Dodgeball: Violence, exclusion, degradation

But there was one particular surprise: Dodgeball, if played outdoors, was one of the sports considered to be available and relatively safe within even a more restrictive (red) tier. Yes, dodgeball. (Indoor dodgeball, however, was confined to the yellow, or least restrictive tier).

This is an athletic endeavor designed to isolate the least athletic and most vulnerable kids on the playground or in the gymnasium. There’s no getting around that unfortunate fact. A 2004 movie devoted to the sport (titled “Dodgeball — A True Underdog Story”) made that painfully clear.

At one point in the comedy, fictitious dodgeball legend Patches O’Houlihan lectures a young man, who appears to be a budding dodgeball devotee, that his chosen area of expertise was set up as a sport marked by “violence, exclusion and degradation.” He wasn’t kidding.

It’s surprising that state health honchos would even deign to confer legitimate competitive status on dodgeball in the first place. After all, California has been home to a self-esteem movement for decades. 

Some schools and recreation programs frown on dodgeball and ban it altogether. Too often it’s the very opposite of an all-inclusive, anti-bullying/harassment exercise because of its inherent goal of targeting the weak, timid, slow and uncoordinated.

Patches O’Houlihan wasn’t kidding. Just remember his “Five D’s of Dodgeball”: Dodge, duck, dip, dive and … dodge. We might well add a sixth: “Degrade.”

THE PENINSULA’S HOLLYWOOD: The 100-year anniversary of the founding of a bygone local institution nearly came and went without a whole lot of mention.

It’s probably understandable. The workable life of the old Pacific Studios in San Mateo was not especially long or particularly productive in the grand scheme of things. But it was a moment in time that should be noted. 

The movie-making enterprise, located on Peninsula Avenue on the Burlingame border, lasted less than a decade after ground was broken late in 1920. 

It made its debut with great civic fanfare (it has been reported that as many as 10,000 people attended the event) but faded rather quickly once sound changed movies forever. Plus, Hollywood had a serious head start on all aspects of the film business. 

According to historians, Pacific Studios produced 18 films and went out of business in 1927. Some of its original buildings are still being used by a variety of enterprises today.

A PANDEMIC YULETIDE NOTE: Mark Foyer, a former sports editor at the Half Moon Bay Review, stays in touch with family and friends via social media. 

That’s because he’s been confined to a long-term care facility in the East Bay for the past five years due to the debilitating ramifications of a severe neurological illness. 

That hasn’t stopped him from posting reflections and whimsical notes on Facebook. One of his latest items involves the pandemic and a variation on a popular Christmas ditty: “I saw mommy inoculating Santa Claus.” Nice. 

No matter the challenges he faces, Mark, ever optimistic, continues to spread his own version of good cheer regardless of the season of the year.

SHE HAS COME A LONG WAY: Jennifer Granholm’s professional resume’ is both extensive and impressive.

A former Democratic governor and attorney general of Michigan, she has been tabbed as incoming President Joe Biden’s secretary of energy. 

Granholm, a native of Canada, moved with her family to California at a young age. She has roots on the Peninsula. She graduated from now-closed San Carlos High School and was named Miss San Carlos as a teen as well.

Her online bio indicates she also was the first female tour guide at long-gone Marine World-Africa USA in Redwood Shores. She has come a very long way from those distant days to be sure.

John Horgan has been writing for Peninsula newspapers since 1963 during the last days of the JFK administration. He can be contacted by the miracle of email at johnhorganmedia@gmail.com.