Coming Up Roses

At an early age, Julie and I started teaching sportsmanship to Miranda and Charley.  We taught them that it was good to be a spirited competitor as well as a gracious loser.  

It’s hard to be satisfied with losing because everyone naturally wants to be the best. 

Even when our best efforts garner incremental growth or a personal record, we tend to be unhappy if our performance doesn’t get us to the top of the podium. 

However, when it comes to sports, we did our best to teach our offspring that there is more to the game than winning.  

Teamwork, leadership, determination, resiliency, grit, etc… 

The family knows my love for Pete Rose.  He had all those qualities.  

I loved watching him play.  My all-time favorite baseball player.  Aggressive baserunner.  Unrelenting defender.  Tenacious hitter.  Switch hitter and played five positions.  The ultimate utility player.  The ultimate talent stack. 

Charlie Hustle.

When we took a trip to Las Vegas in 2014, I made it a priority to go see the ultimate ballplayer. Pete had a gig in a sports shop where, after the purchase of memorabilia, fans could experience a meet and greet. 

We gladly and excitedly plunked down our dough and sat with the Hit King to talk some baseball. 

After a few minutes of discussion, Pete looked directly at Charley and asked what he loved most about baseball. 

Charley shrugged and said, “I’m not sure; I love all of it.” 

Pete persisted, “C’mon, what is the best thing about the baseball?  There is one thing that’s better than any other part of the game!”  

Perplexed, our parental minds were sure Pete was just about to proclaim that what was best about baseball was the sheer joy of being on the field or some such heartwarming platitude.

Charley again said he loved all of it, “the hitting, the catching, the running…” 

Pete, not satisfied and refusing to take those answers, declared, “Winning!  Winning is the best thing about baseball!  Is it fun when you lose??” 

“No,” said Charley. 

“No, it’s not fun when you lose! That’s why winning is everything!” 

I had forgotten that while Pete has so many qualities to emulate, he is the most competitive person on Earth and losing is not an option. 

We walked away a bit stunned.  In one fell swoop, Pete managed to trash years of carefully crafted parenting, in which we insisted that winning, in fact, wasn’t everything.  The effort-above-results mentality was not part of the Pete Rose playbook.

Putting aside our parenting differences with this legend, the next year when we traveled to Cooperstown, we did our best to celebrate and honor Pete at the shrine he will never enter.

Certainly, we can understand that winning was important to Pete Rose.  After all, when you are being paid to play, then your livelihood depends on your ability to win. 

Of course, the payment structure for softball is reversed.  The Cougars pay for the privilege to grace the Howard Park fields on Tuesdays. 

This begs the question: shouldn’t the goals be reversed, too?  Well, maybe not totally reversed.  We’re not actually trying to lose, of course; and Pete is definitely right that winning is a lot more fun than losing. 

But at this age, it’s a losing strategy if you focus solely on winning. 

Better than our win-loss record, here are some of our highlights of our 3-6 virus season: 

We made the playoffs for the 13^th straight year.  The three games we did win this year were incredibly exciting.  We hit three home runs.  We scored nine runs after two outs in one inning.   We scored 14 runs in a game with over 20 hits.   Pregames became a new tradition.  Postgames remained a crucial component of Cougar Tuesdays. 

We infected the summer with fun. 

What game are you trying to win? 

Lasting friendships and memories have deeper impact than recreational victories.

Pete would bet on the Cougars.  I always bet on the Cougars.  

Even if it gets me banned from the 16-Inch Hall of Fame.

Go Cougars!  See you next season!

Game Recap 

We took the lead and kept it close but the Tappers prevailed.  The last time we faced the Tappers in the playoffs was 2011.  We beat them and went on to win the championship.  Maybe Pete was right about winning...hmmm...

Postscript

Every week during the season I enjoy recapping the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat.  If not for Julie, reading the blog would be a slog.  Shout out to JRads.  She is an editor extraordinaire.

Story Time

It’s been three weeks since the last blog.  Since then, we played the Tappers, we were rained out, and we played Miller Time.

 

So it’s story time.

 

Speaking of time, before we get to the games, let’s have some fun with time courtesy of Miranda.

 

When Miranda was in second grade, her teacher, Mrs. Bourisaw, allowed the kids to go to the bathroom without asking permission.  The only requirement was that the students had to sign out with their name and the time when they left and returned.  One day Miranda found herself in a dilemma.  She really had to go potty, but all the clocks in the room were analog.   She didn’t fully understand the numbers on the clock because the 1 through 12 didn’t correspond to the actual 5-10-15-20, etc. that she was supposed to record.  Miranda’s solution was to hold her full bladder until the top of the hour when she was sure to get the time correct.  Luckily, she made it!  When she returned, she added a couple minutes to the sign out time, and all was well. 

 

Miranda also had a run-in with time years later in college.   On the morning of her very first freshman final, Miranda stirred at 10:30am as the light spilled through a space in the dorm room curtains.  Unfortunately, her Spanish final had started at 10:15am.  She had stayed up most of the night studying and slept right through her alarm.  As she says, she remembered waking up feeling like “something is going on today.”  In her morning haze, she looked at her phone, which showed her the late hour, as well as an email notification from her caring professor. 

 

Heart racing, she flung herself out of the top bunk.  She threw on deodorant because she knew she was going to have to run across campus, and she didn’t want to smell.  With no time to brush her teeth, she took a swig of mouthwash and swished, swirled, and spit it out in the hallway bathroom as she sprinted to class.  Out of breath and embarrassed, she made it to class a half hour late and somehow aced the test and the class. 

 

As Miranda shows us, sometimes you gotta laugh at yourself and have fun when life goes sideways.

 

Nice segue, right?

 

Let’s take time to recap the games.

 

Cougars vs Tappers

Three weeks ago on a rainy Tuesday the Tappers got us 15-2.  We started out the top of the first with a Boom as he beat out an infield single.  Charley hit a sacrifice to the right side moving Boom to third.  Rads beat out an infield single to score Boom.  Martin then crushed the Clincher to right center scoring Rads from first.  Cougars were up 2-0 after the top of the inning.  Then the Tappers scored 15 over the next few innings and we didn’t get another hit.  JD hosted a terrific postgame at the field where we all eased our pain.

 

Cougars vs Miller Time

Last week Miller Time beat us 14-2.  In the first inning, Charley Rads singled between short and third and Scotty Rads hit a single to center moving CRads to third.  Fort had a perfectly placed single to right scoring Chuck and moving SRads to third.  JD laced a liner single to center scoring Rads.  That was the end of our scoring.  We did have some other hit highlights.  In the second inning, Crawdaddy punched a line shot single to left center and Pastor Ted also flattened the ball to left field for a hit.  In the third, Charley Rads walked and Scotty Rads hit a line shot single to center.  In the fourth, JD had a left center liner and Bobi pummeled a hit to center.  In the fifth inning, Boom had a walk and Pastor Ted did it again and hit a rocket to left center. (Teddy was 2-2 and his helping hands and fancy footwork in the field with a couple perfect plays.)  Kate and Tim hosted a fantastic postgame that softened the blow.

 

Each game was only five innings, but the Cougars were together each night for five hours.  Two-hour pregames, one-hour games, and two-hour postgames. 

 

Some teams measure success in wins and losses.  We measure wins by tallying our time together.