DAMMITDONNIE
musings of an old newspaper guy
- ‘We lost Coach tonight’: Remembering Paul Krekeby doncrim45September 21, 1996. Twenty-five years. It simultaneously feels like yesterday and a lifetime ago. I was lounging around the house on a Saturday night, having relinquished my job as sports editor of The Quincy Herald-Whig three weeks earlier to assume a new role as the newspaper’s news editor. It was a promotion that meant having nights and weekends off for the first time in nearly 20 years, counting my time as a sportswriter for the Columbia Missourian at Mizzou. So I was hanging out with my kids instead of sitting in a stadium press box somewhere preparing to write about…
- Do we believe in the common good?by doncrim45The debate over children wearing masks in schools continues to fester here and across the country. There are citizens protesting governors who are mandating masks to help ensure in-class learning continues and there are governors threatening to penalize schools districts that choose to require them. Frankly, some of the antics are disturbing, especially with vaccination rates lagging and COVID-19 cases surging once again. Silas House, a writer based in Kentucky, wrote a poignant essay for The Atlantic about the issue, observing that some Americans – a minority, thankfully, despite their noise – think only of themselves and no longer believe…
- College football’s game of musical chairsby doncrim45With apologies to Bob Dylan, the times, they are a-changin’. Especially in college football. And not for the better. The seismic news last week was the announcement that Oklahoma and Texas plan to bolt the Big 12 to join the Southeastern Conference, a move that would create a 16-team super-conference. The SEC already is the best and most powerful football conference in the country, having won 11 of the last 15 national championships, so the rich would get richer. It also would likely mean the end of the Big 12, leaving its eight remaining members scrambling to find new homes.…
- Unmasking the school debateby doncrim45A banner hangs on the side of a semi trailer parked on the northeast corner of 30th and Broadway in Quincy, imploring school boards to “Unmask Our Children.” Yard signs conveying the same message can be found scattered around town and elsewhere in Adams County. I have read stories and listened to podcasts on the subject in local media in recent weeks. I have watched as public turnout for local school board meetings has increased to levels generally reserved for firing a coach or fighting a tax hike, with decorum often optional. It begs a couple of questions: Why has…
- Baseball losing its entertainment valueby doncrim45With Major League Baseball entering its all-star break, and the Cardinals and Cubs both shuffling along below the .500 mark, the Washington Post’s George Will has an interesting take on the state of the game. Clearly, as Will concludes, changes must be made for the game to recapture the interest of America’s sports fans. Writes Will: EVEN if you belong in the basket of deplorables — Americans uninterested in baseball — you should be intrigued by the sport’s current problems. At the all-star break, Major League Baseball’s 2021 season is demonstrating, redundantly, that the quality of the game as entertainment…
The Archives: