Sigma Chi Beta Iota
Alumni Association
Sigma Chi Undergraduate Website
University of Oregon
FROM THE DESK OF JOHN HIBBS
Baseball, Bus Rides and Brotherhood
Even after getting taken to the woodshed on a boiling July afternoon in Roseburg, the ride home was still a good one. How could that be? Inside our cramped school bus it's all armpits and elbows. Some of the windows won't open and there's no A/C. The kids are dog-tired, the seats are like bricks. A grumpy coach hunkers at the wheel intent on finding every lump in the road. In the front seat is Grandpa, dribbling yarn as old as the Ice Age. And just as dull.
Behind us is the litter of a double header where we had just gotten an old fashioned ass-kicking. Ahead of us is the end of a season that will ink our miserable record -- three games under 500.
Oddly, inexorably, and as is nearly always the case on trips of this nature, the atmosphere changes.
Like many a two-out rally, it starts ugly. "Why" asks the coach "do they call four bad pitches a 'walk'"? From the back comes the silly refrain: "Because if you have four balls the only thing you can do is walk!" Yuck. Yuck. The floodgates open. Here come lines as old as the hills. "Tyler couldn't hit water falling out of a boat." "Brandon couldn't catch rain with a barrel," "Kevin couldn't find home plate if it was pasted to his butt." Coach Niles becomes Coach Senile who returns Grandpa's dig by asking him what was it like to like play football without a helmet?
The bush-whacking at Roseburg gives way to wise cracks and more locker room banter. Headed north, the miles float by easily, oxygen returns to the bus. All of it is heavily assisted by the universal conviction that baseball is timeless.
As sure as Oregon rain, we will play next season's Opener in first place; somewhere in the middle of that season, when things go downhill, players will get the reminder ".....it's a long season, let's take it one game at a time". And when the last out in the last game is called, everyone who plays baseball from Pee Wee to the Show will get the same consolation: "We'll get 'em next year."
On this particular trip Grandpa is an aging Sigma Chi with thousands of baseball games under his belt....every single one since Little League as a fan. He's seen Mays duel Koufax at Candlestick and Mantle jack one out at Yankee Stadium. Coach Kenny Niles, also the driver, has ridden a million miles as a minor league player and a million more in his duties for Sheldon High and American Legion baseball. The kids are the Sigma Chi Challengers with teammates assembled from all over Lane County; they play tough competition from all over the state.
On the bus there's an elegant connection between past, present and future. It's a strange concoction where odd subjects can get serious, very quickly. On this ride -- because it's our last one this year? -- it turns earnest with talk about fraternities.
What are they like? How many guys live in a House? How many fraternities are there? When did they start? Do girls come over? Are they good looking? Do you have to do nasty stuff before they let you in? To join, do I fill out an application? Is that your building? -- the big one over by Hayward? What about those houses down around Franklin? What are sororities like? Do you have to learn Greek?
For Grandpa it's delightful; for the kids it's intriguing. Coach Niles -- young, balding and smart -- urges it along. Then, like baseball, just when you're real comfortable and having a good time, the situation gets tense.
A really bright kid asks, very seriously, "Mr. Hibbs, why should I join?"
Suddenly the bus grows utterly still. For six weeks they've been telling people how to pronounce 'Chi'. That it's bush to use the word "frat". They are the first team in American Legion history that's ever been sponsored by a Fraternity. This sponsor isn't like MacDonald's or the local hardware store. In a vague but certain way they know Sigma Chi is in the business of character development. Instinctively, they also know there's a big difference between promoting burgers and promoting a life-changing experience.
They also know they are part of an experiment which could end up with Greeks playing baseball all over America. Or that the whole thing was a failure - they've just played the last game where the name Sigma Chi was stitched onto the cloth.
On some deep level they also compute that the answer to the question "Why should I join?" has bearing on both the outcome of the experiment and on decisions they will take, individually, when they head for college. -- including the college they will ultimately select.
Suddenly, Grandpa's the one at the plate.
I take a big gulp. These days everything's boiled down to sound bites. Any answer longer than thirty seconds and I'm done like the dinner. I give it my best shot.
"Guys, the long answer is that Sigma Chi is of extraordinary lifetime value. I AM a Sigma Chi. And I will be until I die. And so are my very best friends. The short answer is fraternities can enrich your college experience in ways that can only be understood after becoming a Greek.
"But the best answer is one you learned a lot about this summer. Bottom line, Sigma Chi is all about Brotherhood. You've just had a good taste of it. Right here on this bus."
Signed,
John Hibbs
House Director
email
Beta Iota Chapter
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
more here:
- Article about Swede Johnson
- Article - Badges Baseball and Rush Focus
- Article - History of Abner Doubleday and Miami Triad Founders
- Article - Badges Baseball and Rush Focus
Home Page for Sigma Chi Baseball
Hibbs Article: About Baseball, Bus Rides and Brotherhood
Hibbs Article: Significant Sig Swede Johnson, and Swede Johnson Stadium
Hibbs Article: Recruiting, Summer Jobs and Bank of America
Hibbs Article: Abner Doubleday and the Sigma Chi Founders -- a lot in common
