This is a political blog, or had its roots in one. I recall when I used to bluster even more than I do now. But I remembered something personal from the late 60s and it amused me.
I have never cared for sports; I have nothing against them and I ought to have cared more for them for they would have done me good; my life has been nearly entirely centered in my mind. So I never did, really, see the point: balls are meant to be chased by dogs and children, and when I was in junior high I was already chafing at being a boy. I wanted to grow up. Then.
At the end of most PE classes we were told to play dodgeball. At least in Pecos it was played in the gym with the volleyballs which resided on two racks The coaches would divide the boys, and as soon as we were divided, I'd go and put my back against the wall, hiding behind the other boys.
The aggressive boys instantly went to get the new, perfect balls covered by pristine canvas over the rubber bladder. They were pretty. And they're big. You'd have to be an NFL player to palm one, and these were junior-high boys, who could only throw it as though their hand was a piston with the ball on top. Never got much aim or velocity.
So those balls were fairly easy for the first rank of boys to dodge; the boys in the second rank couldn't see them and got put out. When the balls got to the back, where I was trying to be invisible, I'd make a judgment call. If the ball was new and pretty, I'd toe it up for the aggressive boys to throw, and expose themselves to being hit. If the ball was old, and the older the better, it was for me.
I loved those, and put them behind me while I circulated the perfect balls up front.
As the boys kept putting each other out, I kept hoarding the good-bad balls. Finally when nearly everyone was out, I'd grab up the balls with the torn canvas handles, which worked just great, and I could sling a ball side-armed that was too fast to dodge well. I could throw one every two or three seconds, and faster by far than anyone else. A completely new method of dodge ball, not that the world was clamoring for one.
And you know what? I nearly always won.
For some reason most men don't see the humor in this one but then I don't see any virtue to sports other than the cardio. Perhaps something in the blood?