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 13th 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.
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