Less than an hour away from where I sit and compose this blog post, the final day of the 123rd Penn Relays will be kicking off in a few minutes. The Penn Relays are only the oldest and largest track and field event in the US; tens of thousands of people are typically in attendance. All that notwithstanding the Penn Relays are only the second-most hyped sports-related event happening in Philadelphia this week.
It’s not enough that Rubin has had this spring’s female protagonist insulting track and field athletes the past two days; now he suggests that not even those who participate in track and field enjoy watching track and field. (Lemme guess, Neal: were you always getting lapped during P.E. in high school?) Maybe this just serves to make Dafuq a less sympathetic character, another in a long line of cocky, self-important Mudlarks who will end up knocked down a peg or two by the time their seasons end.
QotD: Is “Jimmy Caruso” the shot putter’s name or another euphemism for “The Beaver”?
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This Week in Milford 
Teenchy’s right– the Penn Relays are quite a show, and the stands are always packed. Same with most major championships. Maybe these kids don’t think it’s worth watching the hundred unless somebody cracks ten-flat? Teenchy lives near Penn, and a girl from about eighty miles to my west won the scholastic 3000m there yesterday– headline news on our local sports page. Appears Mfnrd has less interest in track and field– certainly we don’t see track stories very often.
Comment by vaganova's starting blocks — April 29, 2017 @ 11:07 am
Looking at both yesterday’s strip and today’s, the blond hurdler with the tied sweater suddenly brings to mind Lini Verde from a few basketball seasons ago…
Comment by vaganova's starting blocks — April 29, 2017 @ 2:53 pm
Whoa, Hoss, maybe it’s because I’m still wired up(as I always am) from Paul Gonsalves’s tenor sax solo of “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue” off of Duke Ellington’s “Ellington at Newport” album(killer), but, whoa, wait a minute, my family ran track, plus I was involved with our high school track AND FIELD and cross country programs for years and the next time I saw, say, an 800-meter runner drive down to Burger King when he was through with his event would have been the first time.
Maybe these 3 guys in P3 are heavy into the bingo tournaments down at the Milford VFW Lodge or they spend hours pursuing girls like Carrie at the expense of the running or shot-putting skills and the practices thereof. But, I’m sorry, I saw Sonny and Duane from “The Last Picture Show” and I don’t need(nor want) a repeat performance with 3 Sonny and Duane wannabes who let their athletic prowess rot off the tree the way Sonny and Duane did with their football abilities. Is Sam the Lion running The Bucket? Sheesh.
Our guys and the guys on the other teams were VERY involved with track AND FIELD and DID watch other meets when they weren’t running(and STILL had a life, Dafne) and if Sonny and Duane And David Niven(LOVED that one and your other post, Moon Mullins. Both were hilarious) want to pursue girl-chasing, clabber, visits to the zoo, log-rolling tournaments, swearing into the army, etc., fine by me. The rest of us treated track AND FIELD like the sport it deserves to be, not a space-filler when Thorpiverse hit a mental block for ideas.
“If y’all ran the 100 like ya eat, ya might win the Playdowns.”
Comment by T. Drew Hardin — April 29, 2017 @ 6:02 pm
Thank you, T Drew. The last high school meet I went to, I saw a kid run a 1:53 800 and another kid turn a sub-47 400. People were practically falling out of the grandstand, and no, the runners were not eating cheeseburgers and swilling soda between heats.
Comment by vaganova's starting blocks — April 29, 2017 @ 6:39 pm
And now that I think of it, the baseball and lacrosse players were there cheering for them.
Comment by vaganova's starting blocks — April 29, 2017 @ 6:39 pm
Damn, what kind of track utopia are you guys from?
Comment by Jive Turkey — April 30, 2017 @ 6:06 pm
[…] So to wrap the spring* plot up we’re gonna see if Ryan has indeed practiced his anger management after he gets another bad call from a crappy Valley ump and his teammates flub away a lead on him. Marty’s mom has told him to take out the trash, so he quickly makes the Mudlarks a Fielding Three and rolls a 14 for the Tilden batter. As with most Gil Thorp arcs, all of this would come off as a lot less contrived if the plot had been better paced. Then again, the phrase “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” is probably wasted on someone who holds track and field in such contempt. […]
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