By DANNY MINTON

I’ve recently seen several posts that depict shameful events in amateur baseball, from Little League to college. One video showed a catcher intentionally throwing a ball at the batter’s face. The results were that the catcher was barred from playing, and the coach was placed on suspension. Another video showed a catcher jumping to the side so the ball would hit the umpire on purpose. Both faced ejection from the game, with one losing a scholarship when the college he was to attend viewed the video. A third videoed a confrontation between parents in the stands and an umpire. After several warnings, the umpire called the game and walked away.

Unfortunately, doing wrong things to gain an advantage to win goes beyond the amateur and even into pro sports. Those who follow the NFL can remember “Deflategate,” “Spygate,” and “Bountygate.” Some coaches and players will do almost anything to win. After all, winning is the most important thing, right? It is essential in the pros, but is winning so important that one abandons their integrity and sportsmanship?

What about our lives? Do people find cheating or lying acceptable in moving ahead? Is gaining the advantage over others more important than being like Christ? Have honesty and integrity found a replacement with “it’s okay as long as I can get away with it?” 

In the early 1920s, Yale was preparing for its big game against rival Harvard. These schools, along with Princeton, were the powerhouses of the early years of football, dominating the game until 1919, and this was always a big game. The quarterback and one of the captains was Charles Buell. Charles, along with teammates George Owen and Charles Hubbard, had been selected to the consensus All-American team in 1922.

In 1921 Charles, along with Owen, were named team captains. Charles Buell was injured on the night of one particular game between Yale and Harvard. He had injured his shoulder in a previous game but was going to play in this particular game anyway because it was so big.

The sentiment going around the Yale team was that a few good hits on Buell’s shoulder could knock him out of the game, giving Yale a decided edge. Coach T.A.D. “Tad,” Jones then spoke to his players. Earlier in 1916, when he coached Yale before going off to WWI prior to a game with Harvard, he challenged his players, “Gentlemen, you are now going to play football against Harvard. Never again in your whole life will you do anything so important.”

But this was 1922. Coach Jones stood before his team and told them he was aware of the injury to Charles Buell. He then admonished his team, telling them that any team member who deliberately hit Buell on his injured shoulder would find himself pulled from the game. If they were to win, it would not be by taking advantage of injured players with cheap shots.

Late in the fourth quarter, with the score tied 3-3, Charles Buell took the ball and made the winning touchdown for Harvard with the game ending, Harvard 10, Yale 3.
However, while the winner on the field may have been Harvard, the true winner was the man in the Yale locker room before the game. T.A.D. “Tad” Jones had shown his players that there is much more to football than winning the game on the scoreboard. True athletes know the value of sportsmanship. When you lose that, you lose the game no matter what the score.

Sportswriter Grantland Rice is credited with coining the phrase, “It’s not whether you win or lose. It’s how you play the game.” He was referring to a golf match and the gentleman atmosphere at the time. However, it does hold true in all parts of life, although there are those who disagree with the phrase. It tells us that there are more important things than always being first in life. Walking away from anything with your honesty and integrity intact is better than just a larger paycheck or fancy trophy.

In the eyes of God, we are not defined by what we have on the outside but by who we are on the inside.

“For to me to live is Christ.” Philippians 1:21

Danny Minton is a former Elder and minister at Southern Hills Church of Christ