The Inquirer Sports Section wasn’t exactly brimming with accolades after the losses of the Phillies and the Union yesterday.
The headline on the front page of the sports section proclaimed, “One Swing Ends Phil’s Magical Run.” Buried on pages 6 and 7 were some observations about both teams. “
Regarding the Phillies, the words of David Murphy, sportswriter, strike a chord, “It ended fittingly. With one team doing its thing. With the other team doing it better. With one superstar striking a blow. With another striking one harder. Why did our best pitcher get pulled when he was on fire?”
Regarding the Union, Mike Jenson, sportswriter, wrote, “Union fans, scattered in the southeast corner, got a good view of it all, leaving them gutted, asking how they couldn’t hold on for just two minutes, up a man.”
One of our previous athletic directors at EA said to his coaches joking, that “I am with you win or tie.”
That statement could be the mantra for me and other Phillies fans. We are heart broken when our teams don’t go the distance. Going the distance has come to mean that you stay with a team or experience as a choice and not just a habit. You have a great investment in the team or player achieving their objective.
Two words stick out. Choice and investment in a goal for the person or the team. You don’t have the feeling of “going the distance” if you have a lukewarm investment regarding the goal that you hope that the player or team achieves. In an earlier blog I pointed out Bart Giamatti’s opening words in his essay, Green Fields of the Mind, that “Baseball breaks your heart,” because sports are one place where we tend to be “all in” with a player or team.
The Phillies and the Union didn’t meet their final goal, victory where it counts at last! But If we dig a little deeper there is something that we fans felt about both Philadelphia sports teams this past weekend. Philadelphia fans can work through their loss by choosing another aspect of “going the distance.” We loved the teams for the same reason that we love and respect those in out lives who we feel have given any enterprise their all.
It is no wonder that the movie, Rocky, the theme song for our city, became a Philadelphia Anthem. The power of the movie is that Rocky gives the fight his all for all fifteen rounds. I don’t think that it would be such a metaphor for Philadelphia if Rocky won in the ninth round. We wouldn’t have been with him. He had to undergo great hardship of a bruising nature right to the end of that last round. The movie became part of Philly’s identity precisely because Rocky was someone who modeled “going the distance.”
Life is a two-edged sword. The upside is obvious. We feel good about winning if we go the distance with something that we want to achieve that may reflect our best effort, but one that doesn’t lead necessarily to winning. A more helpful understanding of “going the distance” does not involve winning. It means we tried our best going the distance with our efforts. That is something that a sports writer should be able to focus on. The two teams deserve nothing less.
One image comes to my mind. I was in a road race running with faculty from EA. It is called the 10 K Zoo Run. People would pass me wearing such attire as a gorilla or tiger suit. Nobody cared about winning or a runner’s time. It was fun except for one faculty member. The next time you drive over the Benjamin Franklin Bridge pay attention to the slope going over and coming back. You don’t notice it when you are driving, but it takes the power in your legs away because you are surprised by the incline.
I was aware of the one faculty member who cared about his time but not winning the race. He wasn’t a runner, but wanted to do this particular run. I gave him some ideas on how he should train. He would tell me each day when we would see one another how well he was doing. He was getting so excited about achieving his goal. I would venture to say that he would match any Phillies or Union fan. The Zoo Run was well attended with many hundreds in the race. When I finished, I waited for him to cross the finish line, and I waited and waited, and still no sign of my colleague. Finally, there he was on the homestretch, a lone figure against the back drop of clouds and rain. He was a figure in the mist.
As he got closer to the finish line, he provided me with an image that I can still see as if it were yesterday. He stopped dead in his tracks just as he crossed the finish line and brought his watch to eye level so he could see it. He turned, looked at me, and smiled and said, “Exactly the time I have been training to get to the finish line.” He was so pleased with his accomplishment. With sweat pouring off of him, he didn’t care if he was near the end of the hundreds who had run it.
I was so thrilled for him. He was not a very expressive fellow, but I applauded loudly. We shook hands. Talk about going the distance. I could hear that theme from Rocky playing in the background. I hope the Phillies and Union fans can feel that way soon. I have a former student and member of my student spiritual leadership group at EA who plays for the Union. I know that he is not happy about not winning, but he knows what “going the distance” means! He has never given any enterprise less than his total effort.
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