Big leaps at the state Capitol this week came through frogs, not lawmakers
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- The frog jumping event on the Capitol lawn was the competition's 50th anniversary.
- Lawmakers representing Calaveras County hold the event to honor the Calaveras County Fair.
The frogs jumping in Tuesday’s competition on the state Capitol lawn did not let either the illustrious setting or historic day — the event’s 50th anniversary — impact their athletic performance.
Indeed, the California bull frogs on hand to compete were likely more interested in burrowing into the cool grass, still wet from rain the night before, than in any great straining of their jumping legs.
Frog jumping is a uniquely California sport. It grew out of a late 1800s fictional story by the author Mark Twain — one credited with launching the writer’s career. Frog jumping’s Superbowl is the Calaveras County Fair, occurring later this month. A frog is set down upon a designated jumping point and from there, winners come down to the exertion of that frog to jump and jump far. At the fair, participants are not allowed to touch their frog once it’s set on the jumping off point and rely instead on shouts, whistles or menacing leaps in the frog’s direction to make it jump.
At the Capitol, participants — which included journalists, lawmakers and members of their staffs — were allowed to poke and prod the frogs.
Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-Santee, had to swap out for a new frog after his first wouldn’t jump. Perhaps the leading Republican’s frog was loaded down with lead shot, the trick an unscrupulous gambler uses to gain an edge in the high-dollar frog jumping bet at the center of Twain’s famed short story. Sacramento Bee political reporter Lia Russell, meanwhile, found coaxing their frog to jump nearly as difficult as coaxing a succinct answer out of California’s famously verbose governor.
But with sufficient encouragement, the frogs did jump — some more readily and further than others. Each frog was allowed three leaps to reach its final, measurable resting point.
Then came the wrangling. Calaveras County youngster Donovan Hamanaka, wore a wig and bushy mustache to play Twain for the day. The writer’s traditional white suit was quickly green in the knees as Hamanaka dove into the wet grass repeatedly to arrest the flight of a frog who’d concluded its official run.
The winner was Classifrog. It jumped 12 feet and a half an inch, spurred on by Caroline Tessa from the California School Employees Association.
California lawmakers representing Calaveras County have held the annual event to honor the Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee, which occurs in the third weekend of May, annually.
People interested in attending the fair can learn more about it from the Calaveras Visitors Bureau’s website.
