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17. ..... The Sportsmanship Ideal

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The Sportsmanship Ideal
By Tony Scoglio
A number of students have asked my opinion of the recent baseball drug scandals. Let me answer that this way; Henry Reed in his book On Mysteries of the Mind, said of Sportsmanship:
"It is an ideal that has a long and honorable tradition. It is expressed in the attitude "It doesn't matter whether you win or lose, but how you play the game." In recent years, professional sports, and to some extent school athletics, have made a mockery of this ideal. The slogan has become "the bottom line is that winning is everything."
The attitude expressing good sportsmanship contains an apparent contradiction that is sometimes too hard for the pressures of modern life to endure. Good sportsmanship can put you between a rock and a hard place. It's hard to be a good sport when so much is riding on winning. Not everyone can bear the strain.

Nailing yourself to the cross of contradictions, to playing your very best while not being concerned with the game's outcome, initiates you to the transcendent value of sportsmanship. You discover an extra dimension of genius in true creative play. Focusing on the process of the game rather than the outcome, you are free to focus only on the immediate moment rather than cluttering your mind with the anticipated consequences of winning or losing."
I agree with everything Henry said, but lets face it, when we are talking about professional sports and the millions of dollars these guys get paid, to play a game, we are no longer talking about sportsmanship, we're talking gamesmanship. "Gamesmanship is defined as the dubious (although not technically legal) methods to win a game. As opposed to sportsmanship, it may be inferred that the term derives from playing for the game (to win at any cost) as opposed to playing for sport."(Wikipedia) Other more appropriate terms would be; "upmanship, one-upmanship" or how about, it's-not-really-cheating-as-long-as-I-don't-get-caughtmanship. It's a little like the philosophical riddle, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" It's a sad commentary, but apparently not as long as no one finds out.
For information about instruction contact:
Tony Scoglio
Professional Instructor & Program coordinator
Direct line: (708) 990-9000, Email: tscoglio@gmail.com
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STAR SPANGLE BANNER LYRICS

O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

STAR SPANGLE BANNER POEM

STAR SPANGLE BANNER POEM
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O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
.
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
.
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation.
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave![12]
.
.
In indignation over the start of the Civil War, Oliver Wendell Holmes[13] added a fifth stanza to the song in 1861 which appeared in songbooks of the era.[14]
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When our land is illumined with liberty's smile,
If a foe from within strikes a blow at her glory,
Down, down with the traitor that tries to defile
The flag of the stars, and the page of her story!
By the millions unchained,
Who their birthright have gained
We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,
While the land of the free is the home of the brave.
.
[edit] Alternative lyrics In a version hand-written by Francis Scott Key in 1840, the third line reads "Whose bright stars and broad stripes, through the clouds of the fight,".[15]