Monday, September 27, 2010

09-27-10 Inspiration Of The Week-WINNING IS NOT THE ONLY THING! The Sara Tucholsky story!

Pat Boone, Dove award presenter and . . . the winner! 
     I remember entering a Halloween window painting contest that, as a kid, I was a part of . . . and won!  However old I was at the time, winning felt good! I don't have any little-league baseball or football victories to tack on my "awards" wall.  I grew up with the awareness that I had flat feet.  Going to the shoe store, as a kid and getting Buster Brown shoes with "cookies" became a part of my routine.  Cookies? In case you didn't know . . . soft padding put in my shoe where the arch should have been.  Having flat feet got me out of phys education classes, which, at the time I thought was a plus; in retrospect, I wished that I could have put up with whatever inconvenience "flat feet" brought to the table.  It wasn't until I was twenty-six and had to take a physical for the army that I felt that,  for my personal situation, my flat-foot condition won me a classification that enabled me to miss being shipped out to the Vietnam war.
     In my heart of hearts I would have liked to have been voted in as a class officer!  (Sorry, Steve Bennett).  No! Sorry, Lanny! I never even got nominated!! It was just a dream that, of course, was only mine . . . and none of my classmates!  I finally got over it . . . eventually!
     Fast forward to Ohio State University, I finally won: Treasurer for Pi Omega Pi--a business education fraternity organization.  I know what you're thinkging . . . How boring!  Yeah, I agree . . . but I did get voted in, nonetheless! 
     When I became a songwriter, I had been nominated six times for "Songwriter of the Year!"  . . . and lost six times!  Finally, on the seventh nomination in 1984, God smiled on me and after the votes came in, I won a dove award for Song Writer of the Year and a dove for "Song of the Year" (More Than Wonderful) .  SESAC honored me as Songwriter of the year for two years in a row.  So, I know what its like to both lose . . . and win!  Say what you will, losing sucks!  Some people never rebound from the disappointment of a losing experience.  Winning is best described by "Everyone loves a winner!" You feel like you own the world . . . for a fleeting moment!  I've learned that all winning is relative and must be kept in perspective; many times winners either can't handle all of the "pluses" that come with the win or get side-tracked by the same "pluses."
  
Enough of "my" take on winning and losing . . . what Vince Lombardi had to say about winning! . . .

     Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing is a well-known quote in sports. Its assertion about the importance of winning has been touted as a basic tenet of the American sports creed and, at the same time, identified as encapsulating what is purportedly wrong with competitive sports.

     The quote is widely attributed to American football coach Vince Lombardi;  who probably heard the phrase from UCLA coach Henry Russell Sanders.  Lombardi is on record using the quote as early as 1959 in his opening talk on the first day of the Packers’ training camp.  The quote captured the American public's attention during Lombardi's highly successful reign as coach of the Packers in the 1960s. Over time, the quote took on a life of its own. The words graced the walls of locker rooms, ignited pre-game pep talks, and echoed from the rafters of banquet halls. According to a Sports in America journalist, Lombardi claimed to have been misquoted. What he intended to say was "Winning isn't everything. The will to win is the only thing." However, Lombardi is on record repeating the original version of the quote on several occasions.

The Sara Tucholsky story!  It was her first . . . and last homerun!
     Western Oregon University's Sara Tucholsky had no idea that the first - and, as it turns out, only - homerun of her career would cause ripples that would make her last swing of the bat as a college softball player a national media sensation.
     With two runners on and her team down a run to Central Washington University, Sara hit a homerun to centerfield.  As she rounded first base, she missed the bag. When she turned to tag the base, she injured her knee. Able only to crawl back to the base, Sara was told that she would be called out if her teammates came to her aid. If a pinch runner checked into the game, her homerun would count only as a single.
     Players and fans alike were stunned when Central Washington first baseman Mallory Holtman, the conference's all-time homerun leader, asked the umpire if there was any rule against opponents helping an injured player around the bases.
     She was told that there was not.  Together, Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace picked up Tucholsky and carried her around the bases, stopping at each bag to allow Sara to touch it with her good leg.  "It was the right thing to do," Holtman said in an interview on national television, after the respectful act of sportsmanship had been witnessed by millions on ESPN and had become a YouTube sensation.
     The three runs sent Western Oregon to a 4-2 victory, ending Central Washington's chances of winning the conference and advancing to the playoffs.
     "It's a great story," Western Oregon coach Pam Knox said, "something I'll never forget - the game's about character and integrity and sportsmanship, and it's not always about winning and losing."
Excerpt from Finish Strong: Teen Athlete...Developing the Champion Within, by Dan Green
Click on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVlKtI7yd_s

        And, speaking of Winning . . . One Of the heroes in my life has won his race here . . . and has gone home this past week.  J.Hugh Rose, the voice of Harvestime; personality-plus who could make any person feel like a million dollars and that you were his friend; the "Pentecostal Pavorati" whose voice could fill any venue without the help of a microphone; the choir director of Calvary Tabernacle and General Conferences who could bring voices together . . . and Heaven down; the minister/minstrel who could transport my spirit to the "New Jerusalem," and the "one of a kind" who made me, as a teenager say, "That's what I want to do; that's who I want to be like.   No one can ever fill his shoes or his place in the hearts of those who knew him and loved him. To the "one and only"--you'll be missed here, but someday we'll hear that voice again . . . booming over top of the angelic chorus there!  Joshua fought the battle of Jericho . . . but Bro. Rose, my hero, my friend, fought a valiant battle in Harrison Hills! In his recent years, his steps may have gotten feeble, but his voice . . . as big as ever!!

mp3 file: "The Race" Words and Music by Lanny Wolfe, ASCAP, (#30302), 1975, The Lanny Wolfe Trio, "Come On, Let's Praise Him."