<Begin Article>: On a playing field in Indianapolis a few weeks ago, Vince Lombardi’s slogan, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” would have been clearly out of place. The junior varsity girls softball team from Roncalli Catholic High was set to play Marshall Community, an inner-city middle school playing its first softball game ever.

After nine Roncalli girls were walked by the Marshall pitcher, the girls realized there is more to sports than crushing the opponent. They probably could have won 100 to 0. Roncalli had not lost a game in over two years but decided to offer to forfeit the game rather than humiliate the Marshall girls.

What happened next? The Roncalli team spent the next two hours teaching the Marshall girls how to get better instead of beaten. Together they practiced batting and fielding, running bases and how to use the equipment the Roncalli girls shared with them. Marshall had come with only two bats, no helmets, no cleats and five balls.

Even after the game, this spirit continued. Roncalli’s J.V. coach, Jeff Taylor, appealed to the parents of his girls for equipment for Marshall—used bats, gloves, helmets and team shirts. Reebok and the Cincinnati Reds also contributed to assist the Marshall girls. Instead of an embarrassing blowout victory for Roncalli, the loss became a win for everyone.

Blessed Pope John XXIII, after whom Roncalli Catholic is named, once remarked that he especially enjoyed being with children because they did not take him to be a pope with fancy robes, but simply an old man. We are sure he looked down with smiles upon the childlike spirit and friendliness of the two softball teams that day.  <End of Article>

Roncalli High Girls Softball

Click Here for an ESPN article about this inspiring team.

Click Here for information about “Sports Leader”, a virtue-based mentoring and motivation program for coaches.

You are probably aware of whats been going on for the last few weeks concerning Mr. James – that is unless you’ve been unconscious during that time. The media speculation concerning his possible relocation to another city and team has dominated all news medium. Forget Deep Water Horizon, Afghan bombers, financial meltdowns, Elena Kagan; the only story that placed a distant second place was the news and hoopla surrounding Lindsay Lohan’s jail sentence for parole violation.

The list of cities that courted and cajoled Mr. James was impressive. Besides Miami there was New York (Knicks & NJ Nets), Chicago (Bulls), Cleveland (Cavs – his previous team). It has been rumored that Osama bin Ladin offered LBJ 72 virgins if he signed with the Karachi Kavedwellers and Vladimir Putin offered LBJ a ‘Get Out of Siberia Free’ card if he signed with the Moscow Commissars.

But Miami won! And so to all those ‘sour-grapers’ I send a sincere and heartfelt raspberry! This has been a paradigm shifting moment. Even those who don’t follow basketball, will be affected by the arrival to the Magic City of King James. Among the changes to this community that will occur as a result are:

• Miami-Dade County will be renamed James-Wade County.
• Biscayne Blvd will be renamed “LeBron Blvd.”; Flagler Street will be renamed “DWade St.”
• I-95 will be redesignated “J-6″.
• The Florida (soon to be Miami) Marlins will begin all home games with a six-run lead (in honor of James uniform number).
• Likewise, all Miami Dolphin home games will begin with the Dolphins leading 6-0 and will start with the P.A.T.

The Miami Heat are expected to be crowned division champions after the third regular season game; the rest of the teams will forfeit to Miami rather than experience such humiliating losses (they’ll win their first three games by a combined score of 23,000 to 1). The sell-out crowds will be screaming the words of Livan Hernandez, “Eye Loff Jew My Yammy!). There will be daily ticker tape parades for Lebron down Biscayne LeBron Blvd. Charlie Crist is asking what political party Lebron belongs to so that he can switch to that party.

Yep – It’s good to be in Miami… until the Heat lose their first game, then our faith in Lebron will be shaken. Should they lose a second game, there will be great wailing and gnashing of teeth in the streets. If they should ever, ever, EVER, lose a third game, then life will return to pre-Lebron normalcy: the stadiums will be empty, the Heat will be a faded memory and Dade County will return to normal (the county’s motto is: Delivering Xsellance Every Dey).

¡Eye Loff Jew My Yammy!

It is heartbreaking to see Armando Galarraga deprived of a much-deserved place in the record book for such an amazing accomplishment; I hope that he has a long, illustrious hall-of-fame worthy career to offset this unfortunate mistake.

What I found exceptional in light of this travesty was the attitude of both Mr. Galarraga (who showed great restraint and grace) and Mr. Joyce (who almost immediately recognized his error and apologized). The grace shown by both men diffused a potentially ugly situation and displayed a level of sportsmanship that has been missing from professional sports.

Click here to read an article on the lessons to be learned from this.

Also, World Cup fever has stricken the planet; click here to see how Dave Barry is handling the situation and if you’re thinking about swearing at the referee, click here to see how the refs are preparing for the insults that will be hurled at them in different languages.

West Miami Middle School hosted the event and approximately 800 W.M.M.S. students submitted essays; of these, the W.M.M.S. teachers submitted 30 essays for review to the Westchester Optimist Essay committee. The winners were:

1. William Torres ($250 prize)
2. Aurora Vazquezbello ($150 prize), and
3. Jorge Vega ($75 prize).

Also receiving Honorable Mention (and a $25 prize) were:

• Vannessa Torres
• Valeria Fagundo
• Yaretsa Carmenata

The awards were presented during the ”Literacy Night” event at W.M.M.S. and the prize recipients read their award-winning compositions. The event was well attended by parents and students.

The Optimist Club of Westchester wishes to express its thanks and appreciation to Ms. Colleen Del Terzo, W.M.M.S. Principal for hosting the contest and award ceremony. Additional thanks to all the W.M.M.S. teachers and staff who worked with us in promoting this contest and a very special thanks to the W.M.M.S. media specialist, Mrs. Ana Medina Fernandez for her coordinating efforts between the school and the club.

Ana Medina Fernandez (WMMS), Fred Gonzaga (WO), Lourdes Carroll (WO)

The club also sponsored an essay contest at Banyan Elementary; the topic was: My Hero. Winners were selected by the Essay committee and prizes were awarded at the “Book Night” event at Banyan. The winners were:

1. Natalie Espinoza ($150 prize)
2. Juliet Fernandez ($100 prize)
3. Juan Trujillo ($50 prize)

Receiving Honorable Mention (and a $15 prize) were: Nicole Hernandez, Xavier Dodd, Ricardo Colom, and Cesar G.

Thanks to the principal of Banyan Elementary, Ms. Cheri Davis, and to all the teachers and staff at Banyan who donated their time and effort for this worthwhile endeavor.

Finally thanks to the Westchester Optimist essay commitee (Fred Gonzaga, Michelle Rudnick and Mio Serrano) for making all this possible. It is not easy during these hectic times to find people willing to volunteer and to undertake projects of this magnitude. You are all true Optimists and my personal heroes.

Webmaster

(NOTE: The opinions expressed herein are those of the author only and are not to be construed as the opinion or policy statement of the Optimist Club of Westchester).

A week ago Friday, Tiger Woods stood in front of the nation (the world?) and gave a teary eyed, heartfelt, apology to anyone who could listen for his marital indiscretions and his sex addiction. I said ‘could’ rather than ‘would’ because although I purposely tried to avoid watching or hearing the press conference (I couldn’t give two hoots in Gehenna for such public displays of remorsefulness), it has been publicized, analyzed, and commented on so much, that the other day, while sitting in the kitchen, drinking my “mornin’ joe”, I swear that I heard excerpts of that press conference broadcasting through the toaster! Or maybe I was still ‘coming down’ from the previous evening’s acid trip. In any event: ENOUGH ALREADY!!

It is my understanding that his apology was meant for his family and friends, the golfing establishment, his sponsors, and his fans. Being the über-cynical person that I am, I think that this “apology” was intended more to protect (or recover) his fame and earning potential. The only ones who are really owed an apology are his family and, if he abused those relationships in the course of his indiscretions, his friends. Also, the apology should have been give face-to-face with the affected parties in the privacy of their own homes and perhaps, two months ago.

The rest of the intended recipients of said apology are not entitled to an apology because they were not, or should not have been emotionally affected by Mr. Woods’ actions. For instance:

• Professional golf: I find it hard to believe that all the people associated with this sport would feel deceived, distraught, or embarrassed by actions of that sport’s superstar. Can it really be that much of a shock when a person, who is lavished with fame, adulation, and fortune, succumbs to the temptations that it brings? I believe that, if I were in his shoes, I would not be able to resist. It has been suggested that the PGA is suffering because of the attention Tiger Woods attracts to events and tournaments. If the PGA’s existence is so dependent on one person, then it needs to either 1) start grooming replacement attractions or 2)close shop because any sport that depends on only one person doesn’t deserve to exist.
• Sponsors: This is strictly a business arrangement; there is no one to be hurt here except Tiger. Endorsements and promotional contracts were awarded to him because of the profit that sponsors hoped to achieve as a result of Tiger’s popularity. Sponsors now latch on to the opportunity to maintain sales levels and ‘tap-in’ to the perceived moral indignation of the public by dumping Tiger because he ‘doesn’t adhere to the high moral standards that the company stands for’. CACA DEL TORO! I’m certain that if Tiger hit over par in enough tournaments, his ‘highly moral’ sponsors would ‘throw the Tiger to the wolves’ in a New York minute.
• Fans: I saved this one for last because this is the topic that this article is meant to address. It is natural for people to try to emulate those whom we admire and Tiger Woods definitely has a talent and ability worthy of admiration. Once he leaves the golf course however, he is just a man, like any other man, and his exceptionality doesn’t necessarily extend to his personal life. In fact, as with other popular heroes, we generally don’t know much about that person once they leave the stage where they weave their heroic magic. We place sports, entertainment, and political figures on pedestals and tell our children to be like them yet the real ‘heroes’ are to be found much closer to home. Mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers, cousins, grandparents, and close friends: these should be our heroes and heroines. They are the ones who struggle daily to provide and educate our future generations and, in our hearts, we should erect monuments to them. At the same time, we should be mindful that others are looking to see the ‘hero’ in us as well, and act accordingly.

As a boy, my hero was Mickey Mantle (the fact that the number “7” is my favorite number is my testimony to him). In my N.Y. neighborhood, he was every boy’s idol. I didn’t play organized baseball until I moved out of NY but I played stickball every day (and a double-header on Sundays), unless there was snow on the ground, then we played football! Since we didn’t have uniforms, we made our own; usually an old tee shirt. With a laundry marker we would draw the “NY” logo (we definitely didn’t bother to seek the licensing approval of MLB) and obviously the number “7” on the back of the shirt. Everybody had the same shirt! It was as if no other numbers existed. We all wanted to hit, run and catch like “Da Mick”. We didn’t know that he even had a life outside of baseball. I guess we all thought that he slept in his locker until the next day’s game. As I grew older, tales of his ‘off-field’ exploits reached my awareness: Da Mick loved to ‘partay’. And drink. He drank so much that he ended up needing a new liver (see Wikipedia reference) and got one almost immediately, bypassing others who were on the waiting list. His private life was not one to be envied. Now when I think of him, I am reminded of two quotes of his: 1)”If I had known I was going to live this long, I would’ve taken better care of myself” and, 2)”Here’s a role model, don’t be like me”.

Let’s try not to put people on pedestals. We’re all bound to fall; it is part of the human condition. As a result of these falls we learn humility and to seek forgiveness; as a result of our ‘falls’, we also learn to respect and appreciate our place in the grand scheme of the universe.

“…if you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter;

for there will always be greater and lesser persons than yourself.” (Desiderata, by Max Ehrmann) 

If we need heroes, then I suggest we look to a simple carpenter, who so changed the world, that our days are measured in relation to when he appeared.

Dominus vobiscum

“Old Boxing Matches”

While not trying to sound dated, old-fashioned or nostalgic, I found the article highlighted something that I find has been missing from competitive sports, both professional and amateur (see also “Hockey Players get Preferential Treatment“).

Read it and let me know what you think.

Our policy is to publish all comments unless you wish to remain anonymous and comments will be edited only if obscene language is used.

See attached video…

Although the essay is quite lengthy (by internet standards), I think it is very good and well worth the time involved to read it. I highly recommend it. It is also timely given that the movie “The Box” opens this weekend.

Let me know what you think…

Part One: The Impartial Spectator

Part Two: The Surprising Fact of Morality

Part Three: Cosmic Justice

Whatever their name is, they really cook!

Enjoy!