the Raiders, like anyone in that situation, were running a little low on pitching.

Smith had missed the entire weekend to that point because of arm soreness, but with the season on the line, he approached Tadlock. He wanted the ball — no questions asked.

“We had a righty up in the pen warming up before the game, and Cam just walks over to Coach Tadlock and tells him he wants the ball. Tadlock told him no. After all, his arm had been barking at him a little bit, but Cam said he was pitching, no questions asked, and everyone got kind of quiet,” Thomas said. “Cam’s first inning was a little rough, but he went out there and threw a complete game, four-hitter and we won.

“Going back to juniorto the distorted, anti-American history of the 1619 Project have come from “progressive” intellectuals and the Worldwide Socialist Web Site. Or that old-fashioned “liberals” are beginning to discover the dangers of Political Correctness.

These are opportunities to make common cause and maybe to win some converts. After all, the political right as we know it was formed in the middle of the 20th century by intellectuals who came out of the Red Decade of the 1930s. Many conservative intellectuals were former communists who had seen the light.

The contest of ideas is never irrelevant and it never ends. The only certain way to lose it is to give up on it.