Last month I posted on a widely reported story of a girls’ high school basketball game in which the final score was 100-0. I criticized the winning team’s coach for his disregard for sportsmanship and humility. Add to that the black cloud that has been cast over the sports world in recent weeks with drug scandals, arrests, etc., and it’s easy to become jaded and negative toward the world of sports in general.
But every now and then a story emerges that completely restores your faith in the ability of sports to bring people together and bring out he best in human nature. I came across such a story today.
On Saturday, Feb. 7, Milwaukee Madison senior and captain of the school’s basketball team, Johntell Franklin, lost his mother, Carlitha, only 39 years old, to a 5 year battle with cancer. His principal and coach, Aaron Womack Jr. was with Franklin at the hospital though his team was scheduled to play a game against DeKalb (Ill.) High School that night.
DeKalb had traveled more than 2 hours to Madison for the game and waited patiently an additional 2 hours as Womack rushed from the hospital to the school to coach his team.
“We were sympathetic to the circumstances and the events,” said DeKalb coach Dave Rohlman in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We even told Coach Womack that it’d be OK to call off the game, but he said we had driven 2½ hours to get here and the kids wanted to play. So we said, ‘Spend some time with your team and come out when you’re ready.’”
Franklin understandably, had indicated to his coaches that he would sit out that night’s game. After having a change of heart, Franklin decided he wanted to play and arrived at the gym in the second quarter. But Franklin’s name was not in the scorebook because his coach didn’t expect him to be there.
Womack chose to put Franklin in the game despite a rule that required the referees to charge the team with a technical foul for putting a player in the game who was not on the roster. Knowing the situation, Rohlman told the referees that they did not want the call.
Having no other choice but to follow the rules the referees charged Milwaukee Madison with a technical foul.
This is where the story takes an amazing turn.
“I gathered my kids and said, ‘Who wants to take these free throws?’” Rohlman said, recounting the game to the Journal Sentinel. “Darius McNeal put up his hand. I said, ‘You realize you’re going to miss, right?’ He nodded his head.”
Indictments, confessions and lawsuits, oh my. Hope you’re wearing boots because the crap that keeps piling up around major league baseball just got deeper.
In an entry on Curt Schilling’s blog, 
I can’t help but wonder if someday in the not-so-distant future will a day pass when there isn’t yet another MLB star being outed for using steroids or HGH?
Now, granted I have seen Jessica look better. But I credit that more to her choice of wardrobe than an extra couple of pounds. Even if she has put on a little weight how can anyone look at this picture and say, “Whoa, she’s fat.”
I’m all for having a good laugh at your own expense as long as the joke is funny, which this cartoon isn’t. Aren’t political and current events’ cartoonists supposed to use their art to subtly poke fun at the truths around us? The cartoonist fails horribly in this effort. 
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