Posted on 11/04/2021 8:24:40 AM PDT by Babwa
The World Series and Sportsmanship.
My family has lived in Atlanta since 1984. As an Australian who grew up playing and following cricket, baseball was not on my radar until 1991 when the Braves soared from worst to first. Since then, I have been a fan.
As the Braves clinched the series, becoming world champions for the first time in 26 years, my family and I cheered enthusiastically. But as I watched the post game celebrations and interviews, an uneasy feeling struck me. There were no on-field interactions between the Braves and Astro players. No handshakes. No congratulations. No Commiserations.
Not one member of the Braves, from owners to managers to players, even mentioned the Astros. The losing team was just mercilessly left to lick their wounds on their own.
What happened to good sportsmanship? Especially in the World Series.
Shouldn’t there be an official protocol at the end of a game for both sides to greet each other? An instructive demonstration of grace and empathy, that the “war” is now over and that former “enemies” are now peacefully coexisting. What a wonderful teaching moment that would be for all of us, especially for our youth, to see that when the competition is over former opponents can be friendly and supportive.
Baseball is filled with so many unique traditions. This one may need to be reevaluated.
Someone with the authority, please do something to upgrade the human decency dimension of Americas favorite pastime.
Rabbi Yossi New, Director of Chabad of Georgia, Atlanta, GA
Baseball teams don’t mingle after games the way football players do. The winning team clusters on the field, and the losing team heads quietly for the dugout.
As a longtime competitor, I do not shake hands with the enemy!
The Braves were the enemies of the Astros. There can be no camaraderie, period.
Hockey civilized?
They might knock your teeth out but they will help you hunt for them later.
You can not get more civilized then that.
“I don’t feel any sense of connection with professional athletes.”
Don’t feel bad, they have no connection with you either, just your money. Sport is nothing but money. MLB takes youth from different countries, trains them to play the game, under pays them considering their counterparts, over commercializes their names, then trades them when they can’t supply enough revenue to cover their contracts or want more money to another team so they can start all over with their names being connected as the next Mays, Clemente, Aaron or Ruth. (They got rid of Bonds)
Trust me, it is a business. And it isn’t just MLB. The NFL and NBA solicit thugs to play their game and sell it that way protecting the players to do what they have to to keep up the shams by changing rules to allow things that should never be on a court or field.
The only sport that hasn’t changed to promote the violence that sells is Ice Hockey. They started with goons and never looked back.
wy69
Rugby teams shake hands at the end of every match. I’ve watched pro games where the two teams are battling to the very last play, but when the game ends, they catch their breaths and shake hands with each other. Now for many it’s a perfunctory hand shake but for others it appears to be genuine enthusiasm for a game well played.
The fear is at psychotic levels.
I don’t like team sports, but an exciting baseball game is the exception. I was rooting for the Braves. Since I don’t watch often, I had no clue what the protocol is. Thanks for clarification.
They don’t do that in baseball.
This is the World Series not T ball FCOL.
Had St. Louis won, they might have seen it as a good luck sign and tried to follow up the year after.
Balkanization extends into all aspects of life in America under communism...
Simply a control technique used by tyrants...
OY!
Covid it is....
It ain’t a beer softball league. Millions of dollars and a lot of prode at stake.
Ha, ha. Gotcha. I really didn’t know that.
"In 2021, the Astros won the American League West title for the fourth time in five seasons while winning 95 games. Then, in the 2021 American League Championship Series, they beat the Boston Red Sox in six games to go to their third World Series in five seasons, a pennant win-rate not seen in nearly a decade."
Found it too.
The entire place went wild cheering.
They then lined up and shook hands.
Most Junior Hockey players are quite nice. Don't know about the pro guys. We can not afford the tickets.
In cricket, "innings" (with an "S") is both singular and plural. And there are only two innings in a game.
Cricket starts with two men on base, and (in a full-blown test match) it ends when the batting team has exhausted its lineup. At that point there's only one batsman who hasn't been "put out" so there is no second batsman eligible to join him on the pitch. And two batsmen are required for regulation play.
In cricket, the bowler can (but doesn't have to) bounce the ball off the ground in his delivery to the batsman.
In cricket, there are no balls and strikes, per se, and a batsman can't strike out or take a walk. He continues to bat until he is put out, regardless how many pitches that takes. Batsmen sometimes score hundreds of runs in a single at bat, 100 runs being called "a century," 200 a "double-century," etc. The record for "professional" (first-class) cricket is 501 runs.
Now you know why games could last a month.
In cricket, you can run even if you don't hit the ball (even when it isn't a dropped 3rd strike).
In cricket, you don't have to run, even if you hit the ball.
In baseball, the batter gets a free base if he's struck by a pitched ball. In cricket, if the bowler hits the batsman, ... well, the batsman should have been standing some bloody where else.
In cricket, there are no "foul balls." Batsmen can and will hit the ball backwards. Backwards and sideways is fair territory.
In baseball, the role of the batter is offensive. He comes to the plate to score runs. In cricket, the role of the batsman is defensive. His objective is to protect his wicket (and provided he is successful, the runs of consequence will follow).
Cricket from the start was a game for the ruling classes because a full test match might take a month to play out. Those not of the leisure class could ill afford to take so much time off from work.
Going all the way back to before they added the "ball" to the game called "base," it always has been played by roughnecks and ragamuffins. And now add "thugs" to the list.
The rabbi needs to stick with writing Takkanah.
Lol. Nice.
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