PICAYUNE —
One of the hats I wear these days is for the local Chamber of Commerce, and as such, I got a call one morning a couple of weeks ago from a lady from Nawth Caihlinuh who was temporarily in neighboring Cleveland with a whole baseball team from the Tarheel State, as well as parents and coaches. These were 13 -14 year-old boys, as I understood her, and they had come some 800 miles to play in the national baseball championship for their league. They had won, to this point, and the semi-finals were that evening, so she was looking for some sort of motivational recreation for her son and his teammates.
Since I have a son in NC, and he played baseball with several championship teams all the way through college, I certainly identified with this NC lady, so I was quick to respond, saying that Leland has the Jim Henson Delta Boyhood Exhibit, since he was raised here and inspired to not only create Kermit the Frog, his most popular character, but to name the Green One after the son of our mayor, a play-mate of his at a young age. Also, we have the Highway 61 Blues Museum, and some wonderful restaurants, and… I was just rattling along, when she interrupted.
“Don’t y’all have some sort of alligator farm close by?” she asked.
“Well, we’ve got a few alligators in Deer Creek, which runs beautifully through the middle of town, but it’s a long shot to see one,” I replied.
“It says here,” she read from some brochure, “that there are alligators on display and we can even watch them get fed,” she declared. “Where is that?”
Aha! That was south of us at Leroy Percy Park, so I gave her directions to get there, warned her that it was probably fifty miles from where she was, and told her to call if she got turned around. She did that, twice, and I talked her around the dogleg through Hollandale, then assured her that there was indeed a state park down what looked to be a long lonesome highway headed west toward the River.
She called several hours later to elatedly thank me for directing them to the “Alligator Park.” Seems that they had arrived, sought out the gator habitat from the park ranger, who not only took them to the mini-swamp to see them, but upon finding out that this was a motivational trip for a championship baseball team, even offered to drive to town to get chickens and let the boys FEED THE GATORS!
One of the best baseball movies, although I do not recommend it because of the foul language — why does Hollywood DO that? — has the Team Captain debating how to motivate their Caribbean voodoo-believing slugger, who wanted to sacrifice a live chicken before the championship game, to cure his bat from an inability to hit curve balls. Jake sent for a tub of ‘Tucky Fried’ to satisfy Pedro. I am not sure if the Ranger got grocery store chickens already skint and cut up, or if there’s a chicken farm in south Washington County which supplies the Real Thing.
“The Ranger let those boys climb up into the tower and feed the gators by themselves, and they had the best time!” my NC Lady gushed. “We won’t have time to stop in Leland on the way back to the ball field, but thank you so much for directing us to the Park. My son will never forget this!”
Here’s the Rest of the Story: I had to call NC to find this out, but that NC team was so motivated by feeding those alligators that they actually won the championship, taking the trophy back 800 miles to NC with them. I just got a note of thanks from the NC Lady for directing them to Leroy Percy Park for such an exciting day that the boys will always remember.
Coaches are always looking for an edge, a motivational tool which will get the team riled up to the point of playing their absolute best to win. I think we have a precedent to build on here. Every locker room has a bullpen shower area, where a few alligators (they don’t HAVE to be ten feet long!) would be comfortable on game days. Live chickens ain’t easy to find around cities, but a good coach could motivate the boys to raise their own pullets, right? We’re in this to WIN, men!
I’m not sure this will work for a girls’ soccer team, but if you try it, call me.
Opinion
Feeding the gators was motivational
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