Get the feedApathy or good sportsmanship?
Wednesday, Oct 07th 2009
David, your post reminds me of an exchange I had with a parent assistant during my career as a little league baseball coach in New York. (As an aside, those were good times that came and went all too quickly; I'm too young to be a retired little league coach already.) In any case, probably sensing the fact that I had every intention of coaching these young, impressionable minds in the art of winning baseball games, he said that it doesn't matter whether you win or lose, it's whether you are a good sport.
My response was that the concept of being a good sport has no meaning unless you really care about who wins the game. If you are gracious in defeat after losing a game you don't care about, you're not being a good sport, you're just being apathetic. Good sportsmanship demands a vested interest in the outcome of the contest. Only then can you be truly gracious in victory or defeat.
John Wunderli
John Wunderli is a Harvard trained litigator, retired little league baseball coach, and supporter of all University of Utah Athletic teams.
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