Polo

My grandfather was a journalist for a little while: Worked for the Oakland Tribune writing copy and taking pictures just before the Depression hit. I don't think he ever had his own byline.

Well, my son does and I just now saw it over his first article, in the sports section of the school paper. He writes pretty well: Uses strong language to describe the often brutal sport of water polo. He should know: He's the goalie and the team captain.

They had a tournament in Roseville last weekend. Roseville's very own Olympian gave her name to the pool at the Aquatic Center. That's kind of exciting. She's now a big celebrity doing commercials for auto dealerships.


It was a double-elimination tournament so our team played twice. They didn't win. Not even close. They never do. They play with heart, but their school is small and has little money, and this is a disadvantage in sports. All the other schools show up with a dozen and a half to two dozen guys, more than enough to sub everyone out and play by capability. Not ours. There are ten guys in the entire squad. With seven in the water at any given time, this means only three are available as subs, and most of the players never get a break at all.

It also means there are freshmen on the varsity team. Not an advantage.

It also means twenty percent of the team are sons of mine.

It's a total blast having both my boys on the same sports team again. That hasn't happened since some time in the nearly-forgotten days of Little League. I have a great picture of them both defending the goal, the elder as goalie in his red cap, the younger sailing across the front like that figure at Rockefeller Center. I'd share it, but I suspect former Congressman Foley still has his internet connection so I'll just give an example, i.e. the aforesaid figure at the R.C.

It looks something like that. Almost exactly, in fact.