For love of the game

There is this story about an international sports competition to determine who had the hardest head. The entry from China wowed the crowd when he proceeded to break 10 bricks with his skull. Everyone stood up and gave the American contestant a standing ovation after he was able to increase the feat to 15 bricks. But even he was open-mouthed when the Russian cracked a two-inch steel plate with his forehead.

“And now, for the final entry,” the referee announced, “... the Philippines!” Knowing that he could not top the previous athletes, the Filipino refused to show up. The referee repeatedly called him out, but he would not budge from the dressing room. Finally, after several hours of waiting, the referee conferred with the judges and then declared, “And the winner for being the most hard-headed ... the Philippines!” Ang tigas daw kasi ng ulo, ayaw lumabas. (He proved his bull-headedness by refusing to come out.) Leave it to the Filipino to always find a way to win.

Well, I did something pretty hard-headed the other day, too. I had been training for the past few months so that I could join the Philippine International Marathon on March 8. Unfortunately, they cancelled it, leaving hundreds of runners like me cursing at having trained all these months for nothing. But just like the Filipino contestant in the story above, I refuse to take my defeat graciously. And so, on impulse, I signed up for the Hong Kong marathon on Feb. 8. By the time you read this article, I will hopefully already be back home ... in one piece. I’m a bit nervous since I’ll be running about a month earlier than I expected. Already, I’ve added several Our Fathers and Hail Marys to my training. But there is no turning back now. I’ll just have to rely on good old-fashioned Filipino bull-headedness. As Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) famously implored Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) in Rocky III, “Eye of the tiger, man!” 

The “eye of the tiger,” or the look of hunger in the big cat’s eyes when it “stalks its prey in the night” (as the theme song of the movie goes), is now a famous catch-phrase to convey an athlete’s dogged determination to win. Interestingly, I’ve been seeing a somewhat similar look in my children’s eyes lately. And it’s not because they’ve practically memorized the lyrics of the song from listening to me constantly psyche myself up with it. It’s because of this certain bat-and-ball game called baseball. As soon they and their cousins get home from school, they immediately congregate in the street or in the park with their gloves, bat, and ball. They often play until dusk and we practically have to drag them home. They have not yet played a real game in an actual baseball diamond though. It’s still all backyard stuff, which makes it even more endearing. 

My children and their cousins have always shown an interest in sports. They play basketball, (mini) billiards, and even ran in a 3K fun run. But for some reason, they’ve particularly fallen in love with baseball. I guess that there is just something quite basic in the simple act of playing catch or hitting a ball with a bat. While some Americans claim that baseball is not just their national pastime but their “national religion” as well, I read in one book that the game could date as far back as the ancient times. Jack Petrash in his book Covering Home wrote, “According to the Oriental Institute in the University of Chicago, the pharaoh in ancient Egypt had a religious ritual in which he would hit a leather-covered sphere with a stick to the temple priests. The priests would catch the ball and by doing so ‘gladden the heart’ of the goddesses Sekhmet and Hathor.”

Well, I don’t know about ancient deities, but the game certainly gladdens the hearts of the kids. Even the kindergarteners join in. As one fan commented, “Baseball is the most democratic of sports — any size can play.” Having grown tired of repeatedly beating the househelp-dads-moms-uncles-aunties all-star selection, they’re now trying to convince us parents to gather other kids and form a real baseball team so that they can join one of the local little leagues. 

Many people cite the health benefits of kids getting involved in sports and rightly so. A sound body also helps make the learning process in school much easier. However, I don’t think that kids should be rushed or pressured into participating in formal team sports. Unstructured play, where the children invent their own rules, is a very healthy and essential part of childhood. So unless they show a genuine interest in joining formal team sports, there’s really no need to hurry. Besides, when they’re ready, I think that there’s purity in sports that children instinctively get attracted to. Our kids do seem to be ready and it appears that our parental objections are down to its last strike.

As my children start to formally engage in sports, I need to decide on what kind of sports dad I’d be. I think that one of sports’ more important aspects is how it can build character — how sports can reveal to us different facets of who we are and then gives us the opportunity to deal with those personal discoveries in our own way. It is in this area where I think I ought to be there for my kids. Unfortunately, we adults sometimes spoil this for them (and their fun) when we overly stress the competitive nature of sports and start sending them signals that winning and losing are more important. Of course, the final score matters a lot. But I hope that my focus when they play will not just be on the scoreboard. I wish that I will not spend all my time watching how they dribble, lay-up, kick, throw, catch, or swing the bat. I pray that I will be paying more attention to how they deal with victory and defeat; to how easily they give up or fight till the end; to how they treat themselves or their teammates when they make mistakes; and to whether or not they still have that passionate expression in their eyes that I see now when they come home muddy and full of sweat after nine innings of sandlot baseball, still raring for more. There is a sparkle there that is just as intense as Rocky’s “eye of the tiger.” But it is a look that springs not from an attitude of winning at all costs, but rather, from a simple yet profound love of the game. 

LEEEEET’S plaaaay BAAAALLLL!

* * *

For dads and moms who want to learn more about running, there are several good local blogs that you might want to check out like the Bull Runner at http://thebullrunner.com. If your kids want to try out baseball, you can also get more information by visiting the website of the International Little League Association of Manila (ILLAM) at http://www.illam.ph.

* * *

Please e-mail your reactions to kindergartendad@yahoo.com.