Sports
Baw boomp ba
Baw boomp ba. Baw boomp ba.
I tossed the ball against the wall, caught it on one hop and then threw it again. The small, yellow stress ball promoting Iowa Lakes Community College helped me to become lost in my thoughts. I was thinking summer leaves too soon. It comes quickly and then is looooooooooooooong gone. I don’t want it to go. Summer leaves carrying my claw marks. Summer wasn’t all that bad. Fall arrives as quickly as a deer bounds across a football field. A man walked on the beach of a local sewage pond. When you live on a Minnesota prairie, you make do. A gull flew over and, with impressive accuracy, pooped on the man. It was a direct hit to the fellow’s Clark Kent-like eyeglasses. There was another beachcomber who saw it happen. Me. I even heard it happen — both the splat and the mild epithet uttered by the man. Being a sharp fellow, I realized the man needed something to wipe his spectacles clean. I told him I’d just bought toilet paper and would make haste to my car to retrieve a roll. “Don’t bother. It wouldn’t do any good,” said the drive-by pooping victim. “By the time you get back, that gull will be a mile away.” Fall is like that gull, except for the pooping part. By the time I realize fall is here, it’s a mile past. A year engulfs us quickly. Fall is a relief or a cruel fate, depending on how you look at it. When is the first frost date in the fall? It’s the same time every year. Too soon. Each month is a test, but Mother Nature does good work in September. I saw a display of Pumpkin Spice Cheerios in a grocery store. Each box was available at a discounted price. I thought that product was the epitome of goofiness until I’d filled my car with pumpkin spice unleaded gas. Fall can be Janus-faced. That may be why fall/autumn has two names. Summer gives way to fall in a peaceful transition of flower, but then summer and winter fight over custody. A father driving along with rambunctious kids in the backseat threatens, “Don’t make me turn this car around.” Fall is like that father. It’s headed to winter, but willing to turn around and revisit summer. Summer came and went. Here’s part of the new fall lineup. Free samples of winter in the cold bayonets of autumn. Days as brown as UPS trucks. Yellowjackets become sociopaths in soup weather. Much of the decorative gourd season is spent following farm equipment down a road. Walnut and oak trees do their own canning. Fall is when we realize we’ll never have a mouse-free life and a snow globe fills with fallen leaves that have unveiled the beauty of the branches. It’s the fall of the wild. Somewhere near you, a man holding a rake will go insane waiting for the last stubborn leaf to fall. Ponds make leaf soup. Starlings move like a school of fish in the air. Large birds fly overhead in Blue Angel formations. Ugly sweaters become beautiful. There are many wonderful quotes about autumn. Here are three. “Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”—George Eliot. “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”–Albert Camus. “Even if something is left undone, everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn.”—Elizabeth Lawrence. The word fall comes from the Old English word feallan, which means, “to drop from a height, fail, decay, die.” Over time, the phrase “fall of the leaf” was shortened to “fall.” The term autumn can be traced back to the ancient Etruscan word autu, which means the passing of a year and was commonly used to refer to the harvest season. If you’d like to know more about that word, ask your friendly neighborhood ancient Etruscan. Note the weather on October 9. If it’s sunny, the following winter will be cold. If it’s cloudy, winter will be mild. The three days of September 20, 21 and 22 rule the weather for October, November and December. If fall falls on a Wednesday, it portends a cold and snowy winter. That’s also true if fall begins on a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. I hope yours is better than his. Baw boomp ba. Baw boomp ba. ©Al Batt 2021 
|
1. A 1985 music video for a Dire Straits song featured footage of sports highlights and bloopers. What was the song?
2. The Rungrado 1st of May Stadium, site of the annual Grand Mass Gymnastics and Artistic Performance Arirang, is located in what Asian country? 3. Name the Springfield, New Jersey, golf course that hosted seven U.S. Open Championships from 1903-93 and PGA Championships in 2005 and 2016. 4. What “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and “Lodge 49” actor was a goaltender for such junior pro hockey teams as the Langley Hornets, Coquitlam Express, Brampton Capitals and Chicago Steel? 5. What Dallas Cowboys receiver celebrated a 45-yard touchdown catch in Super Bowl XXVII by dunking the ball over the goal post crossbar? 6. What did legendary college basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian have a habit of chewing on during games? 7. The University of Akron’s athletic teams are known by what nickname? 
1. “Walk of Life.”
2. North Korea. 3. Baltusrol Golf Club. 4. Wyatt Russell. 5. Alvin Harper. 6. A towel. 7. The Zips. © 2021 King Features Synd., Inc.
Three weeks, three games, three wins and all three phases of Iowa football have contributed. Defense and Special Teams did the heavy lifting in victories over 18th ranked Indiana and number nine Iowa State. Last Saturday the Hawkeye offense got in rhythm featuring a well balanced run to pass attack with 38 rushes and 37 passes. In the 30-7 decision of Kent State, tailback Tyler Goodson ran for a career high 153 yards and three touchdowns. Quarterback Spencer Petras completed 25-36 throws for 209 yards with a scoring strike to tight end Sam LaPorta, who caught a career high seven passes. Iowa controlled the clock for 12 more minutes.
The defense was spectacular again, registering seven sacks, ten tackles for loss and a forced fumble that was recovered in the end zone by cornerback Riley Moss. Linebacker Jack Campbell caused the fumble and added 11 tackles. Punter Tory Taylor thundered five punts for an average of 47.5 yards with a long of 60! The 5th ranked Hawkeyes have now won nine straight games outscoring opponents on average 34 to 12.5. During that stretch, Goodson is rushing for an average of 106 yards with 11 touchdowns. Up next is Colorado State of the Mountain West in Kinnick stadium. The undefeated and 2nd ranked Field Hockey team posted a pair of victories last weekend, blanking Indiana 3-0 and #5 Louisville 2-0. Six of Iowa’s eight victories have been shutouts. Senior Grace McGuire has been outstanding in net again this season. The Hawkeyes made the Final Four last year and are looking more and more like a favorite to repeat that trip. The defending Big Ten champion soccer Hawks outlasted Northwestern 2-1, with goalkeeper Monica Wilhelm registering seven saves. The Hawkeyes officially dedicated their new four million dollar field, getting goals from Courtney Powell and Maggie Johnston in the 2nd half. Iowa is now 7-1-1. Until next month, safe travels and go Hawks. 
Memory # 27 (part II)
|