The Wright Way

Please note which team is getting blown out (Photo: Elise Amendola, AP)

I saw the tweet during my long Saturday with Brunswick baseball.

If I recall, it had the score and not much more.

I know the final said 36-0 with Fairfield Ludlowe beating J.M. Wright Tech from Stamford.

Personally, I didn't think anything of it. Blowouts happen, friends. I've been behind the microphone for too many.

Most kids don't think twice about it.

It's the adults who start wringing their hands.

And, well, almost immediately it began.

Then the tweet disappeared.

Then it hit me.

When will Jeff Jacobs come calling?

Look, we in the media have a job to do. Our job is to write a certain number of stories or columns per time period.

Or we make a crazy vow to write something every day for free.

Jacobs is an award-winning columnist for Hearst Connecticut Media Group and a 36-0 baseball score has his byline all over it.

Now, I have admired some of Jeff's work over the years and we've met a few times. But, let's be real, who am I? I'm a broadcaster who doesn't care about awards or such things.

I'm a grunt who cranks our 365 "columns" per year (and let's face it, bloggers aren't generally high on the food chain anyway). Oh, and I babble a little on the radio/interwebs/TV/whatever.

So what I think won't be a blip on the ol' Hearst radar (patent pending).

Indeed, Jeff came-a-calling to Ludlowe but a funny thing happened: they wouldn't return his call.

My take? Context was needed. I know people at Ludlowe. I like people there and I guarantee the team got hits, stopped taking the extra base, didn't steal bases, and let up as much as they could. But they also made their plays in the field. That's a big difference.

Further context for you. You might recall I've been a broadcaster for a football team called the Greenwich Cardinals at one time or another. I recall one time -- 2004, I think -- the Cardinals were walloping Harding High School in Bridgeport so badly that they began to take a knee in the third quarter.

In. The. Third. Quarter.

Another time, Greenwich was up 50 (during the years of the inane "50 point rule") and the Cardinals allowed a player -- I want to say he was from Danbury -- to go full Charlton Heston literally parting the Red Sea. Only the Red Sea wore Cardinal Red as the Hatters player returned a kickoff for a touchdown.

I was shocked in each case. I very much remember the coach in the Danbury case shouting across the field at his Greenwich counterparts.

His point? Let them play, folks. Let them play. The Danbury coach knew that Greenwich wasn't running up the score but don't insult his team by allowing them anything either.

I think that's the way it should be but, again, we're not here for what I think.

And so, Jeff Jacobs (ace Hearst sports columnist) went to the Wright Tech coach, Brian Colantonio. May the gods of baseball bless Coach Colantonio. What a stand-up person.

I have no idea what kind of coach he is. He might scream. He might yell. He might be passive. He might say that Babe Ruth is an overrated schlub. I hope not, but I know nothing of his background.

But, wow, after reading his comments in Jacobs' piece, all I can say is I am now a firm supporter of Coach Colantonio and his team.

Because his quotes -- without having to say so -- told Jacobs something so sweet and simple that it oozed all over the Hearst offices.

"This is a non-story," was what Colantonio said without saying it.

You can read the story here for the quotes. Hearst will be pleased to have the clicks, I'm quite sure, as this is the game. This is what they're all about.

The boss wants controversy. They want outrage. Simply go back and look at things as COVID began closing Connecticut sports down and the reaction at the time. Instead of understanding the athletes and what they were feeling, they were mocked.

Sympathy? Nah. What's that?

In this case, Coach Brian Colantonio of J.M. Wright Technical High School in Stamford, CT recognized that his team was outmanned. He thought that his team would hang in a little better against Fairfield Ludlowe, coached by Ken Geriak in his first year. But he saw the truth: Errors. Drops.

Those allow runs to score. Runs pile up. Thirty-six of them before the score control rules could be enforced at the middle of the fifth inning.

If you were to get a glance at the scorebook it would probably show countless errors and unearned runs. Wright Tech is young, as a program and as a team. Maybe they shouldn't be varsity yet but here they are. 

They played the game because this is what they could get on their schedule. Wright Tech athletic director Robert Kucharski can only do so much.

Jeff's column makes that abundantly clear.

Oh, there will be handwringing. That's what we do.

Yet I'm willing to bet the Wright Tech players didn't do any. They played. They might have even had -- GASP! -- fun. 

Can you imagine?

I'm sure that, in that moment, it was awful because it certainly wasn't what Wright Tech wanted. Who would want that? But it sure beat a lot of other things they could be doing with their time.

Does 36-0 stick out like a sore thumb? You bet. Was it obvious that Hearst would come calling? Absolutely.

Do I blame Ludlowe? Nope.

Clearly, Wright Tech had no problem with it.

So, why do we?

(Spoiler: I don't)

It's about the kids and the kids are alright. Coach Colantonio got some attention for his team and a new fan in me. In fact, Coach C said he'd do it all over again! 

No regrets!

So, in the end, Jeff Jacobs still filed his story. Hearst got their clicks. They got their outrage!

But.

They also ran a story Seinfeld would be proud of.

A story about nothing.

A big ol' nothingburger.

Pass the ketchup, please.