Sports Are About Much More Than Winning

Pat Lackey has an exceptional post about being the joys of rooting for a team that’s lost for the better part of two decades. And that’s not sarcasm:

Life is not static. In my lab, and I suspect in most workplaces everywhere, there’s an old saying that’s often repeated. “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.” This is true. Life is about adapting to jobs, to people, to locations, to innumerable other circumstances. And yet amid this sea of constant change, everyone looks for anchors. A variable cannot be defined without a constant, and so we all look for (and find) our constants in different places; in family, in friends, in a place to call home, and yes, in sports. [...]The common perception is that sports are all about winning. That if your team didn’t win, you had a bad year and that there’s nothing positive to be taken from it. I think that’s hopelessly misguided. Sports are about everything that happens before your team wins, which is what gives value to the championship when it’s celebrated.

As an Orioles/Nationals fan (yes, I like to double up on my inifinite sadness), Lacky’s words were particuarlly inspiring. Odds are your team hasn’t won a World Series in awhile either. So go check out the entire post and be reminded of why you put yourself through this.