The Ronald Reagan Coin Toss tribute video reminded me of my son’s baseball game this afternoon, but not in a good way. The narrator noted that Reagan played to win. Not just as an athlete, but as president. Do we play to win anymore? I’m starting to think the answer is “no.”
Our team was losing by a run in the second inning. In this league a one-run deficit in the second inning is not insurmountable. The kid who was pitching was struggling - really struggling. Three batters and he had yet to throw a strike. Three batters in a row walked, then a fourth, bringing the deficit to two runs. Then a fifth batter was walked across the plate. So, what did the coach do? He asked the pitcher’s father if he should take him out. The father said “No, let him get the five.” There’s a five-run mercy rule and he wanted his son to continue pitching until all five runs had been scored against him. I have no idea what that father was thinking. I have no idea why the coach would ask the father what he should do, but the coach listened and the inning ended with a six run deficit. The pitcher walked off the field in tears. (I guess nobody ever told him there’s no crying in baseball. Sheesh!)
To make a long story short, we lost, by one run! We weren’t playing to win. Heck, we weren’t even playing to make a kid feel good, but to appease a father who wants his kid to pitch. (But apparently doesn’t spend a lot of time practicing with him.) Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident. It seems to be the way things go anymore. All of this politically correct “we’re just here to have fun” BS isn’t doing the kids any favors, unless all we care about is teaching them how to lose with dignity. The kids who practice and learn the skills necessary to successfully play the game sit on the bench as much as the ones who’ve never seen a batting cage or spent a grueling week at baseball camp. I don’t know what lesson these kids are learning. Who knows, maybe it will be positive - maybe they’ll come away realizing that bad coaches lose games.
Which brings me to the current state of our republic. All President Obama cares about winning is the next election. He’s a losing coach trying to hang onto his job. In foreign affairs we lead from behind. On the economy, he just gives us more of the same - more class warfare, more calls for spending money we don’t have, and more taxpayer dollars spread around to his cronies. He has no experience when it comes to job creation, foreign policy, or anything else that would have made him a successful president. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to let him get the five before there’s any hope of salvaging the mess he’ll be leaving behind. Maybe then we can start playing to win again.
Addendum: Obama’s so bad, even his hometown newspaper published an editorial calling for him to step aside in 2012.
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It doesn’t matter what the father wanted to do. Baseball is a team sport. Trying until you can’t try anymore is fine for practice, not the middle of a game that the kids want to win.
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This cultural behavior has transcended the censorship of speak using political correctness. You can see it in sports as you’ve so aptly pointed out; academe where grades are meaningless and feelings triumph. You can see it in our military; brave soldiers hamstrung with insane rules of engagement as the enemy laughs.
Yes, LC, you’ve nailed it in a very good post. Our failure in playing to win has been insidiously replaced by the progressive /statist’s projection of guilt as a tool of control that it’s not fair to have equal opportunity any longer, its equal outcome that’s just.
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It’s maddening!
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Bad father, bad coach, bad pitching. At least the kid has a chance of improving his pitching.
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