“Game over,” your team just lost. What do you do? Your team was actually expected to win and the winning competitors are known for their poor ability at the sport. Do you accept your loss and go home? Do you pick fights and make them know that your team is actually better than theirs? You have choices, but all choices have consequences. That is why even in sports, there is a moral way to approach situations. It is a concept known as sportsmanship, and it is way more than simply knowing how to play a sport. It is what allows athletes do what is right before their impulses take over.
Sportsmanship is defined by the Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary as “a conduct (as fairness, respect for one's opponent, and graciousness in winning or losing) becoming to one participating in a sport.” It is like the chivalric code for athletes. You do not just know the rules, you actually live by them and respect them like a way of life.
Just like the chivalry code for knights explained the duties a man had to follow in order to be considered a proper knight. Samurais in Japan had to follow the Bushido—or “Way of the Warrior”—which stresses frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honor until death.
Sportsmanship is the cause why sports can be taken to an international level. It allows players from all the corners of the world get together, and be able to practice the sports they love. It is a set of moral rules; and rules look for nothing more than to keep order. Wherever there are rules (and reasonable human beings), there is supposed to be order and respect among those who are lined by the rules.
Rules can be looked upon as oppression. They can surely can and, depending how they are created and forced, are considered sometimes to be domineering. When referring to sportsmanship, rules cannot be seen as oppressive. They are not an imposition to anyone. They are a moral code, an etiquette, which every single athlete decides to follow, or not when the moment is appropriate. No player can actually complain of being oppressed or being required to be a good sportsman in order to practice a sport. They are expected to follow them when the situation requires maturity, courtesy, and reasoning.
Like every single event in life, there can be a positive or negative deviation from the concept of sportsmanship. Humans are supposedly entitled to commit mistakes, because they are not perfect. Therefore, sportsmanship can be divided into good sportsmanship or bad sportsmanship. It could also be referred to as moral or immoral sportsmanship.
The “good” sportsman is the “ideal” sportsman. He or she is the athlete who reasons before acting. He or she decides when an action is compulsory and when it would be considered unnecessary. When talking about sports, they could be compared to a roller coaster. There are times when you are going up and feel like nothing can stop you. But then you realize that gravity exists, and that you will not always be on top of things and will suffer from losses or disappointments. Like I like to say: “only on the field do you get to really know someone as they really are.”
A great example of what a real sportsman is was recently to be seen on ESPN.com in a story about a senior who arrived to her last softball game without ever having hit a home run. Unbelievably, she hit her first home run to give her team the lead. As she went around first base, she forgot to step on it and as she jogged back to touch the bag, she fell. She could not stand up. To her misfortune, the umpires ruled the only option available was to overrule the home run and score it as a single, leaving the senior without her only home run. All of the sudden, a player from the opposing team asked the umpires if they could carry her around the bases, for it was an important moment in the injured girl’s life and they would not let an injury damage it. When the incident was over, the media asked the girl why she helped the opponent take the lead on her team. She answered that it was not about winning or losing, it was about doing what was right.
This is an excellent display of what good sportsmanship is. Like the softball player who helped the injured girl said: “it is not about winning or losing. It is about knowing and deciding to do what is right.” This sometimes is difficult to follow, but it is what distinguishes the true athlete from the bunch. The real athlete is the one who not only integrates sports into his or her life, but also takes morals and lessons from every experience sports give them.
Unfortunately, there is a bad side for sportsmanship, and I have to admit that athletes do not always decide to follow the moral code that should guide them. In baseball, it is a rude and dangerous move to hit the batter at all. But when the pitch is sent to the head, a message is being sent: it was on purpose. Baseball brawls are famous for their large numbers of participants. They are a true royal rumble and display of immaturity and lack of reason. It starts with the bad sportsmanship by the pitcher who decided to put the game and the batter’s health in jeopardy by hitting him on such a fragile place. The batter may have been bothered by the action of the pitcher but fighting is never the only or correct option. One can choose to keep walking and look at the bright side: you are getting—although it will hurt—a free ticket to the bases. Sometimes emotions get in the way and, thus, this is when irrationality seems more appropriate than logic. The batter chooses to charge the pitcher and get in a fight that may cost him money, game suspensions or, if things get out of control and mayhem dominates, end his career.
Just as the Geneva Conventions set up a protocol for wartime behavior, sportsmanship goes beyond the sports. Actually, it may have nothing to do with sports; it just a way of acting when certain situations occur in sports. It is a conduct guide that allows us to act like reasonable human beings and not like animals.
The main reason why sportsmanship is so essential is because it is the spirit of sports. All sports were created to compete, yes, but even the most aggressive athletes (like boxers) hug and express respect for each other at the end of the fight. Every time we see adversaries exchange respect after a confrontation, it shows how sports are more than a battle. Every single game that ends with the acceptance of loss, or the show of maturity from those who are victorious is a sample of how sportsmanship is more than just a batter. It lets fans and prospects know that there is a good reason for them to follow the sports they love and practice it.
Roberto Clemente would be the perfect example of sportsmanship. He was a baseball player and a humanitarian. He once said: "I want to be remembered as a ballplayer who gave all he had to give.” He lived to demonstrate that he was as good a player as he was a human being. He respected teammates, adversaries, and everyone around him. He was a true sportsman.
As we have been able to see, sportsmanship expands the barriers of sports. It permits athletes to have a life outside the field, court, or course. It is because of sportsmanship that legends from different sports are immortalized in our memories. We do remember those who do not choose to be as smart as they should be. Still, we remember those who actually decided to make a difference, showing that sports are about competition, about winning, about losing sometimes. But we remember those athletes because they decided to act not for what they needed to do to win or be famous; they decided to do what was right.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
It's not how it begins, it's how it ends
Today started kind of a ugly day with all of the rain. I still look forward for baseball practice which I know will make my day better.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
He Is More Than I Ask Him to Be
When you have someone to look up to, a role model, you focus on that person’s actions and try to copy them and apply them to your life. This person is your idol and you try to be like that person no matter what it takes. The person I admire and follow is my grandfather. He is a humble man, with great values, and a unique desire to help others. More than all of these, he is a man that is himself not caring for other’s opinion. He accepts who he is and tries to get others to do the same. This is why I like and admire him so much.
Every kid seems to like his or her grandparents. There is no way a grandparent can say no to a grandchild. If it is the first grandson, they spoil him more. I grew up to see my grandfather as a generous man who would give me anything I asked him for. Sometimes, even more than I wanted. This is just in the nature of grandparents. For some reason, they want to give their grandsons what they did not give their sons. Not in a guilty way but by giving whatever, materially speaking, they did not give their youngsters.
But let us get to know the important person here. My grandfather is a traditional man. He does not do something he has not been doing for the past year. And when he is about to do something new, it is because it has something to do with a custom of his. My grandfather is a man whose habits are in the correct path and you would want to imitate him for you would grow to be a special human being.
His days are a routine. He gets up early in the morning to pray and cook for his wife. He chooses one of his many suits. His suits are the best I have seen ever; they are just amazing. He buys them at a shop called Euromoda in a shopping mall at Puerto Rico. He has been going to this place for years so he gets the best quality suits for the price of middle quality ones. I really wish he were taller—he is about 5’7”—for I would love to have some of his suits. Besides his suits, a trademark that distinguishes him is his hair. He has this white hair with some black hairs left. This is not what makes his hair so different. What does make is hair a unique part of him is the care he gives to it. He combs it at least five times a day. He carries a comb in his pocket and has one every single place he stays for more than an hour.
He wears eyeglasses. They are the regular type of spectacles any old man would wear. They are big, round and with bifocal lenses noticeable. This may seem like normal apparel, but his eyeglasses just make him look more serious. He looks wise and intellectual with them. You look and him and cannot avoid to ask him for advice for his glasses help him look like a person who knows a lot about life, and believe me, he does. He has a look that just penetrates you and lets you know he knows what he is doing and that life has taught him much. He may have those glasses, but he has a sincere look underneath them.
Can people actually talk through their eyes? Can they transfer messages without a word? Yes they can. When your look speaks for you, you have a sincere look. This is one of the traits that I inherited from him that I really like. He has normal, dark colored eyes. It is how he shapes them that let you know he does not have to talk in order to let you know what he means. This is a rather interesting quality not too many posses, and I believe I am blessed to have his sincere look.
Although the physical traits of a person’s mouth would not change your opinion about him or her, the way a person uses his or her mouth does. If we apply it to this profile, I must say that my grandfather has a unique way of using his mouth. His vast and varied language enables him to be a really good speaker. He is not an average good speaker, but the type of speaker that can actually make you follow his beliefs just by talking to you. I am not saying that he uses this gift to take advantage of people, but rather to guide people on the right path.
Although a profile tells all the details about a person, I do not feel describing how my grandfather looks physically can help you. I can, on the other hand, tell you how it is that he uses his body and body parts. His legs are pretty obvious; he uses them to walk like anyone who has legs. His arms are as normal as you would expect them to be. They hold—as expected—his hands. Hands are hands if you look at them. The actions hands are capable of doing and undoing are what make hands important.
My grandfather’s hands are special. They have given me more than I ever could ask for and perhaps more than I deserved. His hands were used to nurture me, take care of me when I was sick and, rarely, make sure I was behaving like I had to. To be honest, his hands make the best cooking I have ever had. I love to stay in my grandparents’ house, and one of the main reasons is because of my grandfather’s cooking. For breakfast he makes scrambled eggs with ham, cheese, and fried plantains on it; for lunch he makes rice and beans with chicken parmigiana. For dinner, my favorite, he makes the best lasagna in the whole world.
His hands also serve as something else which I find amusing. He is an artist and he can make beautiful paintings. He specializes in oil paints. As I grew going to his house, one thing that astonished me was all the paintings in the house. His walls are embellished by paintings made by him and his wife. They are panoramic paintings on which you can appreciate the
beauty of nature in a canvas. He can make mountains, trees, flowers, and water combine together to make a beautiful representation of what natures looks like. He has talent, but that is not all. The best part is I luckily ended up with this endowment. Although not the extent of paintings, my art levels actually go beyond stick figures and are decent enough for me to have won some art competitions when I was younger. He taught me the basics of paintings and told me the rest was for me to discover on my own while I grow around nature. He taught me to express myself through art and let my real “me” project on them.
To be honest, I could just go on and on talking about my grandfather’s physical attributes and how he uses them. But I really do not think a person should be measured by their physical abilities, but what they can do with what God gave them. I sometimes tend to get a bit philosophical on my thoughts. I like to think on how and why things happen. This I owe to my grandfather. He tried to teach me to think about everything I was going to do before actually doing it. He also taught me to think of events from the past and how the influence my future.
He also taught me to live to help others. This is my favorite hobby besides baseball. I can listen to people and, somehow, give the advice they are looking for. I have helped so many people with the ways my grandfather advised me to use but still share one rare similarity with him. No matter how many people I am able to help, I cannot find ways to solve my own problems. Like I said, I live and love to help others but somehow cannot help myself. I still think that no matter how bad I am, I will always find a way to help others.
I love my grandfather and would do anything for him. He taught me to be humble. He taught me to help others. He even helped me when I had trouble with my family, which I am grateful for. What I really appreciate about him is that he educated me, and said the most important thing is that I should always be myself and not let others guide my life and my beliefs. I do that for in my own life and help others do the same. It is an honor to call him my grandfather. It is even more of an honor to have his name.
Every kid seems to like his or her grandparents. There is no way a grandparent can say no to a grandchild. If it is the first grandson, they spoil him more. I grew up to see my grandfather as a generous man who would give me anything I asked him for. Sometimes, even more than I wanted. This is just in the nature of grandparents. For some reason, they want to give their grandsons what they did not give their sons. Not in a guilty way but by giving whatever, materially speaking, they did not give their youngsters.
But let us get to know the important person here. My grandfather is a traditional man. He does not do something he has not been doing for the past year. And when he is about to do something new, it is because it has something to do with a custom of his. My grandfather is a man whose habits are in the correct path and you would want to imitate him for you would grow to be a special human being.
His days are a routine. He gets up early in the morning to pray and cook for his wife. He chooses one of his many suits. His suits are the best I have seen ever; they are just amazing. He buys them at a shop called Euromoda in a shopping mall at Puerto Rico. He has been going to this place for years so he gets the best quality suits for the price of middle quality ones. I really wish he were taller—he is about 5’7”—for I would love to have some of his suits. Besides his suits, a trademark that distinguishes him is his hair. He has this white hair with some black hairs left. This is not what makes his hair so different. What does make is hair a unique part of him is the care he gives to it. He combs it at least five times a day. He carries a comb in his pocket and has one every single place he stays for more than an hour.
He wears eyeglasses. They are the regular type of spectacles any old man would wear. They are big, round and with bifocal lenses noticeable. This may seem like normal apparel, but his eyeglasses just make him look more serious. He looks wise and intellectual with them. You look and him and cannot avoid to ask him for advice for his glasses help him look like a person who knows a lot about life, and believe me, he does. He has a look that just penetrates you and lets you know he knows what he is doing and that life has taught him much. He may have those glasses, but he has a sincere look underneath them.
Can people actually talk through their eyes? Can they transfer messages without a word? Yes they can. When your look speaks for you, you have a sincere look. This is one of the traits that I inherited from him that I really like. He has normal, dark colored eyes. It is how he shapes them that let you know he does not have to talk in order to let you know what he means. This is a rather interesting quality not too many posses, and I believe I am blessed to have his sincere look.
Although the physical traits of a person’s mouth would not change your opinion about him or her, the way a person uses his or her mouth does. If we apply it to this profile, I must say that my grandfather has a unique way of using his mouth. His vast and varied language enables him to be a really good speaker. He is not an average good speaker, but the type of speaker that can actually make you follow his beliefs just by talking to you. I am not saying that he uses this gift to take advantage of people, but rather to guide people on the right path.
Although a profile tells all the details about a person, I do not feel describing how my grandfather looks physically can help you. I can, on the other hand, tell you how it is that he uses his body and body parts. His legs are pretty obvious; he uses them to walk like anyone who has legs. His arms are as normal as you would expect them to be. They hold—as expected—his hands. Hands are hands if you look at them. The actions hands are capable of doing and undoing are what make hands important.
My grandfather’s hands are special. They have given me more than I ever could ask for and perhaps more than I deserved. His hands were used to nurture me, take care of me when I was sick and, rarely, make sure I was behaving like I had to. To be honest, his hands make the best cooking I have ever had. I love to stay in my grandparents’ house, and one of the main reasons is because of my grandfather’s cooking. For breakfast he makes scrambled eggs with ham, cheese, and fried plantains on it; for lunch he makes rice and beans with chicken parmigiana. For dinner, my favorite, he makes the best lasagna in the whole world.
His hands also serve as something else which I find amusing. He is an artist and he can make beautiful paintings. He specializes in oil paints. As I grew going to his house, one thing that astonished me was all the paintings in the house. His walls are embellished by paintings made by him and his wife. They are panoramic paintings on which you can appreciate the
beauty of nature in a canvas. He can make mountains, trees, flowers, and water combine together to make a beautiful representation of what natures looks like. He has talent, but that is not all. The best part is I luckily ended up with this endowment. Although not the extent of paintings, my art levels actually go beyond stick figures and are decent enough for me to have won some art competitions when I was younger. He taught me the basics of paintings and told me the rest was for me to discover on my own while I grow around nature. He taught me to express myself through art and let my real “me” project on them.
To be honest, I could just go on and on talking about my grandfather’s physical attributes and how he uses them. But I really do not think a person should be measured by their physical abilities, but what they can do with what God gave them. I sometimes tend to get a bit philosophical on my thoughts. I like to think on how and why things happen. This I owe to my grandfather. He tried to teach me to think about everything I was going to do before actually doing it. He also taught me to think of events from the past and how the influence my future.
He also taught me to live to help others. This is my favorite hobby besides baseball. I can listen to people and, somehow, give the advice they are looking for. I have helped so many people with the ways my grandfather advised me to use but still share one rare similarity with him. No matter how many people I am able to help, I cannot find ways to solve my own problems. Like I said, I live and love to help others but somehow cannot help myself. I still think that no matter how bad I am, I will always find a way to help others.
I love my grandfather and would do anything for him. He taught me to be humble. He taught me to help others. He even helped me when I had trouble with my family, which I am grateful for. What I really appreciate about him is that he educated me, and said the most important thing is that I should always be myself and not let others guide my life and my beliefs. I do that for in my own life and help others do the same. It is an honor to call him my grandfather. It is even more of an honor to have his name.
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