Thursday, August 28, 2008

Coming Full Circle (As In Circle-Change)

For those of you who know the history of this blog, you know that it started because of the responses I was making on other people's blogs. Bloggers were encouraging me to start blogging myself, and I took them up on it. If you have read some of those responses, you'll see that some of them are doozies, and really worthy of blog posts on their own.

It is with that in mind -- with respect also towards time, the relaunch of this blog, and the friendships it has created -- that I will begin to repost my responses to the blogs that I frequent.

I encourage all of you to visit their blogs, read them, and please be respectful of the opinions posted there (theirs, mine, and anyone elses).

I am not going back in time to dig up these responses. They will be posted shortly after they are made public on the blogs of origin. And of course, this does not mean that I will no longer be original and come up with content of my own... just that I have found that often blog-worthy content doesn't end up on my own blog. Now, it's here.


The original blog post was made by Vent Casey, on his blog, here.

This who situation just exemplifies what is wrong with America, what is wrong with this generation of adults, and what is soon to be wrong with the next generation.

I almost don't know where to start -- and you have done a wonderful job of pointing out all that is wrong, and you have much more detail than I would have. But let's just start at the very beginning...

IT'S JUST A GAME.

I'm not sure where it started, and I'm not about to point fingers, but it is a multi-generational problem. We are taking game -- specifically youth games -- way too seriously. Somewhere we got it in our minds that we have to have a winner every time out, and that losing is bad.

For shame. (And for this one I will point to professional sports with the blame.) For some mind-blowing reason, the professional ranks are trying to do away with ties. OK, baseball has never had ties. Football (at least the NFL) still does have ties, but you get one maybe once every five years -- yet, college football has done away with ties. Basketball, as far as I can remember has never had ties... but they are the biggest source of the problem -- high-scoring games with no ties... of course, high-scoring makes it easy to break ties, so there really isn't a need for ties in basketball. Soccer, low scoring... but still has ties... and the only gripe is that there is no scoring in soccer.

Oh well, deal with it.

Hockey, for some reason (and I point to former NBA #2 and all-around idiot Gary Bettman as the villain) has decided that they want the NBA mentality, not what soccer has. Bettman wants more scoring (and I'll agree, scoring is down in hockey) and no ties. They've adopted shootouts. It's crap. Bettman has taken the most exciting play in hockey, and bastardized it for the sake of determining a winner (he's also mandated for penalty shots during games, in an absent-minded attempt to create more scoring).

FACT: Some days nobody deserves to lose. Some days nobody deserves to win. Some days the teams are just evenly matched.

The adults need to realize this, and the kids need to know it. No shame in a tie. No shame in losing, either. What's important in youth sports? Development. Losing seems to get the message across that there is room for improvement. Winning does not have the same effect... but... really, despite winning, there is always room for improvement.

Some of us had fathers who pushed us to do better, despite winning: "Congrats on throwing a shutout... but next time go for a no-hitter." Read between the lines on that one. Dad's not saying you suck. Dad is trying to keep things in perspective. He's saying there is always room for improvement. It's not being cut-throat. It's simply stating fact.

FACT: You can throw a no-hitter, and still lose. You can also shutout your opponent, and still not win.

Which brings me to point number two. I completely agree that this child should not be pushed ahead. This is a good time to teach your kids patience.

First, let's not stunt Jericho's growth (mentally or physically). Keep him with kid's his age. And don't let his talent give him a benefit that will go straight to his head. Athletes do not deserve special benefits (and, yes, I am a former athlete). Further, moving him up would also force him to to try harder to keep up, or possibly put him back in his place, and maybe discourage him. It could go either way.

Which brings me to secondly... let's allow Jericho's talent to help those around him. To start, don't give up because of a challenge in front of you. So Jericho strikes out your kid. OK, your kid needs to come back and try again.

Let my put it this way. I have a brother who is four years older than me. He used to kick my butt every day in baseball, or football, or soccer. Naturally, he was bigger and better than I was. But I kept at it. I didn't quit. Personally, I think I got better because of the competition I faced. It's small fish, big pond / big fish, small pond.

These kids who face Jericho now are eventually going to get better because of him -- making adjustments, or just catching up with him physically. By letting them play together, New Haven could be looking at a state championship baseball team, who not only outscored everyone by five or six runs per game, but were led by an outstanding pitcher.

Eventually, he will get pushed to a new level. When he gets to high school, he could inevitably skip freshman ball, and go straight to JV or even varsity. That would be an appropriate time to push his talents.

Finally, stop playing politics. Who cares who wins? It's just a game. There is no money at stake. Let the kids be kids, let them have fun, and stop putting pressure on them. This is just another example of adults taking the fun away from the kids.

Sure, there is a sense of pride for Carlito's Barber Shop. But it is misplaced pride. The pride should not be in sponsoring championship teams. The pride should be in providing an opportunity for these children to play baseball, to have fun, and to grow. Again, no money at stake -- you're not going to win a huge payday because you sponsor a great team. (Of course, I wouldn't put it past these people to be betting on youth baseball.) Really, it's local baseball, and your market is anyone at the ballpark. Nobody is going to say: "well, I was going to go get my haircut at Carlito's, but his baseball team played poorly, so I'm going to Great Clips."

What you want is: "I need a haircut. You know what, Carlito's sponsors a team in the youth league. They're not very good, but at least his money goes to a great cause... I think I'll patronize him, and maybe the money from my haircut will help the next Bob Gibson chase his dream."

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