Competition Tatters, Competition Matters

I had a couple of sports related conversations with my father in-law (FIL) this past weekend.

1.       Pete Rose

Me: he’s a piece of shit that doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame because he bet on his own team. He was a great hitter.

FIL: He was a great hitter who belongs in the Hall of Fame even though he is a piece of shit who bet on his own team.

2.       Golf Pro retires so as not to break a course record set by Arnold Palmer

FIL: knows a golf pro who is killing it one day on a course and the caddy tells him “by the way, if you keep playing well, you are going to set the course record.” So the pro asks who owns the record and is told Arnold Palmer. So instead of tanking his round, decides to retire as a pro prior to finishing the round…so as not to set the course record.

Now my FIL intimated that this really shows you the pro’s respect for Arnold Palmer.

I think it is just the opposite. And I reference the above mentioned piece of shit in my reasoning.

Now, regarding Pete Rose:

I asked my FIL, “why doesn’t professional wrestling earn as much as the NFL?”

The answer is because the fans, the people who shell out the dough, believe that there is genuine competition in the NFL; that men compete and that the men and team that want and work and toil and bleed and endure the most…win.

While the WWE and the NFL share entertainment value, the income difference alerts you to the fact that the belief in genuine competition, matters, a lot. Billion = a lot.

So this brings me back to Pete Rose, the piece of shit. Baseball, and all of its history, matters, for the same reason, that people believe there is genuine competition.

Pete Rose ensured there wasn’t.

He bet on his own team.

Please don’t be a sap and ask whether to win or lose.

Fair enough, what does this have to do with the golf pro?

Well, the reason a golf course record matters at all, be it held by Arnold Palmer or Saw Palmetto, is again, competition…one man trying his hardest against another man or woman or satyr or whatever.

But now you have Joe Blow “retiring” because of his respect for Arnold Palmer when in fact it is the most disrespectful act.

Imagine (like Kant would have us do) if every golfer that went up against Palmer, tanked or retired or half-assed it. We wouldn’t appreciate Palmer, we wouldn’t think that he was great, that he overcame nerves, that he had mettle or grit or determination or was a winner or anything like that.

Competition matters people.

The Pete Roses of the world and the golf pros who retire when they are about to break a record, do a disservice to competition.

Competitors WANT to earn it, they want nothing handed to them, they need not ill-gained records and shun anything less than the best from their foes.

So don’t be a dick, try your best.