<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Bob<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Interesting but somewhat different and perhaps somewhat similar to my experience growing up in England and Bootle (Liverpool) specifically. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I’m 78 so was born 1942. </div><div class="">1947 - 1953I was at St. James Primary and Junior schools in Bootle.</div><div class="">1953 - 1960 after passing the 11+ exam I was at St. Francis Xavier’s College, Salisbury Street in Liverpool with the Jesuits. </div><div class="">1960 - 1961 I was studying to be a teacher at St. Mary’s (Simmaries) Teacher Training College, Strawberry Hill. </div><div class="">1961 - 1964 I was in Ireland and Canada studying Philosophy and Theology with the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) . </div><div class="">1965 - 1967 I returned to Simmaries to complete my teacher training. </div><div class="">1967 - 1968 I was teaching at St. Swithins, a Catholic secondary modern school in Liverpool.</div><div class="">1968 - 1970 I was teaching at Salesian College, Battersea</div><div class="">1970 Nora and I married and moved to Jamaica to live and teach</div><div class="">1970 - 1972 we taught at Cornwall College, Montego Bay Jamaica.</div><div class="">1972 - 1973 I took a year away from teaching in school and helped found and ran the daily operations - teaching tourists to scuba-dive, leading the dives, maintaining the equipment and driving and maintaining the dive-boat - of Montego Reef Divers.</div><div class="">1973 - 1974 I rejoined Nora who was already teaching at Mount Alvernia Catholic girls high school in Montego Bay</div><div class="">1974 we moved to Canada and I taught at Catholic elementary and secondary schools in Ontario and also as a consultant for the Hamilton-Wentworth CDSB. Since being in Canada I coached various sports at high school and my four children and many others for various local sports organizations.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">That’s the context of my experience.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">1947 - 1953 we had no sports teams and no sports at St. James Primary and Junior schools. During that time the only organized sport I played was football (soccer) for the cubs run out of St. James Catholic parish.</div><div class="">1953 - 1960 After passing the 11+ I walked for 10 minutes then I took public transport (30 minutes) and after getting off the bus another 10 minute walk to get to the school. At SFX we initially we had half a day (Wednesday) each week for sports at High Lee the school playing fields. We had school Saturday morning and school matches Saturday afternoon. We made our own way there by public transport., about 30 - 40 minutes After two years school went Monday to Friday full days and Saturday mornings for school sports..Every Saturday I played for school teams ( football and cricket) during my seven years at SFX. That took initially one hour each way and when we moved one and a half hours each way.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I was a decent player and was selected to represent Merseyside Grammars Schools XI, Lancashire Grammar Schools XI and the Lancashire and Cheshire XI. I was also selected to attend the Lancashire and Cheshire F.A. coaching course at Carnegie College. My dad came to watch most Saturdays when I was playing 1st XI and started a great friendship with one of my teachers, Fr. Pongo Blundell S.J. At the time he was a long-distance driver (oil tankers) and Fr. Blundell had been chaplain to the French railway union. They had great talks about road and rail transport. There were never more than ten or fifteen watching our matches, home or away. That was the same for all the representative matches I played. Sports was part of the school curriculum and not a spectator - money-making venture.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Our school matches were refereed by the home team coach..In the annual school magazine my coach wrote on two occasions “ <b class=""><i class="">Quinn is a strong and robust player, who gives no quarter and asks for none. However he must learn to be moderate when charging goalkeepers</i></b>.” I never ever was penalized in school or representative matches for a foul on a goalkeeper. When we no longer had Saturday morning school I played for the 1st XI in the morning and the Old Boys 1st XI in the afternoon so could no longer watch Liverpool F.C play . Prior to that I watched Liverpool from the Boys Pen and when I could would climb out of it and be lifted by men into the Kop. They would make sure kids were placed in front of crash barriers so they were not going to get crushed.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">My first year at Simmaries 1960 - 1961 I played 1st XI football on the best team I was ever privileged to be part of.I was the first of the 3 year programme so there were 2nd and 3rd year players on the team. The 3rd years were doing that extra year to get the Advanced Diploma in Phys. Ed. and players like Tony Knox who played for England Amateur XI, Mick Scally, and the Delaney Brothers who were on top amateur teams and represented their counties were incredible and I learned so much. 1970, just before we left for Jamaica I did a final F.A. coaching course and Tony Knox was one of the F.A. coaches. At the end of each day we went out for a beer - a shandy or lager and lime - and I told him that I went to Simmaries in 1960 instead of signing professional with Blackburn Rovers, at the time a Division 1 club.He told me he was not surprised I could have turned pro because I scored so many “easy” goals that year because I saw things before or even that others did not see. In 1960 being a professional football player was better than working on the docks but it didn’t pay much - not like today - and your education ended. There was an expression, common at the time, that said you could shout down any coal pit in England, Scotland and Wales and get a First Division football team.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">1961 - 1963 I was in Blacklion, County Cavan, Ireland studying philosophy and learning to play Gaelic Football. I loved the sport - the skill and the physicality - and continued playing until I left England for Jamaica.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">1963 - 1965 I was studying Theology. I arrived late in Ottawa because I had been in hospital having my appendix removed, and needed to make up the noviciate canonical year.I had applied and been accepted to study at our theologate in Carthage but the government had kicked us out and I was sent to Eastview (now called Vanier.) When I arrived by train in Ottawa John McDonald who was a First Year from Glasgow. I was with two very attractive young ladies who were sisters and visiting a 3rd Year theologian brother. John had told everyone that I was a very good football player - I never learned and still cannot skate to this day - and we were playing a Greek seminary on the Saturday. I scored a headed goal, made contact with the goalkeeper who chased me the length of the pitch uttering words in Greek that I had not learned at SFX.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">1965 - 1967 I returned and completed my teacher training at Simmaries. I played 3rd XV rugby and played Gaelic Football on Sundays for John Mitchels in Liverpool and a club in London, the name of which t I cannot recall. Thanks to Joe Jagger, Mick’s father and one of my teachers at Simmaries I worked with and learned from Hammy Smith, the British swim coach.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">1968 - 1970 I introduced and coached rugby to Salesian College, Battersea.The Deputy Head was a Salesian, Mick Blackburn, who played for London Irish.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">1970 - 1971 I coached 1st XI football (soccer) at Cornwall College, Montego Bay (thousands at our home games and a vast cavalcade of cars to all away games) while playing for Papa Pavlovich’s Boys Club XI. My hair was somewhat longer and I played to many chants of “the white pasta man.” I did not coach my second year because I would not play a member of the previous year’s team…I still remember his name, Trevor Mowatt….who was not studying, being disruptive in class and a number of other things.The headmaster told me I had to play him, so I did not coach.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">During the years I taught and coached in Ontario I coached as I taught…as I was taught and coached…by the teachers at SFX, the teachers and administrators at Salesian College, Battersea, and the players, coaches, teachers and administrators (Fr.Patrick Dunning C.M.) at Simmaries.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">My four children played a variety of sports and at some time or other were all coached by me. See attachment for my philosophy regarding football.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Corey played football(soccer), field and box lacrosse and basketball. He coaches basketball and lacrosse at secondary school. He did not play varsity sport at Ryerson as he was playing Junior A lacrosse for the St. Catharines Athletics. </div><div class="">Siobhan ran cross country and rowed both high school and varsity. She coaches cross country running and would coach rowing if there were any. She still runs regularly including 5k, 10k and marathon. She would like to run Boston but otherwise marathon training requires too much time. Her husband Trevor runs but not marathons. My granddaughters play a variety of sports, currently, soccer, field lacrosse, ringette and hockey.The elder, aged ten, will sometimes go for a run with her mother.</div><div class="">Dan played high school basketball, lacrosse and soccer and varsity lacrosse. Currently he plays no sports but is the most committed and most dedicated to ongoing fitness.</div><div class="">Kevan played high school basketball, soccer and lacrosse.He played varsity basketball and soccer, captaining the team in his last two years.He stopped playing basketball, his passion, because he believed he would not be able to focus on his studies because of the demands of the coach. His only regret was that he did not play basketball his final year. The coach had kept him on the squad for the four years.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">They all follow sports but not to the exclusion of their own fitness.Last year Corey and Dan got tickets to watch Liverpool play Borussia Dortmund at Notre Dame and drove me down. I watch all Liverpool’ matches and many of the U18, U19 and U23 games on TV and/or computer. I am not particularly interested in hockey, baseball or basketball, not at all interested in NFL OR CFL. I will sit down with them if they are watching one or the other but perhaps twenty minutes is my max. I watch international rugby union, and test cricket…but I would go to a test-match at Old Trafford or Sabina Park and watch through binoculars taking them down only when the players left the pitch.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Bob, you wrote "<i class=""><b class="">So, playing sports and watching sports were warp and woof of childhood and even through teenage years”</b> </i><span style="font-style: normal;" class="">For me they went beyond those years but both playing and watching had a purpose. I went to the cinema or the theatre for entertainment, certainly not to "</span> <i style="font-weight: bold;" class="">the Habs and the much beloved Expos not to mention the Jays, NFL, Match Madness and the NBA.” </i>I realized this the first time I took my children to a Blue Jays game at Exhibition Stadium. Before the end of the first innings people were getting up and going past me to god-knows-where.. Whatever they were there for it wasn’t because of an interest in a sport.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Yes my kids played video games growing up, but not to interfering with physical activitiesThey don’t play any more except one of them a little on-line poker. I never played and never wanted to.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">One similarity. In England football was the working man’s sport and was available to more or less everyone. My uncle Albert - my mother’s brother - had a season ticket to Liverpool and he worked in a store. The clubs were locally, many community, owned. Liverpool is now owned by <b id="yui_3_10_0_1_1606675792772_111" class="">Fenway Sports Group (FSG</b>), an <b class="">American sports company</b>., the same that owns the Boston Red Sox.I follow Liverpool and Manchester City or United because I was born into it. I do not follow or support FSG.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Be well</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">John Q</div><div class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Nov 28, 2020, at 9:23 PM, Rob Anderson via craic <<a href="mailto:craic@lists.integralshift.ca" class="">craic@lists.integralshift.ca</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div class=""><br class="">Some thoughts with respect to building a brand new baseball stadium in Toronto or anywhere else for that matter.<br class=""><br class="">1. Professional Sports Venues<br class=""><br class="">Cathal Kelly, sports columnist for The Globe & Mail, predicted a few years ago that professional sports in the future might not even need a live fan base in the stadia. High resolution in the comfort of a favourite armchair would be the ticket. Covid may have hustled along that forecast. As well, it is not certain where spectator sports will land after this pandemic tsunami.<br class=""><br class="">Before Covid when my wife and I still lived in Toronto, I passed our local sports bar and noticed at least 30 guys all huddled together. Pitchers of beer on the table along with mountains of fries. Were they watching hockey or baseball? No...they were divided into 2 large teams playing some kind of a competitive digital game.<br class=""><br class="">Not that long ago, my grandfather was on a committee in 1950 that approved the building of an 8,000 seating capacity stadium for Aquinas, home to the Little Irish football team that represented our Basilian high school. Through the 1950’s and even into the early 60’s, Aquinas played high school teams from Cleveland, Detroit and Buffalo. TV, of course took its toll on attendance by 1955, and by 1965 the stadium was demolished. Horse tracks, bowling alleys, rodeos, and prize fights were also popular in my youth. All gone with changing times and other interests.<br class=""><br class="">Pro sports reliance on corporate season tickets and outrageously expensive box seats may not be so popular with the public in the future. Citizens too may balk at financing these venues with what will inevitably be diminished municipal funds. And will media advances create more thrilling experiences than can be had with in person attendance?<br class=""><br class="">2. The Future Fan Base for Spectator Sports<br class=""><br class="">As for spectator sports fans, lukewarm interest from our son’s generation followed by zero interest from my 4 grandsons of the next generation. It’s all computer gaming. One guy has a modest interest in weight lifting. Two other grandsons played water polo and also took up competitive biking for a while. Neither of their fathers watch any sports at all preferring to go kayaking or golfing in one case. The other son-in-law lifts weights but mostly heads up to build his cottage whenever he has time. <br class=""><br class="">The father-son bond with Hockey Night in Canada not to mention the long tradition that I enjoyed of generational male bonding over baseball has weakened. In my case, I was fascinated by my grandfather’s stories about his going off to the Polo Grounds in NYC to see Christy Mathewson pitch. He took me several times to Cooperstown to pay homage to the legends of baseball. When I took our son there, he was creeped out by all the American Boy Scouts who swarmed the place. I tried him on baseball cards too, but that never took either. Come to think of it, I still have his cards. Maybe a Don Mattingly rookie card in mint condition is hiding somewhere in the basement.<br class=""><br class="">My grandfather and I also went to countless Rochester Red Wing ball games. We walked several miles to and from the stadium. One time we even saw Satchel Paige. He must have been in his 50’s. Gramp and I played “pitch” in front of the house on many summer evenings. My pals and I were always rounding up guys for a ball game at the local diamond or on an almost daily basis in the cooler weather playing street football or street hockey or shooting hoops. <br class=""><br class="">Basketball was my favourite. In those days, the Catholic grade schools even had teams. In high school, I would go to the Aquinas football games in that aforementioned high school stadium built for 8,000 fans. Rochester had an NBA franchise with the Rochester Royals and an AHL team with the Rochester Americans...NHL calibre hockey. I went to many of those Amerk games and followed their fortunes with avid interest. Add to that my devotion to the Cleveland Browns, the Boston Celtics, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Chicago White Sox and, of course, Notre Dame football. The Irish ended Oklahoma’s 49 game winning streak. Wow! Over the moon when the Dodgers with Johnny Padres beat the Yanks in 1956 for the World Series title. <br class=""><br class="">When it came time to go to university, I wanted to go to Villanova or St. Bonaventure because I was a college BB fan, and these were my favourite teams. At Bonaventure, I attended many college BB games, but I left the school before the arrival of Bob Lanier who took the team deep into the Madness. No memories of sporting events in 1964-65 when I was in the Basilian novitiate. Wouldn’t you know, that was the year when Jimmy Brown led Cleveland to the championship.<br class=""><br class="">How about collecting baseball and football cards in my pre-teens and graduating to betting on games starting with the NFL and baseball parley bets when quite young. My buddies and I would make private bets as well. My wager that Willie Mays would hit more homers than Mickey Mantle netted me $45 which Mr. Effinger, who drove us to many a ballgame, invested in a stock called Canadian Marconi. Years later I found the certificate for 10 shares and sold it for $450. That bet took my wife and I and the kids to Cape Cod for a week’s vacation! Ah, the thrill of a sports bet!<br class=""><br class="">So, playing sports and watching sports were warp and woof of childhood and even through teenage years. As an adult on to the Habs and the much beloved Expos not to mention the Jays, NFL, Match Madness and the NBA.<br class=""><br class="">3. The Waning of Spectator Sports Magic<br class=""><br class="">But the magic started to wane with too many games, too many expansion teams, loss of loyalty, too late and too long playoff seasons, catastrophic injuries, commercial saturation, Luke’s Troops for hockey, Don Cherry’s nasty commentary, military fly-byes and uber-patriotism.<br class=""><br class="">Covid has taken even more stuffing out of the bird. Options such as Netflix and YouTube serve up a daily distraction and are now an evening staple in many households. As for the gambling fix, I confess that I prefer following the market fortunes of Blackberry rather than considering a Giants-Packers wager<br class=""><br class="">On to new immigrants. I go over to the fields at our local universities, Wilfred Laurier and U of W, and I see them playing cricket or soccer. Others are playing unique handball games. As I watched my grandsons’ water polo matches at WLU, the spectators’ gallery is loud with the sounds of people speaking Russian as so many of the parents are from Eastern Europe. Who knew water polo was their game?<br class=""><br class="">Hockey has now become a sport for well off kids from Toronto rather than from Northern Ontario. Costs a fortune and cripples parents’ weekends. Ask our friend with 3 avid young hockey players about that one. A few years back, Nora and I went to a McDonald’s and overheard a personal coach “interviewing” a parent to determine whether or not he would work with his kid. I bet that deal cost many, many thousands. Forget hockey if you don’t have the bucks.<br class=""><br class="">All said and done, spectator sports has been such a great part of my life. How sad I was recently to see that Whitey Ford, Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson died. I saw all three of them pitch brilliant games. But what is it with our world? Too much of everything, too bloated, too hyped! And that “too much” syndrome has certainly infected pro sports.<br class=""><br class="">Still, I sense a big loss with the 2 generations that are following the footsteps of those of us who grew up in the 40’s and 50’s. Exciting sports moments crystallized in venerated memory. Relationships forged over shared thrilling moments, esp at a live event with the winning runs on base, the launch of the Hail Mary pass or the overtime goal.<br class=""><br class="">Thousand and thousands of villainous foes killed in video games played in solitary isolation of parents’ basements pales in comparison!<br class=""><br class="">Even so, yet another corporate sports venue suggests some careful thinking about where our culture is headed in the 2020’s. If big money and civic calculus deem it must be so despite the risks, a “baseball park” might well suit the temper of the times.<br class=""><br class="">Bob<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">_______________________________________________<br class="">craic mailing list<br class=""><a href="mailto:craic@lists.integralshift.ca" class="">craic@lists.integralshift.ca</a><br class="">http://lists.integralshift.ca/listinfo.cgi/craic-integralshift.ca<br class=""></div></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></div></div></div></body></html>