The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

Sports

How To Lose

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The soccer season has but one more game left in it.

One more game and I regain some time that I had to allocate to coaching. For those who care that means that I won’t have to devote time during the week running practices or thinking about who should play what position. And of course it also means that one day each weekend will not be committed to coaching the game.

I’ll miss some of this. I’ll miss watching the boys develop new friendships and the skills that they have picked up because of their involvement.

If you have ever wondered how to make the Shmata Queen roll her eyes spend a few minutes trying to talk to her about sports. If you really want to make her crazy tell her that you can’t do something because you must be home to see the game. I can’t say that I don’t see her point. When you’re time is really limited it is really hard to figure out how to best allocate your attention.

But when it comes to children’s sports I have made the crazy queen admit on more than one occasion that I am right. Now if you don’t think that this is an accomplishment you have never sparred with her majesty. Fortunately I have always been skilled at making her think that she is the boss, but that is a topic for a different day.

Youth sports provide your children with a number of benefits. It takes them outdoors and away from the television, computer, XBox, whatever. It helps to teach them how to be a part of a team. Now I have to admit that I share the Shmata Queen’s distaste for group projects. More often than not the workload is not shared evenly.

But I also believe that participating in team sports helps to counter some of that. It helps to teach you how to work as a part of team and how to understand that everyone can have a valuable role to play.

And from an entirely different perspective it provides a great place to teach children how to lose. Winning is easy. Anyone can win, but losing is not so easy. Learning how to lose is a good way to learn how to deal with adversity. It is a way to help develop coping skills and that is a critical part of raising a healthy child.

As a coach and a parent I have been given the pleasure of working with children who have never lost. It hasn’t been because they are the Babe Ruth or Tiger Woods of their sport. It is because their parents have refused to let them fail. It is a real mistake. Because there comes a point in time in which mom/dad can’t protect them from life and then what happens.

Let me clarify something about my thoughts about losing. There is a balance. I don’t want the child’s ego to be crushed either. Balance, now that really is the hardest part of life, but that is a separate post altogether.

I suppose that I should take a look at a previous post I wrote called Teaching Children To Lose Gracefully and see if my feelings have changed at all.

Thanks For Nothing NBC

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I don’t know about you but I enjoy following The Olympics, always have. I like watching the various events and learning little bits and pieces about the athletes. You can depend upon the networks to do a couple of profiles that are really interesting.

And you can also depend upon the networks to do something really dumb. In their infinite wisdom they’ll hit a bulls eye in the boneheaded move category.

This year NBC has repeated some of the mistakes of the past. There is one in particular that chaps my hide. The suits have this nasty habit of showing events hours after the results have been posted on the Net. Look, I understand that Bejing is 15 hours ahead and that they are trying to do the best they can to help sell advertising by trying to push games into primetime.

That was fine when you hadn’t any access to the Net. When the best you could do was a string a couple of tomato cans together no one knew what was going on across the world and you could get away with tape delay.

But those monkeys don’t seem to care that there are millions of people who enjoy watching the events live. I want to savor the excitement of watching Michael Phelps race without knowing in advance that he is going to crush the competition. I want to wonder what is going to happen in gymnastics and ponder the possibilities.

Too bad for Old Jack. NBC doesn’t give a rat’s ass about that. They’ll show us Wednesday’s events on Thursday and then follow up by showing Thursday on Friday. A perverse Groundhog Day cycle.

Thanks for nothing NBC.

2008 MLB All-Star Game

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Just finished watching the hated A.L. defeat the N.L. again. 15 innings later and it is over. Feh. Of course I could have live blogged the game but didn’t feel like it.

The big kid hung out for a large portion of it, but eventually sleep called and he answered. Carried him to bed and marveled at how tall he has gotten. I’ll blink and he’ll be my size.

I remember being his age like it was yesterday. Girls were at best to be tolerated, I never did believe that I’d ever be interested in them. Ok, so I was really wrong about that. But I was absolutely correct about Reggie Jackson in the ’78 series. He should have been out.

And now it is time to post about other things.

Baseball- The WSJ Balks

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The Journal has a story called The Decline of the National League that really misses the mark. The writer makes the case that the National League is inferior to the American League and cites a number of stats that support that.

What bothers me about this piece is that it really falls flat. The writer spends a good amount of time explaining why he believes his assertion to be true and then finishes off with an acknowledgment that the game is cyclical.

Coincidentally I had a similar conversation with a rabid Sox fan who tried to convince me that the A.L. was so far superior that the N.L. should just give up. I suppose that this is one time where age serves me well. At 39 I remember well the dominance of the N.L.

Anyway, I’ll share a few pieces of the article with you.

“They play the same game. They pick from the same pool of players. For some reason, though, they don’t get the same results.

By just about every measure, the 16 teams in Major League Baseball’s National League are inferior to the 14 in the American League. The AL has won 11 of the last 16 World Series, including three of the last four. The annual All-Star Game, to be played Tuesday, has practically become a farce: Not counting a 2002 tie, the AL has won 10 straight.

Since baseball began interleague play in 1997 — where teams from the two leagues play a handful of regular-season games against each other — the AL is increasingly dominating. This year has been the second-most lopsided ever, with the AL winning 59% as of Thursday afternoon.

The plight of the NL seems rooted in a chain of events that began in 1973 when the AL adopted the designated-hitter rule — which allows for the pitchers to be replaced in the batting order by a full-time hitter who doesn’t play in the field. The disparity was spurred by new ballpark construction; an unprecedented crop of young power hitters who, for various reasons, almost all fell to the AL; a series of disastrous trades and free-agent signings by NL teams; and a tradition of innovation in the AL that began in the mid-1990s with the Oakland A’s.”

I’ll spare you my comments about how why I dislike the D.H. and instead share one more excerpt from the article.

“To be fair, baseball is cyclical. From 1963 to 1982, the NL won 19 of 20 All-Star Games and 12 of 20 World Series titles. John Schuerholz, president of the NL’s Atlanta Braves, says there’s no “magic dust” that gives the AL greater scouting intelligence. But for now, the record is not pretty. “I admit to that,” he says.”

Like I said, the article doesn’t really go anywhere. You start out with this song and dance about the decline of the N.L. and then finish with a comment about how the same thing happened to the A.L.

Whoops.

The Lakers Crash and Burn

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Well the freaking Celtics destroyed the Lakers. It reminds me a bit of ’84, but back then the boys in purple and gold did a better job than the current edition.

Funny thing, a few of the ’84 Celtics have made their way into positions as general managers. Why is that funny? Because they managed to execute some personnel moves that only benefited the Celtics and did nothing for the other team.

More specifically, former Celtic Kevin McHale just happens to be the G.M of the Timberwolves, you know the team that sent Kevin Garnett to the Celtics for nothing. Let’s take a look at the result of that trade.

Minnesota lost their best player and finished the year with a record of 22-60 as opposed to the Celtics who rolled to a record of 66-16.

Garnett made a huge difference to that team, as did the addition of Ray Allen. Remember that last season the Celtics had a record of 24-58.

Anyway, they played harder, they played with more desire and more consistency than the Lakers. Bottom line, they deserved it more. I have to give them credit.

For Laker fans the good news is that we got back to the championship sooner than we expected. It is a young team that is awaiting the return of Andrew Bynum. If all goes well he’ll come back healthy and we’ll see benefits from that and the experience gained from this year.

For now, it is over until November.

Sometimes the Bull Wins

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“Matador Jose Tomas had a lucky escape yesterday when he was gored not once, but TWICE during a bullfight in Madrid.

The 32-year-old, who is widely considered one of the best bullfighters of all time, was competing at the Las Ventas bullring in the Spanish capital when he sustained his injuries.

Tomas, who received medical treatment at the scene, sustained one groin injury that looked exceptionally painful.”

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