Tag: Dear Kids

52. Lessons from 2020

52. Lessons from 2020

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A year ago, I stared this blog with the thought of how I could share life lessons and understandings that can show us what matters. An added perk of this is that, much like your uncles and I started keeping a list of lectures your grandpa was going to give us, now you have a list of my 52 lectures in 2020.

Dear Boys,

1. All our teams and how out of many, we are one

2 Legon Cities FC and appreciating new beginnings.

3 Grenoble Foot 38 and the importance of giving a fork about what you do, not over how it is received.

4 Transfer Rumors and John Fowles’ three types of people

5 Ross County, Rabbie Burns and how we want to do hard things because they are hard to do.

6 SC Freiburg and why “why” is one of the best questions you can ask.

7 Impeachment, Jersey Swaps and how gracious living is easy to do if you practice when it’s hard.

8 Minnesota United, Luis Amarilla and why, While it’s easy to fixate on the best, don’t let it distract you from the very good right in front of you.

9 Ross County and the value of playing to the whistle

10 Manchester City, Mike Bloomberg and why you ought to use your power thoughtfully, with truth and talent.

11 You can’t avoid burnout, but you can acknowledge it and select the most vital and most life giving tasks to focus on.

12 Covid Closures and why even if we’d be okay, we need to do what’s best for the others around us.

13 Rosenborg BK and how you are both a hope surpassed and a history alive

14 FK Vozdovac and why none of us are ideals

15 Diego Maradona, Macho Man Randy Savage and how to make believe safely

16 Ross County and why what you are loyal to is just as important as the loyalty itself

17 SC Freiburg and why you should keep curiosity in your mind and change in your heart.

18 Why debating all time greats is fun, but also pointless.

19 University of Montana Grizzlies and why I hope you have a fire in your heart, and a light in your eyes

20 Minnesota United and how we are stronger together than we could ever be alone.

21 Japanese Art, Freiburg and why you should appreciate what a thing is

22 Screw you systemic racism

23 Hope Solo, Megan Rapinoe and why you should look inside yourselves and ask “how can I help?” as often as possible.

24 ignore those who urge you or anyone to “stick to sports”

25 Freiburg, Vozdovac, and why you should extend yourself and others a little grace.

26 Protests, FK Vozdovac Hooligans, Freiburg’s Vincenzo Grifo and why you should never confuse a crowd’s approval with your virtue.

27 Star Wars, Freiburg, Rosenborg, Donald Trump and why leadership without accountability is just authority.

28 Rosenborg BK and why you can’t prepare for the future by trying to recreate the past

29 Rosenborg’s Women, Ross County, Racialized Debates and why context is king.

30 American Soccer, American society and how a team of competing individuals can lose, but competitive individuals together on a team cannot.

31 Emelec and why you should leave more than you take

32 Ross County and why owning your struggles, your instabilities, your pain is the most healthy way to handle it.

33Minnesota United and why you should keep your goals within your control

34 Grenoble Foot 38 and how you are never alone in the world if you have people you can rely on.

35. Black Lives Matter

36 Julie Blakstad, Marit Clausen, and why you can absolutely do things alone, but helping someone else succeed often helps you too.

37 Pedro Martinez, the Great Falls Dodgers, Freiburg, Minnesota United and why you shouldn’t begrudge players leaving our teams behind, appreciate what they brought while they were here.

38 Alebrijes de Oaxaca and why you should enjoy what your style is.

39 Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the University of Montana, Women’s soccer and how contributions of women lead to growth

40 The Minnesota Twins, Alebrijes de Oaxaca and how learning loyalty is rewarded with loyalty of its own.

41 My least favorite coaches and why what goes around comes around.

42 Professional athletes, teachers and how everyone benefits from a break.

43 Freiburg’s Men, Rosenborg’s Kvinner, Joe Biden and why when you’re worried it will all go wrong, just try to do what you know to do.

44 Franco Arizala, Alebrijes de Oaxaca and why nothing is worth letting the whole world burn.

45 Asamoah Gyan and how we are marked by our pain, both in scars and in strength.

46 Donald Trump, Minnesota United, FK Vozdovac and why you don’t fight the fights you can win, you fight the fights that need fighting

47 Legon Cities and why when you have to face the future, you should approach it as an opportunity to seize not a challenge to be feared.

48 Diego Maradona and why it’s best to love the good in all people

49. Ross County, Rosenborg’s Kvinner and why there’s something to enjoy in both expected and the unexpected events.

50. Minnesota United & why you don’t need to worry about losing, especially when you can just enjoy living.

51. Punjab FC & how what we build, is built with others

52. So…what does all this mean for you boys, for what I think matters and what I think is important. This challenge to write over fifty posts with an eye to you boys and to what matters most.

There are plenty of overlapping themes, but the things that stand out most are simply these two: live in community with others and appreciating both the good and the bad.

And in case there needs to be one more individual lesson it’s this: know how to fold them. I love you boys. I love soccer. I can’t keep writing two posts a week. I’ll keep this site, I’ll post updates and results. But I’m going to scale back my lectures, both for my sake, and for yours.

51. What we build

51. What we build

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It struck me that I ought to explain a little bit about why we cheer for the teams we do. Well, in part, it’s because I thought we ought to, and I’m the one of us most capable of complex thought and logic. But also, each team has a special something that captures part of what I love about life, and part of what makes you who you are.

So periodically (like during international breaks, long holidays, or say, global pandemics that completely alter everything we understand about our lives and ourselves), I want to introduce you to the teams we are tied to.

Our eleventh, and final team to meet is a team that shows that whatever you accomplish, you will accomplish it with others.

Dear Boys,

Wherefore Punjab FC

Your grandma has a theory. She believes that geography can shape societies. Growing up on Montana prairies, people were as open as the wild outdoors. Whereas those in the mountains tended to prefer a little isolation, like craggy, inaccessible human peaks

When I lived in India, that bore out. In the Garwhal hills of northern India, people were more independent and defensive, on my trips to the flat land, especially to Punjab–the agrarian state due west of my home, people were more open and eager to greet whomever they met and to support their neighbor as easily as my neighbors were to lend a cup of sugar or help hunt for a missing dog.

So it was that I fell in love with Punjab. As much because of the people and their values as because of the terrain. Though, to talk to your grandma, they often align.

Who is Punjab FC

In 2005, the year I applied to teach in India, Ranjit Bajaj started a youth sports club with a clear goal: to create a pipeline of talented kids who would, in 30 years, compete for the World Cup.

Ten years on, that team had proven to be a force among youth sides and, suddenly, the India Hero League. As Champions they seemed stronger than ever, but a new partner and a shortened season threw prior plans for a loop.

Now, two teams claim the Punjab FC Legacy, Minerva Academy and Roundglass Punjab FC. The first is Bajaj-ji’s project, still aiming for a Cup challenger in a little more than a decade. The second bears the name of Gupreet Singh’s business. Roundglass aims to support wellness for all through data and health programs. Hence the combination of training, teaching, and building a top tier club.

Roundglass will play in the I-League next year while Minerva stays focused on training. Time will tell how teams evolve from here, but both share a valuable vision.

How are we Punjab FC

One thing I hope you boys learn from me, that I learned from both Montana and Punjab, is to respect how what you have, largely depends on what others before you have done.

It reminds me a lot of what former President Obama said almost a decade ago. “Somebody helped create this unbelievable [system]…that helped you succeed.”

Your grandpa Mark started a business that has grown and grown. But he didn’t pave the road to work, he didn’t teach his employees their ABCs and 123s, he didn’t build each part and make every sale, he had a team. The business’ success isn’t just his it’s theirs, and all the people who helped them along the way.

I teach kids, but I don’t feed them before school or limit their screen time to complete it at home. Your mom markets classical music but she doesn’t play the cello or rig the lighting.

When Punjab FC takes the pitch this year, it won’t be Ranjit or Gupreet’s team, it won’t be the managers’ or the players’ or the fans’. It will be a shared experience. As President Obama’s rival, Governor/Senator Mitt Romney, once said

“you didn’t get here solely on your own power. For most of you, loving parents, sisters or brothers, encouraged your hopes, coaches guided, communities built venues in order to organize competitions. All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them.”

The Golden Temple’s Golden Hour

Punjab as a place thrives because people care for others. Every farm, every temple, every shop, every football club succeeds because others strive to succeed. Roundglass is indebted to Minerva, and Minerva to Roundglass. They share the privilege and the power of Punjab FC.

You are indebted to your mother and me, and our parents, and our friends, and your teachers, and the random kindness of Punjabi families who offered support and food and shelter.

What we build, we build with others.

50. Dawn of the Dread

50. Dawn of the Dread

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10 weeks ago I wrote about loyalty in the midst of losing. I did it after the Minnesota Twins lost–for the umpteenth time in a row–in heart breaking fashion. And now, shortly after Minnesota United Football Club managed to win a game for 75 minutes and lose it all in just under 15, it feels a little hard to hold on to that same “it’s okay to lose because it proves our loyalty” sentiment.

Dear Boys,

The hardest part of losing is the dread sensation that it’s going to happen again, and again, and again. That any moment of happiness or optimism you might feel now ought to be tempered because a mind numbing, heart-crushing debacle might be just around the corner.

When confronted with an often repeated, almost inescapable dread of opportunities, you might well become cynical, aloof, or generally dismissive of hope.

To be honest, it’s a fair response. One I’ve succumbed to my own share of times. (I may be an adoptive Minnesotan, but, by gum, it only takes so many soul crushing defeats by your teams to feel like: “maybe, if I don’t let myself feel hopeful, it won’t hurt again.”)

If you don’t hope that it can turn out well, you can remain dispassionate about it all. You can critique your own team freely and openly. They’re going to hurt you in the end anyway. Why not curse their failures and bemoan their mistakes? What better way to prove that the outcome can’t hurt you than by affixing responsibility for the hurt with every stumble and error?

If you’re not going to be critical, you can be fatalistic. “They were always doomed, they’re from Minnesota.” “Of course it was heart breaking, it’s always heart breaking.” If it’s your identity to be cursed to lose in painful ways, it’s easier to anticipate the pain before it lands.

But the problem with both of these is that it doesn’t fundamentally change the pain. You’re not above caring if you’re critical, you care enough to criticize. You aren’t beyond caring if you’re fatalistic, you care so much you’ve made defeat your identity.

All of these attitudes allow you to worry about the outcome before it happens. And there’s a Roman philosopher who captured the problem with that rather well.

We don’t need to adopt a defensive attitude before our defenses are needed. We don’t need to critique before there is something to criticize. We don’t need to foretell our own inevitable doom if we’re going to feel it anyway.

Instead of critiquing, bemoaning, or anticipating the worst. You can take a deep breath, look back on where you came from and utter a few words of appreciation. Or, as a fellow Loons fan put it this week after the Suffering in Seattle.

https://twitter.com/jakerueter/status/1336175134261063680

I realize that I’m writing this for two boys, and I’m trying to temper my own swearing around you. But goddamn it, Jake is right. The Loons weren’t doomed. They weren’t star-crossed. They don’t stink because they lost this particular game.

They played extremely well in nearly impossible circumstances. They made a run with a dynamic attack that can come back and try it again next year. You don’t have to imagine that all of that was meaningless because it ended painfully. You don’t have to imagine that all hope is null and void if it doesn’t end with a rainbow and a smile.

You don’t need to worry about losing, especially when you can just enjoy living.

49. Shock and Awe

49. Shock and Awe

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Dear Boys,

One of the trickiest parts of being a sports fan is balancing your delight at surprising results with the satisfaction of seeing talent triumph.

Last weekend we got a great dose of the former, and this weekend we will likely see a splash of the latter.

It was a shock to see the notice that “Ross County Scores!” When we knew the opponent was mighty Celtic. Unbeaten Celtic. Irredoubtable Celtic. It was even more of a shock to see the second goal come in for the Staggies as well.

Same Alex, Same.

As I wrote in the weekend review, Ross County was an absolutely shocking winner. Even though Celtic hadn’t dominated of late, they were Celtic, and at home, and riding an 8 match winning streak against County. The Staggies chances were cast off with a laugh.

Then it happened. And the sheer disbelief on Alex Iacovitti’s face mirrored the delighted shock on faces from Dingwall to our doorstep.

That chance to shock, astound and delight is part of what makes sports special. Delighted surprise and unexpected joy: not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

Next Saturday, Rosenborg will face Klepp in the last match of the Toppserien. The will probably win and seal second place. I don’t frequently adopt such confidence, but Rosenborg’s Women have given me no reason to feel otherwise.

This year there have been few constants: death, critical mishandling of facts, and points for the women of Rosenborg. They’ve lost once in 19 games.

Always a pleasure, never a chore.

They’ve been great with Marit Clausen leading the attack, and with Julie Blakstad cutting in, and with Lisa-Marie Utland capitalizing on stretched defenses. They’ve won going away and late. They’ve battled to stalemates and they’ve had lucky equalizers. The one thing they haven’t done is play badly.

That’s a second great pleasure of sports. Seeing talented athletes do what they do so well. Astonished amazement and sincere appreciation: a great treat before you start the work week.

Sports show us a lot, that’s the whole premise of this blog after all, but one of the best/simplest lessons is there’s something to enjoy in both expected and the unexpected events.

48. Diego’s Divinity

48. Diego’s Divinity

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Back in April I wrote about Diego Armando Maradona: a Legendary talent with a talent for living like a legend.

I used Maradona to make the point that too much make believe can hurt you. Maradona’s make believe cost him his health, his career, his family, even–it seemed–his grip on reality. Yesterday, it cost him the ultimate price, his life.

Dear Boys,

In a matter of hours the world filled with paeans to his talent, his skill, his style, his sweetness. A world with a shortage of global icons mourned together.

Diego in 1986
(Wikimedia Commons)

As I wrote in April, Maradona was always more of a myth to me. The tall tale legend of Maradona captured dominating opponents, running roughshod over rivals on the field, and shocking supporters outside and inside the stadium. Diego bought into the invulnerable Maradona persona but at the cost of the very human body of Diego.

But what I wrote then isn’t the end of the story. While make believe “Maradona” did burn out Diego’s candle, it lit a spark for the world.

Diego in 2020 (Aljazeera)

The outpouring of tributes this week isn’t made up. The effect Maradona had is real. The tears shed for him are shed, not in ignorance of how he suffered, but with appreciation of a flawed man’s complexity.

Love the good in all people. It’s easy to do with idols and heroes. We can forgive Maradona’s shortcomings because of how he inspired the world. It’s harder to do with every day people, but no less important. The spate of infuriated protestors across the street are difficult to deal with, but I strive to love them for advocating their beliefs just as I love Diego for struggling with his demons.

I hope you boys learn that, while not every person is admirable, everyone deserves your affection. We love others not because they earn it on the field or by their allegiances, but because we all struggle to be our best selves. You, me, the masked and maskless and Maradona.

47. Face the Future

47. Face the Future

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It struck me that I ought to explain a little bit about why we cheer for the teams we do. Well, in part, it’s because I thought we ought to, and I’m the one of us most capable of complex thought and logic. But also, each team has a special something that captures part of what I love about life, and part of what makes you who you are.

So periodically (like during international breaks, long summer holidays, or say, global pandemics that completely alter everything we understand about our lives and ourselves), I want to introduce you to the teams we are tied to.

Our tenth team to meet is a team that embodies the hope and optimism in a new vision of the future, Ghana’s Legon Cities FC.

Dear Boys,

Wherefore Legon?

Across the Atlantic, there’s hope and opportunity. That’s what your European relatives thought before they left Scotland, Norway, Serbia, and Germany (via Russia) to come to the United States.

They had hope because others were taken and brought across the same water without hope. Our opportunities were paid for, in part, with the blood and pain of others from Africa.

Centuries later, we can find opportunities for both ourselves and some of those most harmed by slavery. Africa is a continent of hope. Ghana is a country of invention and imagination. Legon is a city where the future comes to be real.

I studied in Legon during college. I made new and vital friends, read a lot of great literature, studied with excellent professors and poets, and taught amazing students. I enjoyed it so much, I did it again 5 years later. Legon is a special place. It is the future of a growing nation, and will help shape the future of our changing world.

Who is Legon Cities?

Legon Cities bringing the flash

A few years ago Ghanaian football was in trouble. Leaders in the country shamelessly solicited bribes. The league was plagued with allegations of cheating. And money for investment was scarce.

Enter Richard K. Atikpo. A well heeled oil tycoon, he swooped in to buy Wa All Stars, a northern team whose prior owner was in a heap of trouble, and move them to the Accra area, rebranding them Legon Cities.

In doing so he sought to build and brand a new kind of team in Ghanaian football. A team with as much flash and flair as a rock concert and as much ambition as the biggest sides in the game.

How are we Legon Cities?

It’s not that we have flash and flair. It’s not that we’re changing the game. But when the future comes to bear, Legon Cities is a symbol of what we aspire to do.

Heading into our future

When you have to face the future, approach it as an opportunity to seize not a challenge to be feared.

Ghana is going to shape the coming century. All of Africa will too. Our countries will become more diverse, more connected with the wider world. When they do, we ought to be Legon Cities. Accept the change and make the most of it.

We can say that we’ve backed Legon Cities from their start, even though that start was just a year ago. They’ll be near the future of football. I hope we are near the future of our world too.

44. The Dark Arts

44. The Dark Arts

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Dear Boys,

Halloween seems as appropriate a time as any to talk about something soccer fans all know about, but don’t much like discussing. Like the boogy-man, only, you know, real.

Soccer’s dark arts, the dirty plays, the unpleasant habits that can win a match, but may cost you your very footballing soul.

Arjen Robben, Peak Flopper

It might be a dramatic dive to the ground to pretend you’re injured when you’re not. It might be bone rattling tackles and tugs of jerseys to impede progress. They are not pretty, they are not pleasant, but they are, unfortunately, effective.

They’re common, and it stinks when an opponent uses them to their advantage and your detriment. Every time it happens it invites an excuse for your own poor behavior. It becomes a natural excuse that “well if our opponents are doing it, we should too”. You start to think you ought to fight fire with fire.

To that argument I say, nothing is worth letting the whole world burn.

Take Franco Arizala. The Oaxaca striker must be frustrated by his side’s struggles. We feel frustrated and we are neither Oaxacans nor professional athletes out to prove our abilities.

Arizala shifted the tide in the match against Pumas through one of those dramatic dives. Rushing ahead with only the keeper in his way he opted to collapse as the goalie slid in rather than attempt to hurdle, or chip or score directly.

The keeper’s red card weakened Pumas, and the ensuing stunner of a free kick opened the scoring. But helpful as three points are, effective as Arizala’s dive was, it’s not the same as a well worked goal, or a team effort for Arizala to assist a teammate charging ahead. That teamwork could help not just shift the tide of a match but of a season.

JSD Partizan’s Blog

Serbia’s well known for its bruising physicality. Artful offense will always be secondary to dark-artful defending. I appreciate that FK Vozdovac tries to attack gracefully, and I understand that allowing opponents to cut out your teammates legs isn’t tolerable. But the harshness of the Serbian game is part of what slows its development.

If, instead of spending ten minutes a match in altercations with opponents after a foul, players played, then Serbia might develop a more fluid style, or at least seem more inviting to talented foreigners unwilling to sacrifice their calves for a paycheck. If the Red Dragons flew as much as they breathe fire, they could be much more.

All this second guessing and idealization comes from the greatest sport for idealized hypotheticals: politics.

I’ve written a lot this year about political views, campaigns, animus, because, as with the virus, it’s swept away most other headlines. But it also has been a time for reckoning with who I am and what I want.

Many of my friends are tired of incrementalism, tired of aspirational rhetoric that falls far short of tangible goals. If opponents will lie, oppress, incite hatred, and absolve themselves of accountability for the sake of their end goals, then why waste time trying to fight the good fight.

We’re in a fight. Just fight already.

Except, if what matters is the result then you can justify doing anything. We can lie and oppress and hate and refuse accountability with the best of them. Except if that’s all we do then things never really change. Whatever end results we think we win will just be lied about, oppressed in return and used to incite further hate.

No need to be like this guy (The Guardian)

It’s not just about the win in the short term, it’s about the revolution in the long term. It’s not about getting the result I want right now, it’s about disrupting the system so we can all help build a new one.

I get that it’s hard to think long term when you’re bottom of the table, or a perpetual also ran in the league, or face to face with an incredibly consequential election. But we can do both. We can win now while redefining what it takes to win later.

We can vanquish the dark arts. But only if we eradicate the practice and not just excoriate the practitioners. We can win on the pitch and in politics through principle and patience. It’s not the matter of one play, one game, or one election. It’s a lifetime’s work.

43. Squeaky Bum Time

43. Squeaky Bum Time

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Dear Boys,

This past weekend witnessed a whole lot of tension for all of our favorite sides. Despite hours and hours of training, preparing, and strategizing everything that you want to go right may yet go horribly, horribly wrong, and there’s not much you can do about it.

In the same way, after a bit of over-confidence in 2016 led to a crippling four years of permanent anxiety, I’m constantly looking over news feeds for evidence of everything going wrong again. Again I’ve prepared. People I care about have prepared. But we know it might yet go wrong.

At times like this I think of a phrase from the great Scottish manager Sir Alex Ferguson (which I think I first heard from a Canadian colleague, Neeraj Prakash). He called it “squeaky bum time”, which I took to be that time when the end is nigh, and excitement has built to a fever pitch, but you can’t do anything about it.

My advice for you boys isn’t just to know that phrase, it’s a bit about what to do at times like that.

When you’re worried it will all go wrong, just try to do what you know to do.

Herr Leinhart (Freiburg.com)

Think of Freiburg. An early goal, and a quick concession and then ferocious pressure from Werder Bremen. At the core of all of it was Phillip Leinhart, who not only scored the Griffins’ goal, but anchored the defense to the bitter end.

Or there’s Rosenborg’s Kvinner. This team of tremendous attacking prowess, with all their threats and various ways to beat you finally faced the reality of a defeat, and responded by turning to the attack with even greater certainty until Sarah Kanutte Foldes won the day.

Even in America, we see it with Presidential Candidate and walking grandpa joke, Joe Biden. He’s never been the most eloquent, the most inspiring, or the most flashy. What he has been is reliable, dependable, charming, and genuine. So as the biggest campaign of his life (and indeed almost all of our lives) winds down, he is being that. Not being sucked into silly squabbles or crowd comparisons, just being himself.

All too often it gets hardest right before the end. Always remember that while you can’t control any outcomes, you can control your inputs. Rather than trying to do something new or staggering or amazing, do what you know.

Rosenborg Celebration (Time24)

Be Phillip Leinhart with his lockdown defense. Be Sarah Kanutte Foldes with her opportunistic attacks. Be Joe Biden with responsible, folksy, charm.

Or, if you boys end up like me, write about it.

42. Taking a Break

42. Taking a Break

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This last week was an international break. A time when great players can compete for their country, and when fans can thrill in a patriotic triumph.

It’s also a time when fans complain.

Feelings about International Breaks

A lot of fans would rather the players keep playing. Some wonder why clubs with international stars don’t carry on with the players who are in games for their country. Some wonder why we have to have international matches at all when the clubs actually pay the salary for players. Some bemoan the lack of entertainment and quality games, others wish that a few players who seek to stay home would respect the honor of playing for their nation.

Here’s my thing on this, for the very little it’s worth: everyone benefits from a break.

Dear Boys,

In my own career, I’ve spent hours upon hours not just teaching, but refining my practice, improving my skills, and attending workshops to discover new methods. I do it because I think my work’s important and I want to do it to the best of my ability. Sometimes I do it past the point of helping myself. [Ask your mom about the time I tried to cook lentil soup while grading papers and designing a new unit…it was…not good.]

Me at this time of year…

I benefit from a break, and, more to the point, so do my students, so do you boys, so does everyone I encounter. Because if all I ever do is work, then I don’t keep working well.

Hard as it is for passionate sports fans to admit, the same is true for professional athletes.

These people have spent their entire lives training their bodies to be in peak condition to compete at the highest levels and provide entertainment for us all. Every month or so, they get a break.

Good.

They don’t just need an “off-season” to recover, they need the time and head space to be human beings rather than our favorite source of excitement. They can rest their bodies. They can connect with their families. They can even not care at all about what a bunch of fans want and make sure that they are taken care of first.

Former Loons’ Captain Francisco Calvo deserves a break too (Pioneer Press)

Truth be told, rested players tend to be more fit. More fit players play better games, and we’ll all benefit from it. They also can be more balanced and better able to cope when their careers come to an end. Their health and well-being is so much more important that what I want for entertainment on a weekend that I can’t help but feel that anyone complaining about people taking a break is utterly selfish.

So, while some will tell you “there are no off days” or “grind 24/7/365”. Please, take breaks. You’ll be better for it.

40. It’s going to be a long year…

40. It’s going to be a long year…

by scruffyrube ♥ 1 Comment

I love sports, they just don’t always love me back.

Dear Boys,

If sports loved fans, the way we loved sports, everyone would always win and achieve a noble victory. But that’s not the way of things.

Before I wrote this blog for you, I wrote one about baseball with your mom. It was a way to be silly and talk with each other and share our love for the local team. (Before we acknowledged our love for each other)

The sad part is, while we watched some good games and cheered hard, the Twins always fell short. Sometimes they were the worst in baseball, sometimes the were the best…but still got beaten handily en route to another playoff exit. [As they were…AGAIN…this week]

Don’t think twice it’s alright….(Inside Hook)

Our expectations were always high and our disappointment was, correspondingly, deep.

Our attention to Alebrijes de Oaxaca hasn’t lasted nearly as long, but this numb, depressing, losing streak has still hurt. At a time when small clubs are struggling already, seeing Oaxaca suffer defeat upon defeat just compounds the pain.

With defeat and loss so common, it’s fair to wonder, why pay attention at all? Why put your heart out there if it’s probably going to end up in pain.

I’ve already said that trophies aren’t as important as learning from it. But if, like the jinxed Twins and the forlorn Alebrijes, you never seem to learn from your mistakes or change the cycle, then why?

Because learning loyalty is rewarded with loyalty of its own.

You don’t have to blindly adore them. You don’t have to spend money on them. But if you show your gratitude, show your concern, and offer your support you get so much back.

We will stand by the Twins even in the heartbreak of a record setting losing streak.

Another long, sad, walk home (Medio Tempo)

We will stand by Alebrijes even in a cellar dwelling campaign.

We stand with teams in the bad times and the good and we learn to do the same for others. Every time you show loyalty, your friends, neighbors and fellow fans will learn to keep the faith in you too.

Loyalty to losers is how we build community for the bad times. Hard as it is, this is a good time to love the Twins and love Alebrijes. This is a good time to build loyalty.