Cheering and Grieving

Having watched the rain and snow fall today, its hard to remember that just yesterday, I was out at Jim Patterson Stadium watching the UofL Baseball team beat Xavier University in the first game of their double-header and enjoying an absolutely perfect afternoon.  Mostly sunny and about 70 degrees - really just about a perfect day to go out and take in a baseball game.

As I arrived, I was in generally good spirits, and why shouldn't I be?  I had just had a pleasant lunch and a lingering conversation with my mother.  Before that had been my weekly appearance on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour which is always an enjoyable event.  I was looking forward to an evening dinner out with a number of friends to celebrate the birthday of one, and then hopefully watching the UofL Men's Basketball team beat Syracuse, to win the Big East tournament and in the process secure a number one seed in the NCAA tourney.

I had been reflecting on the success of all of the various UofL Athletics teams, and if you know me very well you know I particularly follow the UofL Women's Athletics teams.  Almost across the board, in recent years, UofL teams are seeing success in their sports, most are achieving national rankings, and virtually all are on an upward trajectory, a phrase being used a lot around the UofL Athletic Department.

The UofL Lacrosse team is no exception.  The newest sport at UofL, in its sixth year, had a rough year last year after approximately a third of the team graduated the year previous.  Louisville Lacrosse was briefly ranked a couple of weeks ago, which surprised me and I'm sure a number of other people, before taking a loss in Denver and dropping back out of the rankings.  For such a new team, though, Louisville Lacrosse is seeing success that I don't think much of anyone really anticipated.

So I was thinking about Louisville Lacrosse among the other UofL sports teams as I sat in newly expanded Jim Patterson Stadium.

I pulled out my phone to catch up on my twitter feed in between innings and saw a headline that I suspect in most frames of mind would register as a tragic story for me and then be dismissed, but perhaps because I had just been thinking about the Louisville Lacrosse team, has really struck a chord.

I'm referring to the crash of the chartered bus that was carrying the Seton Hill Lacrosse team to a game at Millersville University.  The bus driver, Anthony Guaetta, was declared dead at the scene.  The head coach of the Seton Hill Lacrosse team, Kristina Quigley, was transported to Penn State Hershey Medical Center and was pronounced dead at the hospital.  She was sixth months pregnant, and the unborn child did not survive.  The rest of the passengers on the bus were all transported to various area hospitals, mostly for treatment of minor injuries.  At the time of this writing, I believe all but two have been released.

Many communities are, without a doubt, grieving about this.  From Baltimore MD, Kristina's hometown,  to her alma mater and school where she was an assistant Lacrosse coach, Duquesne, to Erskine College, in South Carolina, where she started their Lacrosse program and coached for three years, and obviously to Seton Hill University outside of Pittsburgh, PA; these are all communities that Kristina directly touched.

I suspect, however, that the Lacrosse world is a pretty small community and this will impact all of it.  Louisville Lacrosse was traveling, by air, to Philadelphia for a game with Drexel today, when the news broke.  Upon landing, whoever it is that runs the @LouisvilleLax twitter account almost immediately tweeted words of condolence to the Seton Hill community, with the hashtag #onelaxfamily.

Like I said, in most frames of mind, a news story like this would have registered as a tragic story and then shortly been dismissed from my thoughts.  This one, however, has stuck with me.  I didn't know Kristina Quigley, I don't know anyone on the Seton Hill Lacrosse team, I don't even truly know anyone on the Louisville Lacrosse team, having only met, once, briefly a couple of weeks ago, the Head Coach Kellie Young.  I have, however, been trying to learn more about the sport, and have been following the Louisville Lacrosse team's progress through the season closer than - judging by attendance at the UofL Lacrosse Stadium - just about any other UofL sport fans that aren't more closely associated with the team in some way, such as family members and friends of the players on the team.  Certainly the temporal proximity between my reflections on the success of many of the UofL sports teams this year, and Lacrosse in particular; and learning of this news story helped to register the story as one worthy of further, deeper reflection.

I don't have any brilliant insights, any particularly touching tributes to honor Kristina Quigley, or any specific words of comfort for the Seton Hill Lacrosse team and related communities.  I, before this incident, didn't even know of the existence of Seton Hill University, and like many, including nearly all of the early news reports, initially confused it for Seton Hall University in New Jersey, who doesn't field a varsity Lacrosse team.

About all I can offer to the Quigley family, and the Seton Hill community, is to say that there is at least one person who stopped and did his best to reflect on this tragedy, and to grieve along with you.  In time, to be honest I probably will forget Kristina Quigley, but you will not.  I hope that her time here with you has made the world a better place and that her memory in you will inspire you to work to make the world a better place in the future.

Louisville Athletics uses the twitter hashtag #L1C4, which stands for "Louisville 1st, Cardinals Forever."  I see in a news article that Seton Hill has embraced a similar thought, which I'll end by sharing in honor.

Kristina Quigley - Forever a Griffin

Gen X and The Internet

The radio in my Jeep has 12 readily accessible presets.  Think about the radio station selection in the Louisville area (for those of you, my readers, that are in the Louisville area anyway).  Coming up with 12 radio stations to program into a radio is actually pretty tough, so when I tell you I have 100.5 "Gen X Radio" programmed as one, please judge lightly.

There are any of a number of reasons to dislike 100.5, but my tastes in what I listen to can best be defined as "hedonistic".  I listen to "fun" music... not to be confused with music by "Fun"... though music by the group tends to also be music that fits the category.  As a result, being a Gen Xer - and let's face it, Clear Channel targets demographics well - 100.5 gets a spot on my radio.  Hey, where else are you going to hear the Run-DMC version of "Walk This Way"?

There is one thing on 100.5 has really irked me of late, though...beyond the 10 minute blocks of commercials they play...beyond blanking out the word "down" in the lyric, "Will she go down on you in a theater"...beyond their willingness to play anything by Journey.  They have a promo that says something to the effect of "Gen X invented The Internet, show some respect Gen Y."

Again, I'm speaking as a Gen Xer.  No.  No we didn't invent The Internet.  In no way do we have any claim to having invented The Internet.  Popularized it?  Perhaps.  Monetized it?  That's probably a reasonable claim.  Let's get this straight, though, The Internet was not invented by Gen X.  It may surprise you to find out that even Baby Boomers don't really have a claim to inventing The Internet.  From conception, up to and including the development of the TCP/IP protocol suite (which defines connectivity to, and inclusion in, The Internet), the invention and development of The Internet was dominated by The Silent Generation...those born from roughly 1925 through 1945.

So, "show some respect?"  Sure, Clear Channel, if you get your facts straight, I'll show some respect, but you didn't just claim something that the previous generation did, you jumped a generation and are trying to usurp the accomplishments of the one before.  When you are that completely wrong, I'm sad to say, you lose the right to demand respect.

Celebrity Lookalikes?

Apparently Taner Fowler's mother thinks I look like Zach Galifianakis.

Now, for the 99.99% of people that I just completely lost with that non-sequitor...

I took advantage of the absolutely wonderful weather we had this afternoon to take in the University of Louisville Softball game against Illinois State.  Louisville won, pretty easily, but that's not terribly relevant to this post.

When I walked into Ulmer Stadium, where UofL Softball plays, I saw a couple of people that I sort of know, but not well enough to go sit with, so I picked a random seat and sat down.  A few minutes later, a couple walked in, waved to a couple that were sitting almost directly behind me, came up and sat down with them and the two women started up a conversation that continued without pause through the whole game.

I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but they were sitting directly behind me, so I got partially included in various parts of the conversation over the next hour or so, mostly when it came to commentary about the game.  I didn't explicitly introduce myself, nor did they...friendly exchange of comments with nearby random people seems to be de rigueur at UofL softball games...but it became apparent that the woman who was there when I first sat down is Taner Fowler's mother.  I don't guess I know for sure that my assessment of this being Taner's mother is accurate, but I'm going to run with it as a conclusion that I'm pretty confident with.

Wait, some of you are still probably lost.  Taner is a junior catcher/utility player on the UofL Softball team.

OK, we're all up to speed now?

At one point during the game, Taner's mother tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I had seen the movie "The Hangover", "Surely you have", she said.  "No, I don't really see too many movies," I responded.  "Oh, well, you look just like the character 'Alan' in that movie, and that's one of Taner's favorite movies.  I'm going to text her and tell her that 'Alan' from "The Hangover" is in the stands."

I asked her if she knew the name of the actor who played that character, and she didn't.  If only I had a device that could access a website with a huge database of who plays what character in just about every movie and TV show ever known.  About a minute later, I had the answer, Zach Galifianakis.  "Huh, I don't really see it, but thanks" says I, figuring its pretty much a compliment to be compared to any major hollywood actor.

This is roughly what my mental image of Zach Galifianakis was during this conversation.

And here's me, taken with the web cam on my Mac this evening.  I can see where there are a few facial features that are similar, but its not like we're long lost twins or anything.

Another picture of Zach that I found using Google Image Search and IMDB.

OK, maybe she has a point.

And maybe its time for me to get a haircut and trim my beard back a bit.