Battle Creek Enquirer from Battle Creek, Michigan • Page 17

NEIGHBORS Youths souit for volunteer program3C CLASSIFIEDS Page5-8C Lifestyle Editor: Rebecca Buckingham, 9660693 Battle Creek Enquirer Tuesday, May 4, 1999 1C USUI RARDIN 4. t- XT Vacation not quite picture perfect -v 1 -A 7 as ft Si PHOTOS BY JOHN GRAFTHE ENQUIRER Jake Sutter, 21, pitcher for the Kellogg Community College baseball team, demonstrates the proper mechanics of throwing a ball. he Hferfect There is a right way and a wrong way to throw a ball I The correct wind up and pitch By following these steps when throwing a ball, children can improve their technique and avoid injury. or awn froti tartet Keep etww froert of dww hoot of oi toot nvoi ion Step toward target awl land oa foot opposite throwing arm. the problem as," says Harding, a former Cincinnati Reds team physician.

"I always couch the term very, very carefully when I'm talking about it because it offends children very much little boys and little girls. I 'say you throw like a But both boys and girls who lack a natural ability to throw often adopt this graceless throwing stance commonly Sue MacDonald Gannett News Service. Dr. Warren G. Harding means not the slightest offense honestly and from the bottom of his heart when he uses the term "throwing like a girL" He is a nice person and orthopedic surgeon and not someone who would inten Step bock asd msi ol oi saat side of body as os ana srawi doxk om praM wnn mmmct.

coded. tkrovnag arm. Call me a Midwesterner. Call me a Battle Creek native. No matter how many times I said "Ciao!" in Italy during my two-week vacation, it always reminded me of dog chow, as in Ralston Purina dog chow.

Sure ifs got that cute little Euro-spelling going for it and you can kind of roll the word off your tongue in a musical way. But it doesn't matter. When it comes out of your mouth it might as well be dog chow as any other kind of chow. Based on this and other travel illuminations, I've decided international sophistication is not in my genes. I'm a corndog in a croissant world, a splash of instant coffee in an espresso-cafe society.

How do I know? On what do I base my assumptions? Well just how sophisticated would you feel on a two-week excursion to Italy if Your only amorous exchange was with a big mutt named Lucky (pronounced Luck-eee) who found your leg attractive and had such a vice grip he finally had to be called off by his owner. Sadly, the encounter was under a full moon. Your most vivid memory of a gondola ride in Venice is not of the ancient buildings, the trailing vines of flowers, the lapping sound of water and silhouettes of churches against the sunset, no; but of nearly falling into the canal on your departure. One foot on die dock, one foot on the gondola, and suddenly a growing chasm that threatens to split you in two like an indecisive wishbone. I've never read about anyone falling into the canal I was sure I'd be the first People on shore, meanwhile, assumed I did this solely for their amusement Your experiment with trying to order off an Italian menu gets you instead of fettucine 'Alfredo sauce, white, like latte" "Ohhhh, si, a plate of cooked spaghetti that looked like it came from a Mueller's box with a pat of butter on it It was, indeed, very white.

I was thankful though. My friends ordered pasta with seafood and it came with eyes and feelers. I couldn't look. Neither could they. As I recall we" drank a lot of wine that night paired with bread and.

butter. You walk down to the beach to nap and dream under a straw hat maybe even to read some poetry, only to have your snooze cut short by a group of boys who think your blanket doubles as soccer goal posts. I even tossed the ball back into the game a few times but I didn't seem to have the skills they were looking for. So travel in Italy is more than amore, espresso, canals, poetry and pasta. It is very beautiful.

And very real. That means "Ciao!" for now, and I pronounce that chow. Don't let the fancy spelling mislead you. Leslie Rardin's column appears each Sunday and Tuesday. Write to her at the Battle Creek Enquirer, 155 W.

Van Buren Battle Creek, MI, 4901 7-3093, or call Elbow Forward vri.i 7 called "throwing like agirL" He and a pre-med student named Nicole Straus, a senior at Williams College in "Repetition and experience is key, depending on what tionally offend another with a derogatory, sexist term. But ifs baseball season again, and in his quest to find a simple way to help parents and coaches teach viuwid Sources: Dr. Warren G. Harding III, orthopedic surgeon at Wellington Orthopedic and Sports Medicine, level yOU Want tO gO WMamstown, have developed a tO but kiuS should four-step process, us ptgR i ne omciiuiau ing simple concepts, 1 11 1 1 young children just be allowed tO be to help parents and how to throw a coaches teach children ages 5-12 how to throw properly. From personal experience (he was a little League coach years ago), Harding knows that teaching kids and have fun with it too." Russ BorteH KCC baseball coach baseball properly, he keeps coming back to the "throwing like a girl" phrase.

It's the best Frank Pompa, Gannett News Service He simplified the act of throwing into these four steps: "The key is to push off from the foot on the same side as your throwing arm," Harding says. During a throw, one foot is the pushing foot and the other is the landing foot The pushing foot is the one you lean back onto, the landing foot is the one onto which you move forward. If Please see THROW, 2C munity College baseball coach, agreed. He believes children should have some basic exposure to throwing techniques as early as 4- or 5-years old, but sakL they can't reaDy grasp the concept of proper mechanics. "My son is 7 and he is already in his third year of ball If they aren't started young these days, they'll be at a disadvantage later natural athletic ability, Harding says.

They can throw a ball, swing a golf club, kick and catch a ball with very little thought But some people don't have that inborn ability. They don't know which arm or leg to use. They stand incorrectly or stiffly. They don't know what to do with the rest of their body during a particular movement They have to stop and think about what oth--ers naturally a child how to throw is not always easy. Most attempts are filled with sports medicine concepts or anatomical terms the lay public way to visually describe how NOT to throw, because it automatically conjures up an image of an awkward, weak and miss-its- on.

doesn't always grasp. target kind of lob. If what everybody knows Russ Bortell, Kellogg Com- Some children and adults have OUT OF OUR PAST 25 years ago today, 1974: An 8.1 Symphony concert an 'Ode to Joy' percent boost in 1 1899 Calhoun County's base of 1QAO I 7 1 7 1974 1999 valuation for real and sonal property was approved. 50 years two today, 1949: A lo cal woman and two men plead Beethoven's Symphony no. 9 in D-minor.

Familiar to many as Ode to Joy, the easily-recognizable theme started deep in the cello and bass section and flowed mar- velously through the entire orchestra. Hibbard, Strang and Norris were joined by tenor Robert Bracey and the com- bined Chorus and Chorale. The result was spine-tingling. A lot of work went into that piece and it was evident in the excellent job done by the vocalists and the instrumentalists. As the centennial season of the BCSO is winding down, these and the other wonderful concerts of the season will surely continue to resound in minds of many patrons.

was drowned out by the orchestra. The problem continued through, the next piece, selections from Old American Songs by the American composer Aaron Copland. Patrons should not have to strain to hear vocalists, and adjustments either need to be made in the volume of the orchestra or the amplification of the vocal soloists. It was a shame, as both mezzo-soprano and Battle Creek favorite Kathleen Strang, as well as baritone Jef-fery Norris did a wonderful job with the familiar Copland pieces. The pieces selected contrasted nicely, from the power of Simple Gifts to the playfulness of Bought Me a Cat.

Conductor Matthew Hazel-wood did his audience a great REVltWT: favor in the few minutes after, the he ex-, plained the next piece on the -program. The'two medita-; tions from Leonard Bernstein's Mass were of the style my mother used to sarcasti- -cally refer to as "bing, bang, v. boom" music in other i words, modern classical music. West Side Story it wasn't and Hazehvood carefully explained that, and explained the thinking behind Bernstein's composition. It made the piece much more enjoyable especially for those not appreciative of this genre of music.

The best was definitely saved for last with the Fourth Movement of Chorale. The theme in the Verdi overture to La Form del Des-tino began hauntingly enough by the flute and oboe and then snaked its way through the woodwinds, occasionally being picked up by me strings and brass. With its spirited finale, it was a powerful way to open the program. Soprano Sarah Hibbard expertly executed what would seem like a challenge to any singer. Rachmaninoff "Vocalise" is the operatic version of scat singing, where the vocalist emphasizes a single note.

Hibbard's fine voice was definitely up to the challenge, but tiie acoustics of the W.K. Kellogg Auditorium were not At several points during the piece, Hibbard Anne McIlree Noble For One Enquirer On what in Michigan would be called a rare warm spring night one might think a symphony concert would not be the destination of choice unless it was in an outdoor amphitheater. Staying indoors on such a night was a small price to pay to enjoy the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra in its continuing celebration of its 100 years of existence. "Ode to Joy: A Celebration of 100 Years" featured works spanning three centuries and featured not only tie Symphony in fine form, but four outstanding solo voices and the combined power of the Battle Creek Community Chorus and the Lakeview High School guilty to gambling charges. They were arrested when police observed the woman in the act of selling numbers tickets.

100 years ago today, 1899: A hack driver from Homer became jealous of the attentions an area veterinary surgeon was paying to the driver's sweetheart The driver procured a revolver and vowed to kill the horse doctor. His friends sur-reptitiousty removed the bullets from his the doctor's life. As it was, the driver hit the doctor with the butt of the gun. HOW TO REACH US Have a story tip or idea? Here's how to reach us 24 hours a day. READER HOT LINE: 966 0681 Fax: 964-0299 Great Lakes Free-Net: Leave a message in the Battle Creek Enquirer conference area.

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