When Right is Right

When my grandson was nine years old he spent the summer playing on a couple youth baseball teams. He loved the game and he loved being around the other kids. Winning and losing wasn’t a life or death thing to him. One night in the middle of the season he proved it.

            His team was ahead on the scoreboard entering the final inning and Tyler was playing second base. With one out and a runner on first base, the batter hit a ground ball directly at Tyler who fielded it cleanly, tagged the runner as he passed by, and threw on to first base to complete the double play. Game over, right?

            Not so fast. As the crowd and his teammates cheered Tyler’s play and the win, Tyler ran over to the pitcher (who was the opposing team’s coach) and told him, “I missed the tag”.

            I can only imagine the shock of that coach at Tyler’s words and the urgency with which he spoke them. That coach then told the other umpires and coaches what Tyler had said. Decision reversed. The game wasn’t over.

            The teams went back on the field and the game resumed. The next player struck out anyway so it didn’t matter in terms of the final score.

            But it did matter, especially to Tyler.

            When asked why he admitted the missed tag Tyler simply replied, “I just wouldn’t be able to live with that regret the rest of my life.”

            From the “mouth of babes”, right? Would a big league player, with the game on the line, being paid millions to make that tag, be willing to admit he missed it and give the other team an opportunity to win the game? I would like to think so, but my gut and the nightly news tell me otherwise.

            Would it happen at the college level or even the High School level?

            I’ve watched a lot of junior sporting events. I’ve seen the best and the worst that sport brings out in people. I’ve seen parents and coaches push the “winning is everything” attitude on kids from T-ball on up. I’ve seen what it has done to the attitudes and the integrity of the kids. I’ve seen the ruination it has brought to sports. I truly regret whatever part I played in fostering it.

            In all those years, and in all those games, I don’t recall a player or coach ever disputing, or insist on reversing, a bad call made in their favor. If you can get away with it you do. Period. It’s about winning.

            I don’t know if Tyler would have thought differently about his decision if he had considered the possibility that his team could lose the game, but I would like to think it wouldn’t have mattered.

            In the moment of decision he went with integrity. He embraced sportsmanship. He went with what was right. He acted in a quick and decisive way to right a wrong.

            If only more of us “grown ups” would follow his example.

 

 

 

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