An Honest Effort

While watching Rep. Jamie Raskin sum up his impeachment case for conviction, I was reminded of a recent conversation with my daughter. Whatever we were talking about, it might have been VCU basketball, it got me to explaining my philosophy to do with a rule about honest efforts I learned from my grandfather as a boy: Always try hard, always give your best effort when playing sports.

Katey is good at pretending to be interested in hearing my old stories about playing sports. Our unspoken understanding is that it better be the brief version. So, to cut to the chase, I told her my grandfather taught me it was shameful to withhold one's best effort during any athletic contest, especially team sports, due to disappointment or anything else. He told me to never quit, no matter how lopsided the score. Moreover, it is one's duty to the game to play it properly.

Naturally, when he took me to a Richmond V's baseball game at Parker Field, when I was little, we always stayed through the last out, no matter the score. He explained: "You never know when you'll see something new." 

Eventually, as it was with everything to do with how to carry oneself properly, while playing sports, I adopted his hard-edged rules about honor (even if following them was sometimes beyond my reach). Therefore, it's at least partially his fault I became so stubborn about going all out -- all the time -- until the game is over. Sometimes my teammates and or opponents found it to be annoying. 

For instance, in basketball, on defense I tended to pick up the man I was guarding at half-court and stay on him, closely, no matter where he went ... also maybe a little hand-checking or a shove when emphasizing the setting of a pick. Some guys don't like that stuff, especially in pickup games. I did it anyway. In softball, in taking an extra base, I happily took out infielders planted in my way, by sliding into their feet to upend them. With Frisbee-golf putts, I didn't much believe in laying up to play it safe.

However, trying your best doesn't mean winning is the only point. As a college basketball coach I interviewed years ago told me -- "Winning is not the goal, it's a byproduct of good preparation and a good effort."

Once the game was over, after the initial rush for winning, or feeling of defeat for losing passed, I wasn't usually as pumped up over winning, or deflated over losing, as some of my teammates (Yes, I'm sure there were some exceptions). 

For the most part, for me, once it was over it was over. That's because I loved the process of striving more than I loved winning. Thus, while I always wanted to win, mostly I was more of a process guy than a results guy. Like Jamie Raskin did, I wanted to make a worthy play in a clutch moment.    

Raskin gave it his all. It was plenty. He should win, but it's like when he got into the game the score was already way in favor of his opposition; something like a mop-up relief pitcher who comes in from the pen in the bottom of the seventh inning with two outs, the bases loaded and his side down, 12-to-2. 

Nonetheless, Raskin and his fellow managers went all out. There was no lack of striving. I'm proud of their effort and Raskin's leadership, in particular. And even if some craven Republican senators weren't paying attention and they even made a show of it, a lot of young people were watching. Some probably saw something new to them -- an honest effort.

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