"It's only a game"

When North Carolina student body president Eve Carson was found slain last week, coaches for Duke and UNC were preparing their teams for a historic showdown. When interviewed about the impact Carson's death might have on their players and the game, both coaches said something to the effect that her death was a reminder that basketball "is only a game."

I am so sick of hearing this sort of comparison. Someone dies, and suddenly, we have to listen to: "It's only a game." Which could not be further from the truth. This statement either reveals the speaker's ignorance of the true nature of sport, or the speaker's fear of speaking the truth.

More than any other sport, baseball provides a very public forum in which a player's character can be judged. Over the course of the 162-game regular season and subsequent playoffs, over a long career, an athlete's skills, courage, discipline, tenacity, ethics, intelligence and morals emerge. Really, what else is there of value to a life than these things?

It is not "only a game," it is a daily test of an athlete's heart and soul, of his stamina, training, ability to learn and adjust, and of his level of compassion for his fellow man. That is why we hold in such high regard athletes like Al Kaline, Roberto Clemente, Nellie Fox, Joe Morgan, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Jackie Robinson, Walter Johnson, Cal Ripkin, Jr., Joe DiMaggio and Derek Jeter. It is why we have mixed feelings about Richie Allen, Dick Stuart, Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, Jose Canseco, Chick Gandil and Barry Bonds.

To say the UNC/Duke game was "only a game" demeaned the young men who fought so hard that night for victory before a huge national audience. No one who saw that game could not have been impressed by the character those young men displayed. And I would bet anything that not one of them said to himself afterwards, "Oh well, it was only a game." Sure as hell their coaches weren't thinking along those lines once the game started.

Some athletes do play baseball, basketball and football as though it were "only a game." And those athletes are not held in high esteem. Why? Because we know something about their character from watching them play.

Worse, "only a game" cheapens the life of Eve Carson. "Oh well, she was only one person out of a billion or so on the earth. Why take it so seriously?" Why? Because through her life, she revealed a strong character, a set of values that created a standard for others to be measured against. In the same way, our best athletes set a standard against which others are measured. That is why, by the way, we Indians fans still love The Rock. He came to play, he gave it his all every day, he was a moral and ethical Rock. Don't try to tell him "it's only a game." The Rock just might knock off your block.