COCKA, PEE-PEE, POO, POO!

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/Frazer Chronicle)

We are becoming such a sanitized culture that we need to check our passions at the door, we need to be politically correct, to be so aware of our "neighbor's feelings" that we cultivate our language, our actions and reactions into an excepted manner so as not to offend anybody at any time, in any situation anywhere.

Gays, Hispanics, Afro-Americans, plain old African blacks, Indians (here and across the sea), Islams, Jews, Latin Americans, liberals, conservatives, Democrats, Republicans, women, men.....the list goes on and on. In today's society, it seems to be so confusing that a person might as well keep his yap shut.....actually "should keep his mouth shut" for self preservation.

I came across an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel yesterday, April 28^th relating that the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee had "dismissed" it's men's soccer coach because he used offensive language.

Well "Hello," welcome to the world of sports, a place where civil governance ceases, where dictators hold court and poor little athletes are at the mercy of overbearing, abrasive totalitarianism rained down by coaching staffs all over the world. Believe it or not, coaching styles, philosophies and procedures didn't start here in the United States.

The coach in question, Chris Whalley, is from England, which probably explains his dour demeanor and less then sterling personality, but he was hired by the university to coach their college soccer team, and as such did have a resume.....right?

I don't know how ling U.W.M. has had an intercollegiate soccer program, it doesn't matter, Chris Whalley had been the soccer coach for just over two years at the institution, not much time to get the "guts" of his program in place.

A "slip of the lip," a racial slur here and there and wham bam, "your outta here," wow, as Chancellor Michael Lovell said, "We have a tremendous responsibility to ensure that our student athletes are treated with dignity and respect.”

A former player-turned team volunteer tipped off the administration and alumni to allegations against Whalley in a letter. The player, who called himself an ambassador for players who feared retaliation, said some players provided anonymous accounts saying Whalley used slurs and degraded players in public.

Well golly gee, I didn't know that, what'd he call the players.....in public....."Maybe he called them sons of bitches, or sons of fatherless goats, or worst of all, lousy soccer players who needed to focus.

"Think like a white man," or "keep the thinking to the white people." I actually can recall many of my coaches tell everybody to leave the thinking to the coaches, because we weren't capable of playing and thinking at the same time.

Telling an athletic team to "let the white man do the thinking" is, in today's society an incredibly stupid statement. But hey, the guy's from England, what do you expect, but to make a big "hubba bubba" seems a little excessive.

EX-YANKS GREAT DIES:

I wonder how old athletes would feel about a coach telling them to "leave the thinking to the white guys," I mean after all, in most sports 60 years ago the landscape was only dotted with minorities. Would there have been a mass protest, or some volunteer "player ambassador" going to administration.....not on your "tin-type."

The whacks on the football helmets, the kicks in the butt, the degrading remarks about possibly your man-hood, or your intellect lacking were weathered they were dealt with as best the participants could. You learned, you grew and you moved on, these slurs, these physical attacks were and are a part of the game.....I guess a necessary part of the game.

Sports, after a certain age, are for coaches, players, opponents, game officials and after a time, the media. There isn't any room for parents, boyfriends/girlfriends, aunts, uncles, grand-parents, not on the field/gym as the players are molded into a unit, a team.

Bill "Moose" Skowron passed on Friday, April 27, 2012 from heart failure, he was 81. Skowron was born in Chicago on December 18, 1930. He attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana and graduated. When he signed his Yankee contract in 1952 he became one of the few Yankees with a college degree.

"Moose" was of Polish extraction, had kind of a scrunched up face, and sported a butch or brush cut, and I wonder, just looking at old pictures, could he have, did he ever, could he have uttered if he ever heard the words, or used the words that described minorities.

Come on, you know what I'm talking about, Spick, Red Skin, Nigger, Jew, Polock, Jap, or a whole bunch of other slurs about a person's heritage. Gee I hate to say this....."But there only words," and they can't hurt, they only hurt if you let them.

What these words do is show a person's stupidity, his ignorance and his unbelievable disconnect with today's society. Good God.....we have a black president in the White House who is doing his level best for all of us.

"Moose" Skowron was a decent ball player, played on those Yankee teams of the 1950's and early 60's that seemed to win the World Series every damn year. He hit .282 for his big league career, socked 211 homers and was a good all around defensive player.

Parallels between the U.W.M. soccer coach and "Moose" Skowron.....there aren't any, Skowron came from a different time, but there is a link, both men wanted to win, both men used the best tools that they had, society today, however is less forgiving.

Today you can get arrested for picking your nose and wiping the snot ball on a light pole on Main Street. Guess people don't understand that in just a few days that snot ball will crystallize, lose every bit of its moisture, fall to the ground and blow away and nobody else will ever know that it was there. Oh well.....such is life.