Doolittle-A principled man.

The president invited the world champion Washington Nationals to the White House for a photo op for himself (me-me-me!) Monday--but the team's closer Sean Doolittle personally declined because he disagrees with the president's policies on immigration (aka family separation) and many other issues.  He is the conscience of the team, a highly intellectual, respected individual, a UVA grad (like me) who is active in the area of animal rights, gay rights, autism and other causes.  The soul of the team has rejected a photo op for the faux president in a principled stand in which he clearly and eloquently elaborated his rationale.

From the Washington Post's article on Doolittle's reasoned, principled decision not undertaken lightly:  "There's a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country.  My wife and I stand for inclusion and acceptance and we've done work with refugees, people that, you know, come from the s*hole countries," mimicking the president's comments during a meeting in 2018.  He wanted to be there with his teammates but "I feel very strongly about his issues on race relations," Doolittle said and listed as examples the Fair Housing Act, the Central Park 5 and the president's comments following the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017.  Remember, Doolittle went to UVA and took the Neo-Nazi murderous riot there in 2017 personally, as do I.  To mention also the FHA [Trump was fined for discriminating against minority renters] and the Central Park 5 [Trump wanted them executed and wouldn't apologize for his incendiary comments long after they were exonerated] shows that he utilizes the critical-thinking attributes he learned or honed at UVA.  He's no dumb, reflexive jock but a deep, reflective thinker.

Doolittle continued that his wife Eireann Dolan has two mothers who are deeply involved in the LGBTQ community.  "I want to show support for them. I think that's an important part of allyship, and I don't want to turn my back on them.  I have a brother in law who has autism, and [Trump] mocked a disabled reporter.  How would I explain that to him, that I hung out with somebody who mocked the way he talked or the way he moves his hands?  I can't get past that stuff."

Furthermore, Doolittle elaborated on the knotty problem of showing respect for the office of the presidency.   "People say you should go because it's about respecting the office of the presidency.  I think over the course of his time in the office he's done a lot of things that maybe don't respect the office.  The rhetoric, time and time again, has enabled those kinds of behaviors," referring to racism and white supremacy, "that never really went away, but it feels like now people with those beliefs maybe feel a little bit more empowered.  They feel like they have a path, maybe. I don't want to hang out with somebody who talks like that. ...   I want people to know that I put a lot of thought into this, and at the end of the day, I just can't go."  Much of the above, especially the quotes, are from the article by Jesse Dougherty.   I deeply respect Doolittle, and admire his intellectual acumen in thinking these things through, by being informed.   He stands in stark contrast to the back-up catcher Kurt Suzuki, who couldn't throw out a single baserunner all season, clownishly donning a MAGA hat at the photo-op, at which the president of course talked deploringly about impeachment.  Suzuki earned himself a chest-grabbing hug from behind by Le Grande Orange for his mindless antics, politicizing the event.  (Yuck!)

Other players did not appear at the president's photo-op, such as the National League's and World Series RBI leader Anthony Rendon.   The Doctor, as they call Doolittle, is an exemplary principled man, in his early thirties.  I could only wish that my children, about the same age, were so principled or at least close to it, but I fear they are not. 

All Caps

I learned to watch, and admire, hockey in the sixties when I was in high school and covered my school's hockey team for its press club and called in the results to  the failing fake-news NYT.  I didn't know anything about hockey but I soon gauged what a shot on goal was, and a save (the puck didn't go in), could note scores and penalties (those are pretty obvious) and got a general idea about hockey's rules (hockey has a much better offsides rule than soccer and thus is a much better game).

In the seventies, I enjoyed watching NHL games and could see that the game was dominated by shots, of any sort, on goal and saw pucks settled and bombed in from long or midrange or flicked in from closer in on rebounds off the goalie.  Lately I was confused by all the passing and the lack of bombing, until I read an article on how bigger goalies and equipment and defensive walls in front of the net have stifled shooters and now the puck is passed around and around in the offensive zone until a magical moment presents itself to the offense by puck movement when a goalie is momentarily out of position as he switches from pole to pole and a rocket is launched towards the goal off an unsettled pass that has about a one-in-five chance of going in.

NHL games, especially Stanley Cup playoff games that mean so much, are a joy to watch again now that I understand the deliberate choreography of all the puck movement and it doesn't matter that you still can't see the tiny blur of the whizzing puck actually go into the net in real time because the excited voice of the announcer alerts you to the fact that a goal has been scored and they'll show it to you again very shortly, in isolation or slow motion, on instant replay.  "Goal!" or "He scores!" is a much more exciting summons to the magnitude of the fast contest than the lame and hyperbolic cry of "Gooooooaaaaaaaaaalllllll!" that accompanies the infrequent soccer score (do you like watching 90 minutes of 1-0 ineptitude on the soccer pitch?).

The Washington Capitals have overachieved in the regular season for the last decade and stunk up the playoffs for the same period of time (the Washington Nationals have adopted their template).  Now down 0-1 in the playoffs to their nemesis the Pittsburgh Penguins and having thrown away the home ice advantage, we'll see what they're made of this year, when their superiority window is rapidly closing (just like the Nats).