Posted on 04/03/2009 6:52:41 AM PDT by Renfield
Actually there’s no such thing as “running up the score”.
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Of course there is such a thing as running up the score. A Big East coach was accused of it recently. He was waiting for the opposing coach (Patino of Louisville) to send him a signal and start putting in subs. But since Patino didn’t do it the coach (I think it was the Notre Dame coach) continued rightly with his starting five. Certainly he was not to blame there and Patino agreed.
Coaches expect players to try and score but they do give them instructions which make it difficult. In football a coach will run the same play up the middle encouraging the opposing coach to put 9, 10 or 11 guys up front to keep them from making yardage and eat up the clock. Of course the opposing coach must be careful. A guy like Paterno would run two of those plays and then throw an 89 yrd bomb.
In soccer, teams that are ahead by several goals put in defensive players to keep the losing team from scoring but also to keep their own team from scoring.
It use to be if you were the coach of a team that ran up the score you would have been condemned by the media and the fans. That was true until around the 1970’s when the Miami Hurricanes did it on a regular basis. That’s about the same time sportsmanship in sports died.
If you are a high school Coach and find your team matched against a team that is obviously FAAAAAR below the skill level of your team, what "honor" is there in proving the obvious for 100 points in order to humiliate your opponent 100 - 0?
It is like the 150 pound 10th Grade schoolyard bully beating the cr@p out of the 95 pound 7th Grader just to pump up his own fragile ego.
What "honor" is there in that?
"Wanna see me punch the 7th Grader? Wanna see it again? Wanna see it again? Wanna see it again? Wanna see it again? Wanna see it again? Wanna see it again? Wanna see it again? Wanna see it again? Wanna see it again? Wanna see it again? Wanna see it again? Wanna see it again? Wanna see it again?"
What "honor" is there in such cowardice?
The baseball Coach knew there was no honor in such a cowardly farce. That is why he honorably declined to accept a forfeit win for the second game. The baseball Coach did not need to dishonorably puff up his fragile ego by repeatedly beating the cr@p out of the sports equivalent of a 95 pound 7th Grader.
Such honorable conduct used to be called "Sportsmanship".
The basketball Coach shamed himself and he shamed the school as he represented the school. The girls on the team were young, immature, inexperienced and "were just following orders" from an adult that should have acted his age. At least they have an excuse for a display of sportsmanship that was lower than whale scat at the bottom of the ocean.
Once upon a time in America, sportsmen knew that deliberately running up the score to humiliate your opponent was low class and dishonorable.
Maybe those days are long gone.
Doc, if your hospital ever issues a statement to the press calling you “shameful” for saving an excessive number of lives, I know you will not worry much about publicly contradicting them, and losing your now suddenly worthless job.
Saving a life usually has an intrinsic value. "Scorng a point", in sports or intellectually, may have either a positive or a negative value depending on the circumstances.
Medicine is not a game like basketball, but it can be made into a game.
Each specialist is better at his field than others whose expertise lies somewhere else. That is a given.
During Grand Rounds or at a teaching conference it is very easy for a certain specialist to ask another physician specialty questions that the other physician does not know and make him look ignorant in public, ........ again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.
Okay .... So the orthopaedic surgeon knows squat about the proper management of an ectopic pregnancy and he does not know a quantatative beta hCG level from an intracranial bleed.
How many times do you have to try to make him look ignorant in public to show how brilliant you are before you figure out that you are actually making a fool and an ass out of yourself?
Such a display does not enhance your professional reputation.
Such a dishonorable display drags your professional reputation through the mud.
“Scorng a point”, in sports ... may have either a positive or a negative value depending on the circumstances.”
It’s OK to let up on the other team if your team is winning easily, but it is not required. Playing by the rules is required. To hell with politically-correct liberalism that is poisoning our formerly great nation!
On October 7th 1916, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland College at football 222-0. Earlier that year Cumberland had beaten Georgia Tech at baseball 22-0, and Tech was in a mood for revenge at their better sport.
Was the Georgia Tech coach, a cultured Ivy League law school graduate, denounced and then fired for his psychological brutality? No, actually instead he was made a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, and the most famous football award was named after him. The coach’s name was John Heisman.
It’s OK to let up on the other team if your team is winning easily, but it is not required. Playing by the rules is required. To hell with politically-correct liberalism that is poisoning our formerly great nation!
Having a healthy and strong 25 year old man give up his bus seat to a 75 year old lady is not "required". Sportsmanship is not "required".
Both are values that were once considered traditional American values. You either believe in values or you don't. Values are not "required".
Is Good Sportsmanship a Thing of the Past?
On October 7th 1916, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland College at football 222-0. Earlier that year Cumberland had beaten Georgia Tech at baseball 22-0, and Tech was in a mood for revenge at their better sport.
So both teams showed an utter lack of class by beating up the weakling to a pulp. How does that bring "honor" to either one of them?
When I was in third grade, back when JFK was still in the White House, a bigger neighborhood kid got the better of me in a fight. In frustration, on my way back home, I punched his five year old little brother in the stomach. Our Dads, who had been friends since childhood, laid down the law.
What I did, my father told me, was cowardly. I still remember that lesson.
In traditional American values, deliberately beating up on the weak has always marked you as cowardly.
Even in prison "codes of honor", a murderer that kills another man that was considered his equal enjoys the highest respect while rapists and child molestors that preyed on the weak must be kept segregated from the rest of the prison population so that the other prisoners won't kill them.
The basketball team that Coach Grimes intentionally humiliated with a full court press 100 - 0 score HAD NOT WON A SINGLE GAME IN FOUR YEARS.
Coach Grimes showed the same level of immaturity that I had when, as a third grader, I punched a much weaker 5 year old in the stomach so I could feel better about myself.
Was the Georgia Tech coach, a cultured Ivy League law school graduate, denounced and then fired for his psychological brutality? No, actually instead he was made a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, and the most famous football award was named after him. The coach’s name was John Heisman.
So, John Heisman once had an "I once punched a five year old in the stomach" episode.
That does not enhance his reputation.
And, once again, Coach Grimes was not fired for "psychological brutality".
He was fired for his subsequent insubordination.
“Having a healthy and strong 25 year old man give up his bus seat to a 75 year old lady is not “required”.”
Anything wrong with a 25 year old woman giving up her seat to a 75 year old man? I’ve never seen it, but I suppose it must have happened, somewhere, sometime.
The only time anyone ever gave me a seat on a public conveyance is when I was 16, and I fainted from an acute stomach upset. I regained consciousness seated, with a pretty nurse looking at me with concern. I recall smiling at that point in time.
I have no objection if you politically-correct liberals want to introduce a “mercy” rule in basketball, like they have in Little League Baseball. Then all participants can follow the rules, slightly more secure in the knowledge they won’t be called nasty names by politically-correct liberals who love to invent rules after the fact.
This seems similar to me to the politically-correct liberal mentality that criticizes the Israelis because they kill too many terrorists without incurring enough casualties. Yes, 100-0 is a very good score in war also.
As for Coach Grimes, once your employer publicly calls you and your players nasty names, you have a choice. You can be a man or a craven slave. The coach knew exactly what he was doing when he was “insubordinate”, and he has my respect. As the coach said:
“In response to the statement posted on The Covenant School Website, I respectfully disagree with the apology, especially the notion that the Covenant School girls basketball team should feel “embarrassed” or “ashamed”. We played the game as it was meant to be played and would not intentionally run up the score on any opponent. Although a wide-margin victory is never evidence of compassion, my girls played with honor and integrity and showed respect to Dallas Academy. We honor God, ourselves, and our families when we step on the court to compete. I do not wish to forfeit the game. What kind of example does it set for our children? Do we really want to punish Covenant School girls? Does forfeiting really help Dallas Academy girls? We experienced a blowout almost 4 years ago and it was painful, but it made us who we are today. I believe in the lessons that sports teach us. Competition builds character, and teaches us to value selflessness, hard work, and perseverance. As a coach, I have instilled in my girls these values. So if I lose my job over these statements, I will walk away with my integrity.”
“Sincerely,
Micah Grimes”
http://www.flightbasketball.com/100-0-Texas-Game-Response-From-Coach.html
Well done coach. If anyone wants their child to learn basketball really well, you can reach the coach at his business, mgrimes@flightbasketball.com ; I suspect they are doing quite well after all of the free publicity.
As for those poor “victims” at Cumberland College, they have hired a historian to preserve the memory of their historic rout at the hands of John Heisman’s men:
http://www2.cumberland.edu/about/gotc/gamestory.html
And Cumberland still plays football!
Anything wrong with a 25 year old woman giving up her seat to a 75 year old man? I’ve never seen it,
Maybe you were brought up in the wrong part of the country or in the wrong part of town. I have seen it. It called "good manners".
I have no objection if you politically-correct liberals want to introduce a “mercy” rule in basketball, like they have in Little League Baseball.
Since when did the good ole-fashioned, traditional American value of good sportmansip make you a "politically-correct liberal"?
As I said before, good sportsmanship is a value just like respect for your elders or respect for the Flag or not farting at the dinner table are values. You either have a value or you don't. You have made it perfectly clear that, in regards to sportsmanship, you don't have that value. Your position in regards to farting at the diner table has yet to be stated.
This seems similar to me to the politically-correct liberal mentality that criticizes the Israelis because they kill too many terrorists without incurring enough casualties. Yes, 100-0 is a very good score in war also.
You are now actually comparing war against Islamist-fanatics terrorists to a basketball game against the teen-aged daughters of the fellow citizens of a local American community. Do you realize that you are now making quite a fool of yourself?
As for Coach Grimes, once your employer publicly calls you and your players nasty names, you have a choice. You can be a man or a craven slave. The coach knew exactly what he was doing when he was “insubordinate”, and he has my respect. As the coach said: ..... "We played the game as it was meant to be played and would not intentionally run up the score on any opponent."
By his very statement, Coach Grimes proved to be both a liar and a coward that did not even have the courage to admit, "Yeah, I deliberately ran up the score because I wanted to hit 100."
After the one hundredth point was scored, Grimes called off the offense and, for the last several minutes of the game, his team did not score a SINGLE additional point.
“Upon the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that, upon other fields, on other days, will bear the fruits of victory.”
Douglas MacArthur
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