Yankee Tragedy

  

Ever since the ancient Greeks dramas have been classified as either tragedy or comedy. To put it simply in a tragedy things start out well for the hero but then end badly. From Oedipus to Hamlet that has always been the case. On the other hand, in a comedy things start out badly but end up well. It is not a question of laughs. There are very few laughs in Dante’s Divine Comedy, but the hero eventually goes from the depths to the heights.  

I thought of this the other night while watching the NY Yankees blow a five-run lead in the fifth inning of the fifth game of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was not the loss of the game and the Series that was tragic, but the individual tragedies involved. Just as in dramas of old it seemed as if the gods or fate were involved in bringing down not just one but three Yankee heroes. 

The Yankees had lost the first two games in Los Angeles and when they lost the third game at home in Yankee Stadium, it seemed like all hope was gone, especially since Aaron Judge, their best player and league MVP, was not hitting. Nevertheless, they won the fourth game 11-4 sparked by a grand slam home run and base running antics by Anthony Volpe, their young shortstop. Moreover they would have their ace pitcher Gerrit Cole on the mound for game five.

As in all tragedies game 5 started on a high note. Judge broke out of his slump with a two-run homer in the first inning. A couple of innings later he made a spectacular catch against the wall to add to his hero status.  By the fifth inning the Yanks had built up a 5-0 lead. Cole was cruising along, and all seemed well but fate intervened to bring down the mighty.

In the top of the fifth with a runner on first Judge dropped an easy fly ball that any little leaguer could have caught. To say this error was inexplicable would be an understatement. Now there are runners at first and second with nobody out. Still, Cole induces the next batter to hit a grounder to Volpe at shortstop. He attempts a force out at third but throws the ball in the dirt for another error. Now the bases are loaded with no one out. 

Let’s stop for a moment to consider the tragic fate of Anthony Volpe. Since the days of the legendary DiMaggio, Rizzuto, and Berra the large Italian American community in New York’s metropolitan area has always loved the Yankees. Volpe came from an Italian American family and he and his family had always loved the Yankees. His play in the series had brought him to the top of the world but one errant throw brought him down. 

Years ago while listening to a Yankee game being broadcast on the radio by Tom Seaver, one of baseball’s greatest pitchers, and Phil Rizzuto, the legendary Yankee shortstop. A player had just made an error and Rizzuto asked Seaver how he would react as a pitcher. Seaver said that rather than being angry at his teammate, he felt that it was his responsibility to bear down and get out of the inning without any further damage.  In other words, it was his job to protect his teammate from blame.

Incredibly, Gerrit Cole did just that. With the bases loaded and no one out, he struck out the next two batters, including Shohei Ohtani, the Dodger MVP. Then Cole induced Mookie  Betts to hit an easy grounder to first base but then commits his own error by failing to cover the base for the throw. Who knows what could have been going on in this great pitcher’s mind after this misplay? Two hits later and the score was tied. 

In front of 50000 fans and millions of TV watchers, three fine players had fallen from the heights. Even Shakespeare would have been hard pressed to write such a tragedy.

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We Are the Champions

  

  

 

The St. Anselm College Division II Men’s’ basketball team may not be the champions of the world, but this weekend the Hawks became the champions of the very competitive New England 10 (NE10) conference that actually includes 13 teams. After a successful season, the Hawks won three tough games in the tournament to claim the title. 

 

I have been following the team for the past two years because my grandson, Matt Becker, is a starter. This year I have watched live streams of practically every game on my desktop and have become a real fan not just of my grandson but of the team itself. You might say that I have bonded with them all to the point where I have even given them pet nicknames. Here is a little tribute to the players.

 

Miles Tention (Cool Cat Tention):  Team leader Tention never lost his head in the tournament. He made crucial baskets, and key stops during critical moments. His five-year career at St. Anselm was capped off in the tournament final with a steal and subsequent dunk that sealed the victory.

Tyler Arbuckle (Crazy O’Buckle): The team’s leading scorer, who never met a shot he would not hesitate to take, also set a Hawk record for hitting the deck. 

Matt Becker (the Mattador): On defense throughout the season and in the tournament, Becker challenged every opponent’s top gun, and in the pivotal semi-final thriller against nationally ranked Bentley, he threw down a career high 32 points in the 71-70 victory. 

Owen McGlashan (Mighty Mac): McGlashan came up big in the tournament final with 12 points and 8 rebounds against New Haven’s 7’1” Defensive Player of the Year.

Zach Taylor (Outback Zack): The Aussie also came up big in the tournament especially with his work down under the basket on both ends of the court.

Matt Relihan (Sir Relihan): Although relegated to the bench for most of the season, Relihan came up with key plays on both offense and defense in the Bentley win. 

Finally, a word of praise for coach Dickson who won his 700^th career win in a crucial victory against New Haven at the end of the regular season. More than that, Coach deserves credit for putting a team on the floor that actually played as a team, a rarity these days.* Click this link for a highlight video of the Bentley game, or watch the video below.

Winning a championship is an achievement that most players will never attain on any level. The Hawks won the league championship, and nothing can ever diminish the accomplishment. In my opinion, what they do in the NCAA DII tournament will just be gravy.  Still, I will be watching this Saturday night as they take on visiting Caldwell College in a packed Stoutenberg gym. Hopefully, it will be another thriller.

DSKG, Hawks.

###

Chess and Basketball

 I learned to play Chess as a boy but never had much of a chance to play until I retired 15 years ago. Since then I have been an avid, if average, player, playing every Wednesday with a group of similar players at our local Senior center. Despite the common perception, I have come to believe that chess is a team sport. 

We all have the image of the solitary chess master hovering over the board and lost in thought while contemplating the next move. But to my mind the chess player is the coach and the real players are the pieces on the board. It doesn’t take much experience to realize that if these pieces don’t work together, they will not win.

It is the coach’s job first to get his players into the game. In other words, they must be placed out in the field of play as quickly as possible. In chess it is called development. The major pieces (knights, bishops, rooks) are more powerful than pawns and constitute the starting team. Not only must the coach put them into play quickly, he must place them properly so that they cooperate and defend one another. If they can’t work together, the game is inevitably lost. 

Even the Queen, the most powerful piece on the board, cannot capture the opponent’ s King by herself. She needs the support of at least one other piece to checkmate. Only the opponent’s Queen can confront her power alone, but she can be neutralized and sometimes captured by being double or even tripled teamed by less powerful pieces working together.

Team work is the key to success in most sports. Basketball, with only five players on the court, is no exception.  Despite the magnitude of the stars in the NBA, it is still a team game. Some think that Cleveland’s LeBron James is the best to ever play the game, but the LA Lakers are struggling this year as a team. The phenomenal success of  the Golden State Warriors has been due to the way in which they have integrated super-stars into their team concept. 

The NCAA collegiate season has just begun. Interestingly, the most successful college team in the past decade has been the University of Connecticut’s Women’s team. It is true that the success of the team has enabled UCONN Coach Geno Auriemma to continually recruit all-star high school athletes from all over the country. The team is usually loaded with talent and their average margin of victory often exceeds 30 points per game.

Nevertheless, Auriemma’s stature as a coach has enabled him to get his extremely talented athletes to play together as a team. I recall reading about a local high school men’s coach who urged his young studs to emulate the way the UCONN women play defense.  In other words, Auriemma has been able to get the UCONN stars to not just think of individual stats but to play defense as well as offense. A few years ago, one of the UCONN women remarked that Auriemma would find it difficult to coach men because they are so thick-headed when it comes to team play.

Even on the high school level it takes a strong coach to get young men to play together as a team. The natural desire of athletes to show their stuff is magnified these days by pressure to get college scholarships. Also, sports reporters often become star-struck and concentrate all their attention on the high scoring players and their stats. In a rare exception, an article in today's Wall Street Journal  reported on Tyler Adams, the Captain of the US Men's soccer team, who  though he scored no goals or assists in the recent victory over Iran, was the key to the team's success in making it to the final round of sixteen. "Everything this American team does in Qatar, sooner or later, runs through the heart of the midfield, Tyler Adams." 

It has often been said that legendary players like Larry Bird and Michael Jordan were able to bring out the best in their teammates. In doing so, they also won numerous championships. This is true not just in chess and basketball but in business, politics, and practically every aspect of life. It is certainly true in family life where mothers and fathers give themselves to bring out the best in their children.

###

Aaron Judge: Yankee Superstar

  

                                         

As I write, the Houston Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies are tied at one game apiece in this years World Series, but for me the season came to an end when the Astros swept the New York Yankees to win the  American League championship. As long as I can remember, I have been a Yankee fan.

 In 1946, at the age of seven, I became a baseball fan while listening on the radio as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Red Sox in a World Series marked by a pivotal run scored by hustling Cardinal Enos Slaughter.  I think baseball is the only game where plays like that remain etched in your mind over a lifetime.

Next year, living in New York  City’s borough of Queens, I became a fan of the Yankees with their great Italian triumvirate of DiMaggio, Berra, Rizzuto. Most of the games then were played during the day, and I recall sitting under the grape arbor behind my grandparents’ home next door listening to the broadcasts. My parents and my grandparents were not particularly interested in baseball, but the kids in the neighborhood and at school were rabid fans. We constantly played all kinds of ball games on the sidewalks, in the streets, and in back lots. We formed imaginary teams and even kept stats.

In 1947 the Yankees won the World Series against the hated Brooklyn Dodgers. I vividly recall, after walking home from school one day, turning on the radio to hear Yankee pitcher Bill Bevens give up a double to Cookie Lavagetto (another Italian) and lose the game as well as a no-hitter in the ninth inning. Nevertheless,  I was hooked. The Yankees were in my blood. They didn’t win the pennant in 1948 but in 1949, they began an incredible streak of five straight World Series victories under legendary manager Casey Stengel.

Now, in my eighties, I still think that baseball is the best of all spectator sports. I am not alone. If you look at today’s lineups, you will see that the World Series is a true world series. Still, I find it difficult to either watch the games on TV or listen on the radio. It’s not just the incessant commercials between innings, but also between practically every pitch: “this walk to the mound is brought to you by xyz,” or “this pitch is brought to you by abc.” More than the commercials, I find that at my age I cannot bear the tension, especially in the play-offs which have become more exciting than the World Series. Nerd that I am, I prefer to study the stats after the games are over. 

Speaking of stats, this year the Yankees’ Aaron Judge had one of the greatest years in Yankee and in baseball history. It was not only that he tied Babe Ruth’s 1927 154 game record for home runs, and beat Roger Maris’s 1961 total of 61 over 162 games, but also his other stats were phenomenal. His 62 home runs, and 131 runs batted in (rbis) led the league by wide margins. His batting average of .311 was second in the league in a year when only a handful of players hit over .300. If you add his 111 walks (many intentional) to his 177 hits, you get an incredible on-base percentage of .425.  

I don’t mean to take anything away from Ruth or Maris but Judge’s performance in 2022 exceeded theirs in 1927 and 1961. In a year when batting averages were down and pitching dominated, Judge’s numbers were way above the baseball average. Just compare his numbers with Shohei Ohtani, the LA Angels star, who is his competition for Most Valuable Player this year.

Ruth and Maris had great numbers, but they never faced the kind of pitching that Judge faced this year. In times past, it was a rare pitcher who could throw over 95 mph, much less 100 mph. If they could, they would lack control. Today, every team seems to be loaded with pitchers who consistently throw over 95 mph with control. In one playoff game, the Yankees’ Luis Severino averaged 97 mph. Moreover, a friend of mine mentioned that the ball was not as lively this year as it was just two years ago. A statistical research firm claimed that if the 2020 balls had been used this year, Judge would have hit over 80 home runs. 

It is true that he stumbled in the playoffs against an outstanding Houston pitching staff, but that should not detract from one of the greatest performances in baseball history.

###

March Madness

 I learned to play Chess as a boy but never had much of a chance to play until I retired fifteen years ago. Since then I have been an avid, if average, player, playing every Wednesday with a group of similar players at our local Senior center. I also play daily blitz or speed games online with players all over the world. 

Despite the common perception, I have come to believe that chess is a team sport. We all have the image of the solitary chess master hovering over the board and lost in thought while contemplating the next move. But to my mind the chess player is the coach and the real players are the pieces on the board. It doesn’t take much experience to realize that if these pieces don’t work together, they will not win.

It is the coach’s job first to get his players into the game. In other words, they must be placed out in the field of play as quickly as possible. In chess it is called development. The major pieces (knights, bishops, rooks) are more powerful than pawns and constitute the starting team. Not only must the coach put them into play quickly, he must place them properly so that they cooperate and defend one another. If they can’t work together, the game is inevitably lost. 

Even the Queen, the most powerful piece on the board, usually cannot capture the opponent’ s King by herself. She needs the support of at least one other piece to checkmate. Only the opponent’s Queen can confront her power alone, but she can be neutralized and sometimes captured by being double or even tripled teamed by less powerful pieces working together.

Team work is the key to success in most sports. Basketball, with only five players on the court, is no exception. March is the month when the basketball season reaches its apex. The NBA regular season, where most games are little more than exhibitions, is coming to an end. The Pros will soon start to get serious in the playoffs. 

Despite the magnitude of the stars in the NBA, it is still a team game. Some think that  LeBron James is the best player to ever play the game, but the Los Angeles Lakers are struggling this year without a strong supporting cast.  The continued success of the Golden State Warriors is due to the way in which they have integrated super-stars  Steph Curry and now departed Kevin Durant into their team concept. On the other hand, fans will remember how the  New York Knicks could not rise above mediocrity  because they could not induce superstar Carmelo Anthony to embrace the team concept. 

The NCAA collegiate championship series is reaching its climax. It is usually called March Madness but insanity might be a better description. All over the country millions of people have filled out their brackets only to be disappointed when lowly St. Peter's turned out to be a real bracket buster.

Interestingly, the most successful college team in the past decade has been the University of Connecticut’s Women’s team. It is true that the success of the team has enabled UCONN Coach Geno Auriemma to continually recruit all-star high school athletes from all over the country. The team is loaded with talent and their average margin of victory often has exceeded 30 points per game in past seasons. This season has been different especially when the team's star player suffered an injury that kept her sidelined through much of the season.  Nevertheless, the team continued to win.

Earlier this week the UCONN women made it into the Final Four by beating a talented North Carolina State team in double overtime. It was a magnificent display of team play on both sides. UCONN's star sophomore, Paige Bueckers, excelled in the second half but she did not do it alone especially when the NC State defense clogged the middle and took away the three point shot. She had the savvy and skill to shoot off the dribble and sink one mid-range jumper after another, but she never forced her shots. As a result the whole team contributed to the win. In a brief interview after the game a visibly shaken Coach Auriemma discussed the team concept as well as the great responsibility he felt as a coach to his players. (click on link.) 

Obviously, Auriemma’s stature as a coach has enabled him to get his extremely talented athletes to play together as a team. I remember reading about a local high school men’s coach who urged his young studs to emulate the way the UCONN women play defense.  In other words, Auriemma has been able to get the UCONN stars to not just think of individual stats but to play defense as well as offense.

A few years ago, one of the UCONN women remarked that Auriemma would find it difficult to coach men because they are so thick-headed when it comes to team play.

Even on the high school level it takes a strong coach to get young men to play together as a team. The natural desire of athletes to show their stuff is magnified these days by pressure to get college scholarships. Also, sports reporters often become star-struck and concentrate all their attention on the high scoring players and their stats. 

It has often been said that legendary players like Larry Bird and Michael Jordan were able to bring out the best in their teammates. In doing so, they also won numerous championships. This is true not just in chess and basketball but in business, politics, and practically every aspect of life. It is certainly true in family life where mothers and fathers give themselves to bring out the best in their children.

###

Basketball Inequality

      

Napheesa Collier and Katie Lou Samuelson

Last week Katie Lou Samuelson, and Napheesa Collier, two senior stars on the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team were picked #4 and #6 in the Women’s National Basketball Association’s (WNBA) 2019 draft. It is extraordinary to see two women from the same team go so high in the draft.

Although they lost in the semi-final of the NCAA tournament to Notre Dame, the two UCONN stars had stellar careers during their four years. In those years the UCONN women lost only five games, but unfortunately three came in NCAA tournaments. 

In 2019 they will probably earn the WNBA minimum rookie salary of about $52000. That figure is considerably less than the estimated $60000 to $70000 annual value of their athletic scholarship at UCONN, a benefit that is also tax free to athletes. It’s not as if there will be a pot of gold at the end of the WNBA rainbow. The top salary in the league is about $120000 and many of the leagues stars choose to profit from their ability by playing overseas during the off-season. Salaries for women players can be fifteen times higher in other countries.

Even if Samuelson and Collier go on like other UCONN women to have successful careers in the WNBA, they will never make in their entire career what an NBA player like LeBron James or Kevin Durant makes in a game or two. NBA stars make in excess of $30 Million per year. Even Duke freshman Zion Wilkinson, the likely #1 pick in this year’s NBA draft, will probably sign a pro contract that exceeds the entire WNBA payroll.

Equal pay advocates usually complain about the apparent income inequality between men and women. They argue that the average woman makes only 80% of what the average white male makes. They like to focus their attention on corporate America which they regard as the bastion of white male supremacy. However, they rarely complain about the enormous income gap in the worlds of entertainment and athletics. Do they overlook the huge contracts of black athletes because they do not fit the white male story? 

The disparities in income between professional male and female basketball players is certainly not caused by discrimination. The difference seems entirely market driven. Although the extraordinary success of the UCONN women’s basketball program under legendary coach Geno Auriemma has led to packed houses at their home games, the interest in women’s professional basketball in this country is minimal. 

As a result, the pro women play only a short 32 game schedule during what is usually the basketball off-season. As noted above, many of the WNBA stars go abroad to earn the big bucks. UCONN all-time great and WNBA MVP Brianna Stewart played this year for a Russian team.

The NBA and WNBA are two distinct business models. The packed houses and TV ratings for the men’s game have allowed the best players to command huge contracts and move freely from one team to another. On the other hand, the WNBA, despite the quality of play and the ability of its athletes, must struggle for revenue. To keep the WNBA viable the teams must use a pay scale where there is little difference between the salaries of the best players and the benchwarmers. Otherwise, the league would have folded years ago and there would be no option for players like Katie Lou Samuelson and Napheesa Collier to continue to play the game they love at home. 

In that case, they would be no different than the thousands of athletes who play in American colleges and universities today for love of the sport. My granddaughter rows crew at UCONN. She had no scholarship but just tried out and made the cut. She loves it, is in the best shape of her life, and has bonded with her crew mates. At the same time, she has kept up her grades and became a scholar-athlete award winner this year. Congratulations N.B.

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Public Funerals

  

I’m working on posts concerning the Kavenaugh Supreme Court nomination, as well as the current sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic church, but in the meantime would just like to post a little comment on the recent public funerals of Senator John McCain, and singer Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul.” 

I don’t like public funerals no matter how talented or great the deceased person was. In the first place, public figures get enormous recognition in their lifetime but death is the great leveler, and when death comes, we are all equal. Moreover, just being a leading politician or talented performer does not mean that you were any better than anyone else as a person. 

Secondly, I do not like it when speakers at these events, which often seem to be events rather than funerals by the way they are staged, often use them as a means to make political or cultural points that ultimately distract from the person they are supposed to be remembering. The comments often seem self-serving, petty, and bogus.

I would like to just contrast such eulogies with the words uttered by Phil Rizzuto, the legendary New York Yankee ballplayer and announcer, when he heard of the tragic death of Thurman Munson, the great NY Yankee catcher, in an airplane crash at the height of his career. On August 2, 1979, Munson died while piloting his private plane on an off-day during the baseball season. 

On the next day, Rizzuto spoke the following words during a pre-game show. In characteristic fashion Rizzuto messed up some of the words of the traditional Catholic prayer to a guardian angel but spoke simply and from the heart.

There’s a little prayer I always say

Whenever I think of my family or when I’m flying,

When I’m afraid, and I am afraid of flying.

It’s just a little one. You can say it no matter what,

Whether you’re Catholic or Jewish or Protestant or whatever.

And I’ve probably said it a thousand times

Since I heard the news on Thurman Munson.

It’s not trying to be maudlin or anything.

His Eminence, Cardinal Cooke, is going to come out

And say a little prayer for Thurman Munson.

But this is just a little one I say time and time again,

It’s just: Angel of God, Thurman’s guardian dear,

To whom his love commits him here there or everywhere,

Ever this night and day be at his side,

To light and guard, to rule and guide. 

For some reason it makes me feel like I’m talking to Thurman,

Or whoever’s name you put in there,

Whether it be my wife or any of my children, my parents or anything.

It’s just something to keep you from going really bananas.

Because if you let this,

If you keep thinking about what happened, and you can’t understand it,

That’s what really drives you to despair.

Faith. You gotta have faith.

You know, they say time heals all wounds,

And I don’t quite agree with that a hundred percent.

It gets you to cope with wounds,

You carry them the rest of your life.

A few days later, Rizzuto returned to the subject while broadcasting ad lib during the midst of a game in progress.

The Yankees have had a traumatic four days,

Actually five days,

That terrible crash with Thurman Munson.

To go through all that agony,

And then today,

You and I along with the rest of the team

Flew to Canton for the services,

And the family…Very upset.

You know, it might,

It might sound a little corny,

But we have the most beautiful full moon tonight

And the crowd,

Enjoying whatever is going on right now.

They say it might sound corny,

But to me it’s some kind of a…,

Like an omen.

Both the moon and Thurman Munson,

Both ascending up into heaven.

I just can’t get it out of my mind,

I just saw that full moon,

And it just reminded me of Thurman,

And that’s it.

(August 6, 1979 Baltimore at New York, fifth inning, bases empty, no outs.)

Note: These words and many others of Rizzuto’s can be found in a collection, O Holy Cow, edited by Tom Peyer and Hart Seely. The editors claim that Rizzuto’s words were truly poetic and have subtitled their collection, “The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto.

###

Chess and Basketball?

I learned to play Chess as a boy but never had much of a chance to play until I retired ten years ago. Since then I have been an avid, if average, player, playing every Wednesday with a group of similar players at our local Senior center. Despite the common perception, I have come to believe that chess is a team sport.

We all have the image of the solitary chess master hovering over the board and lost in thought while contemplating the next move. But to my mind the chess player is the coach and the real players are the pieces on the board. It doesn’t take much experience to realize that if these pieces don’t work together, they will not win.

It is the coach’s job first to get his players into the game. In other words, they must be placed out in the field of play as quickly as possible. In chess it is called development. The major pieces (knights, bishops, rooks) are more powerful than pawns and constitute the starting team. Not only must the coach put them into play quickly, he must place them properly so that they cooperate and defend one another. If they can’t work together, the game is inevitably lost. 

Even the Queen, the most powerful piece on the board, cannot capture the opponent’ s King by herself. She needs the support of at least one other piece to checkmate. Only the opponent’s Queen can confront her power alone, but she can be neutralized and sometimes captured by being double or even tripled teamed by less powerful pieces working together.

Team work is the key to success in most sports. Basketball, with only five players on the court, is no exception. March is the month when the basketball season reaches its apex. The NBA regular season, where most games are little more than exhibitions, is coming to an end. The Pros will soon start to get serious in the playoffs.

Despite the magnitude of the stars in the NBA, it is still a team game. Some think that Cleveland’s LeBron James is the best player to ever play the game, but Cleveland still had to make some trades in mid-season to bolster its chances for a title. The continued success of the Golden State Warriors is due to the way in which they have integrated super-stars Kevin Durant and Steph Curry into their team concept. On the other hand, the New York Knicks struggled through years of mediocrity because they could not induce superstar Carmelo Anthony to embrace the team concept.

The NCAA collegiate championship series has just begun. It is usually called March Madness but insanity might be a better description. All over the country millions of people are filling out their brackets trying not only to predict the eventual champion but also the winner of every game in the 68 team tournament.

Interestingly, the most successful college team in the past decade has been the University of Connecticut’s Women’s team. It is true that the success of the team has enabled UCONN Coach Geno Auriemma to continually recruit all-star high school athletes from all over the country. The team is loaded with talent and their average margin of victory must exceed 30 points per game.

Nevertheless, Auriemma’s stature as a coach has enabled him to get his extremely talented athletes to play together as a team. I just read about a local high school men’s coach who urged his young studs to emulate the way the UCONN women play defense.  In other words, Auriemma has been able to get the UCONN stars to not just think of individual stats but to play defense as well as offense. Recently, one of the UCONN women remarked that Auriemma would find it difficult to coach men because they are so thick-headed when it comes to team play.

Even on the high school level it takes a strong coach to get young men to play together as a team. The natural desire of athletes to show their stuff is magnified these days by pressure to get college scholarships. Also, sports reporters often become star-struck and concentrate all their attention on the high scoring players and their stats.

It has often been said that legendary players like Larry Bird and Michael Jordan were able to bring out the best in their teammates. In doing so, they also won numerous championships. This is true not just in chess and basketball but in business, politics, and practically every aspect of life. It is certainly true in family life where mothers and fathers give themselves to bring out the best in their children.

###