis kid. And it’s not his fault at all, actually feel sorry for the kid in that regards. A 14 or 15 year old kid cannot possibly live up to that hype as a freshman.
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August 2nd, 2008 at 4:22 pm
You make a lot of good points bbfan. I think if Ross and Carr had played in today’s day and age you wouldn’t be able to log on to the internet and not read 10 stories about them from 10 different people — it’s just today’s day and age. But I disagree with you about the hate. I think Wichita overall has got a bad case of CRABS IN A BUCKET.
As far as Ellis… you are right … that is so much hype … but he is not a case study or anything, because there’s an incoming freshman in every state in the country, sometimes more than one in each, that’s getting that sort of pub. I’m excited to watch him play, even with the pressure.
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August 3rd, 2008 at 7:25 pm
you make good points fiveasypieces.
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August 4th, 2008 at 2:47 am
Yeah, can’t we all just get along!
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August 4th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Time will tell about young P.E. for now just let him be a kid. right now he’s leading the pack for young middle school star. He’s will not be the only to see.
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