Losing a Game, Winning at Life

This is a story about why I love sports. It's a story about the simple nobility and unaffected selflessness of genuine sportsmanship. I've been thinking about this incident from a variety of different angles, discussing it with friends and fellow sports fans, ever since I first heard about it from the amazing Joan Kelly. Here's the coverage from ESPN:

None of us can know what we would do in the same situation; but we do know that what Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace chose to do was heroic in a manner that few sports achievements can touch. Their spontaneous act of profound decency elevated the atmosphere in their own small corner of the world and propelled their names into a rarefied circle of athletes whose will to win is surpassed only by their humanity.

Comments

[Joan Kelly]

Kai, thank you for the kind words, and the great clip. In the words of my cat Hercules as I imagine him speaking in my mind, I have affection at you.

[Kai]

Hehe, thank you Joan and Hercules. I thought ESPN did a nice job with their piece and provided a few additional pieces of info. I liked finding out that Mallory Holtman, who seems to have initiated the whole carrying thing, is the all-time conference homerun leader; she's a slugger herself and she knows that fair's fair and when someone hits it over the fence it's a homer, regardless of technicalities. It's pretty amazing that a small local sports story like this can blow up into the national media; who knows how many people have been moved and inspired by that simple act, and how many young athletes who watch SportsCenter learned something about how to play ball the right way.

[Carmen D.]

*sniffs* *dabs eyes* Thanks for this great post. It reminds me of the power we can all tap into when we choose humanity and reject the label of "opponent."

[Kai]

Thanks, Carmen. And yeah, "opponent" is a valid label within the game but our humanity connects us above and beyond the game. Indeed I'd say that the game itself, with its adversarial structure, is ultimately merely a vehicle for pushing ourselves and elevating our humanity.