Safe at Home

The Oceanside team got the wrong end of an awful non-call during the Little League World Series the other day. It was brutal to watch. Right there on videotape the Bronx player runs by second base. Never touched it. Hundreds of miles away television viewers could see that. But the umpire, a volunteer running hard too, didn’t call it and refused appeals. Soon, the Bronx kid scored. Oceanside lost 1 to 0. Maybe the ump’s a closet New York fan. Maybe, up close, the shoe kissed the bag. Maybe schmaybe. Welcome to the real world of sports and life, where unfair things happen all the time, even in the not-so-little leagues.

Guess what? The Oceanside kids handled it just fine, better than some adults. Disappointed? Sure. Painful? You bet. But what a glorious year they had--18 straight victories during a memorable season that began with more heart than hope on the hard-scrabble dirt near the I-5. When ESPN reporters descended on the Oceanside team after the final game, the youngsters kept their sportsmanship credo; not one bad word about the ump. Then, like a conflict-seeking missile, a reporter reached Daryl Wasano, the mild-mannered Oceanside manager and longtime youth sports volunteer. The manager said he’d missed the missed call. A persistent reporter suggested he would be upset after seeing the replay. And Wasano replied, “No, I won’t.”

No swearing? No gloves, fists or threats thrown? No spitting or parking lot scuffles? What kind of example is this for modern American sports fans? A pretty darned good one, that’s what. No wonder the local youngsters showed class. Looks like Wasano teaches more than who’s the cutoff man on line drives to center.

Once, sports were only preparation for life--games in which you practiced teamwork, practiced practicing, practiced handling victory, practiced handling adversity and pressure, practiced handling defeat and moving on. Today, it often seems, sports get treated as if they are life itself. Maybe it’s the fame, the money, the bright media glare. Maybe it’s coaches and parents trying to win through children what they didn’t when they were young. Maybe it’s plain bad manners. Or all this and more.

Society used to point out bad sportsmanship to discourage it. Today, we need to praise good sportsmanship to encourage it. So we are. Remember this come Saturday when the quiet “losers” from California parade through downtown Oceanside without controversy or sour grapes and, odds are, without live national network coverage. Talk about a blown call.