Читать книгу Rage. The Legend of "Baseball Bill" Denehy онлайн

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Winning is the most controversial word used in youth sports. Are young players supposed to have fun playing the game, or are they there to win?

Go to any Little League game and ask the parents that question; you will automatically start an argument that may well break out into a fistfight. That’s how strongly each side feels about the issue. The parents of the less talented players always opt for fun. The parents of the best players always opt for winning. My dad made it clear that the Denehys were there to win.

My dad and his brother used to reward me for winning. If I won, Uncle Amos would give me five bucks or my father would buy me a hamburger or a chocolate milk shake. Or maybe he’d say I didn’t have to mow the lawn that week.

If we lost, the story was “Losers get nothing.” The tone was soft, but what stuck in my adolescent brain was that winners were good and losers were bad. There was never a time, in any sport that I played, where playing fair and square was a consideration.

In one game I was playing catcher and a batter named Paul LaBello hit a home run to beat us. My first thought was that our pitcher fucked up, that though I had given him a target inside, he had thrown it right down the middle and had lost the game for us.