Sports commentary: Hot dang!

  To my knowledge, Bedford does not have an official city or county motto.

Based on what I’ve heard from folks this past week, here is a good candidate to be that slogan:  “Hot enough for ya?”

There are variants of the saying.  “How ya liking this heat?”  “Good grief, it’s hot!”  “Ouch!”  “Somebody shoot me, please!”

Yes, it has been hot in these parts and people are concerned.

I’m half-expecting that Nancy Grace person to show up to begin an investigation.

Side note:  Men, there is one thing for which you should be eternally grateful.  Whenever you mess up on the home front, and no matter how badly you mess it up, at least you’re explaining it to your wife, not to the oh-so-sour Ms. Grace.

Digressions aside, what does the fact that it’s hot outside have to do with sports?  Plenty.

This is a great opportunity to get out and get active.

As some of you know, I play for the Bedford Senior Softball team.  It’s a collection of old people, of various sizes, shapes and skill levels.

I’m proud to say that our team has remained active in spite of the rising temperatures.

Of course, it might be said that the old goats that make up the team are as tough as our leathery hides, impervious to the darts of Mother Nature.

I’ve seen others who have marched on in spite of the heat.

We softballers play over on the County Rec fields.  You know, the ones in the City.  As opposed to the City Rec fields, which are located in the... County.

(Ah, I sense another column  coming from all of this.)

Anyway, as I was playing softball the other night, gauging the rivulets of sweat pouring down my back, I looked over and saw a bunch of maniacs playing ultimate frisbee on the next field over.

Now, for those of you who are not familiar with ultimate frisbee, think of it as a combination of soccer, touch football and lacrosse.

In other words, it requires lots and lots of running.

As I watched these guys, between shagging flies, I thought, “They are insane.”

Then I noticed that I know some of these guys.  There were Shawn Webb and Ben Wiess, both coaches at Liberty High  School.  I’m pretty comfortable in stating that those two guys are quite stable, mentally.

There was Ryan Webb, a former standout at Liberty.  He seems pretty normal, too.

So, what were these pillars of society doing running full bore in the near-100 degree heat?

From the looks of it, they were having a ball.  Sure, they were bathed in sweat.  No, they weren’t going full tilt.     More like 95%.  But they certainly weren’t going to let a bit of excessive sunshine spoil their plans of a good game of Ultimate.

It’s hard to believe, but we didn’t always have air conditioning.  Somehow people lived through the dog days.  Some even had fun during them.

Don’t let that modern convenience of air conditioning spoil you.  Get out.  Do something.  Drink a lot of water.  Sweat it out.  Have some fun.  It’s summer, after all.

*****

There could be no more welcome news than the fact that Region III will pare the number of eligible teams for Regional play from 12 to 9 in many sports.

With 20 teams in the region, a dozen slots is ridiculously high, leading to many teams qualifying for Region with abysmal records.

This development means the Seminole District will now send three teams to Regionals, rather than four.  It further means that the regular season and tourney will take on an added level of importance.

Nice decision.