A Losing Streak

It is so hard to stay positive when your team is on a losing streak!  In my family though, we are loyal fans.  We stick by our teams and don’t stray no matter how poorly they are doing.  In the 80’s our NJ Devils were often one of the last place teams in The NHL.  They were even referred to as, “A Micky Mouse Organization,” by Wayne Gretzky, (although he took that comment back a few years later.)  Yet, we still went to game after game to root them on hoping for a winning season and the pay off was great!  Three Stanley Cups later, The Devils are a team to be proud of.

This year our woeful team is The New York Giants.  Ugh, today they lost their fifth game of the season.  With a record of  0-5~ they have had a losing season from the start.  All over the news and internet, there are negative comments about the team and how they are playing.  They went into today’s game down 0-4, but still, my dad, brothers and DJ went off to the game in full Giants regalia with the hopes of a win.  The Giants kept it close…for awhile, but still could not pull off the win.

Losing means, “to be defeated,” and it  is extremely easy to feel negatively about the players and team as the losses pile up.  I am completely guilty of doing this.  I take it personally and complain about the team or players and how I would change things if I were the coach.  Ironic, since I have played very few organized sports in my entire life.

Part of what makes following a particular team is the tradition.  Whether it is hearing their fight songs, dressing in their team colors, or cheering your team on with your family… it keeps us connected and that’s important.

But, as all good sport fans do, we continue to support our teams.  We get discouraged and we get disappointed, but still, we go and we watch and we cheer for our teams.  We all try to stay positive and hope for a win.  There are still 11 football games to play this season.  We could still end with a winning record!  At least we can hope!  Or we could think like DJ, who says, “if we keep on losing and come in last place, at least we will get the first round draft pick!”  Way to think positively DJ.  I need to work on an attitude like that.

Game On!

The 2013-2014 Hockey Season has begun.  My family LOVES hockey and we are huge New Jersey Devils fans.  My dad has had season tickets since the late 1980’s so we have been to hundreds and hundreds of games.  I have written about hockey numerous times in my blog.  The boys go to as many games as possible on weekends.  Tonight is the first Devil’s game of the season but they are playing in Pittsburgh so DJ and I are watching it on television.  I wasn’t sure what to write about tonight and I was trying to tie it to hockey.  Sometimes hockey players get a bad reputation due to all the fighting that occurs in a game so I thought it might be tough to find something.  Then, I came across a really nice story that occurred over the summer and since it is about a very generous random act of kindness towards a stranger, I thought it was appropriate to share!!

http://www.thescore.com/nhl/articles/1248689-duchene-helps-young-girl-with-random-act-of-kindness

Be a Good Sport

I have written about hockey and the fighting once before but I need to reiterate how much the fighting and unruliness bothers me at games.  Don’t get me wrong, it is my absolute favorite sport to watch and to me, there is nothing more exciting than watching live hockey!  Seriously, if they don’t start regulating more, they should just start calling it The UFC instead of The NH.  I don’t go to a hockey game for the fighting but I know there are many fans who go just for that!  No other major league allows fighting like The NHL does.  In most sports, when a brawl does ensue, the referees jump in and pull it apart.  In The NHL, the refs stand back and let them fight it out for awhile before attempting to break it up.  Today’s game, had just one fight.  Lots of shoving and pushing but only one fight that called for penalties on the players.  Not too bad but lately, I am embarrassed to be a fan though.  I have been to games at other arenas and this happens everywhere.  When players on the opposing team are announced before the game, the fans yell out, “you suck”.  When a goal is scored, the fans stand up and cheer to a song, (Gary Glitter’s Rock and Roll Anthem), and all call out “Hey, you suck” as they cheer for their own team yet heckle the opponent.  I cannot remain standing.  I won’t say it and I don’t allow my kids to either, though I know that I can not control what they do when I am not there.  I am uncomfortable being a part of it.  Adults, kids women, men, all around chant it.   The swearing at games amazes me as well.  Today, a man in front of me, was sitting with a young  boy about eight or nine years old.  The referee made a call that this man obviously did not agree with. He stood up, screamed the “f word” and made a gesture that meant the same thing.  All right in front of his kid!  I don’t know how we can change these attitudes.  No one is noticing me, as I sit down, refusing to join in on the cheers and jeers.  My silent protest won’t change it.  I am not going to make a change by myself, there are nearly 20,000 people at a game.  I think about it at every game, but have yet to thought of a solution.  It cannot happen by myself.

Learning how to interact with others in sports whether you win or lose, is an important part of sportsmanship.  This is something we all try to teach our children.  In my Kindergarten, we play lots of math games and interactive games.  They know that when the game is over, they have to shake their opponents hand and say, “good game”.  We can not always be winners, but at least we can learn to be gracious losers.  One thing I always mention to my students’ parents at back to school night, is to play games with their children and let them LOSE!  They are in class with 21 other children and will not be able to win all of the time.

It is not always negativity that I witness at games.  Today in fact, I witnessed a really nice chain of kindness.  A woman was walking down the steps to her seat with her hands filled with food that she had just purchased.  One of the beers, in a plastic bottle, fell off her tray and hit the cement stairs hard.  It exploded like a champagne bottle, soaking the woman sitting to her right.  The woman who dropped it was mortified and stood there not knowing what to do first.  I offered to take the food to her seats for her, as she tried to help the woman now covered in beer.  The woman covered in beer did not get upset, and instead calmed her down and said not to worry because she knew it was an accident.  The woman behind her, grabbed the bottle from the stairs, that was still pouring out and started to help clean up the mess.  As all of this was going on, another fan, got up and got an usher to call for someone to help with the clean up.  Nothing huge.  Just something that proved to me that despite all the negative cheering, booing and name calling, these people still offered to lend a helping hand and do the right thing.  No harsh words for this woman.  Just sympathetic looks, (knowing she just spilled a ten dollar beer), and silent gestures as they tried to help her without making it into a big deal.