Extra Mustard
I’m still totally geeking out about last night’s Little League game. The Firepups faced off against American Sunset, the team that seemed unbeatable at the start of the season.
What a difference a month makes.
These kids were on FIRE. Both sides played well, and it’s clear they are all starting to “get” the game a bit more. Though the nuance of fielding is still a bit rough. Both sides had more than their fair share of “Bill Buckner” moments.
That said, most all the kids made contact with the ball. And the Firepup’s catcher, a young boy named Andrew, pulled a classic “rip off the mask to catch the foul ball behind home plate” play. The stadium erupted on both sides. It was instant replay worthy.
At the end of it all, Firepups walked away with the 5-1 win. Not only their first win, but American Sunset’s first loss. Drama doesn’t get much better than this.
And the beauty of Little League at this age is that after all was said and done, and the “good game” hand slaps were shared, both sides settled in for hot dogs at the concession stand.
They just had fun.
But not at the expense of not trying.
So often in kid’s sports these days you see two extremes:
Anti-competition or Anti-joy.
1) The “anti-competition” plays out with the “it doesn’t matter if you win or lose” mentality filtering through to mean “don’t try” and it’s OK if you don’t try because everyone gets to play an equal amount of time and we’re not keeping score anyway so who cares.
2) The “anti-joy” plays out with the “winning is everything” parents screaming from the sidelines at their kids with every bobble or mistake that is made.
This was the perfect middle ground. Performance and attitude matter. Winning is fun, but it’s not everything. After all, it doesn’t mean much if you don’t lose once in a while. And at the end of the day, we’re all going to play at recess tomorrow together so it’s all good…have a hot dog and don’t worry about that mustard stain.
I think us grownups could learn a great deal from these kids. Giving it their all but not sweating it if “their all” just doesn’t deliver them the win that day. After all, there’s always tomorrow. Better yet, there’s always a hot dog with extra mustard.
