Indulge some nostalgia here. My alma mater, Cherry High School, is making its first appearance at the state baseball tournament since 1997 when I was still a student there. Cherry is a tiny township tucked away along the Mesabi Iron Range, known mostly as the place where all the Finns went after being blacklisted from the mines for organizing unions in the early 1900s. It’s a small enough town that, when the Cherry Tigers won that state baseball title in ’97, the boosters erected a giant roadside sign that’s still there today. I just noticed the other day that the sign could use some paint. What better reason to repaint than three big wins at the state tourney? The school has had a hard year; a failed referendum threatens the whole St. Louis County school district and a tragic car accident took the life of a student this year as well. I don’t know who Goliath is at the Class A level, but these guys are David. They could use some good news.
Meantime, in another orange and black world, Grand Rapids plays in the AAA state baseball tourney today as well. I live closer to Grand Rapids than Cherry now, so I’ll give them a shout-out, too.
UPDATE: Cherry lost to Hawley 7-1 today. But that’s OK. It’s not like I built up their hopes in any sort of way. Or attached meaning beyond that of any other normal baseball game. Right?
Meantime, Grand Rapids won and now faces Coon Rapids in the semi-finals. Go Thunderhawks! Your potential victory is in no way related to your respective values as human beings! (That’s what I meant to say to Cherry, but forgot).
I don’t like to talk about the ’97 Tigers. We used to play them and Kemp and Gerette (sp?) owned us every time. I sware thier coach made them practice everyday of the year. They were absolutly unstoppable. Clinton was good back then too 🙂
GO TIGERS! (And, Thunderhawks, too!)