db: Keep on, keepin’ on in the 4th quarter

Eight weeks of competition, thousands and thousands of miles of travel, hundreds and hundreds of hours of practice, casting, too many times to count.

“I've got to keep on pushing…”

Dateline: The 4th Quarter

“Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.”
Stephen King

The game, is never played for us.

Those who watch.

The game, is always played, for those who play it.

Those out there on the field, not those of us in the seats.

The greats who play would play whether we are there watching or not.

Larry Bird took thousands of shots, in empty gyms.

Jerry Rice ran hundreds of routes in empty stadiums.

Arnold Palmer drove practice golf balls thousands of miles.

And none of them did it for us.

They did it for themselves.

We are voyeurs peering into the soul of sports.

And nowhere is that view so telling as the 4th quarter of any game.

“…I can't stop now…”

I have as a sports reporter covered, “run for the bus,” games.

And those games, were my favorites.

I believe greatness to be 50 percent talent, 90 percent mental.

Boundaries in sports are not made of lines of chalk, paint on boards, the only real boundary in sports, lies in the soul, the mind of those who take to the field.

Let’s be honest here, this season is over for basically half of those who launch today and tomorrow, we all can do the math, at this level there is no more, “win and in,” incentive, and that’s why to me I won’t be watching the top of the leaderboard.

I’ll be watching the other end of the line.

Because my friends, that is where, that is where, greatness will be born.

“…move up a little higher someway or somehow…”

“There's always the motivation of wanting to win. Everybody has that. But a champion needs, in his attitude, a motivation above and beyond winning.” ~ Pat Riley

Those who launch today have been on the road competing for TWO months now.

Eight weeks of competition, thousands and thousands of miles of travel, hundreds and hundreds of hours of practice, casting, too many times to count.

Backs are hurting, elbows are stiff, knees are braced, wallets are empty, credit cards are maxed.

And yet, 80-106, still launched.

They launched not for me, not for you, they launched for the man in the mirror because if they didn’t, THEY WOULD BE DONE…inside.

I see no reason to have sports of any kind if not for, to 80-106 group.

There will always be amongst us faster, stronger folks, whoopee-do, if we need people to lift or throw stuff, we know where to look, in any population of anything you have quicker and faster things.

But sports, “Sports,” and the fascination we have with the games being played are built on the backs of ordinary people who rise to extraordinary levels.

Therein, lies hope for us in the stands watching.

Even money is always on Goliath.

David, is where my chips are always stacked.

“…'cause I've got my strength and it don't make sense…”

Ask not those on the playing field, “How.”

Ask those on the playing field instead, “Why.”

This is what happened when the last place Olympic runner was asked, not how, but, “Why.” 

“My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race.” John Stephen Akhwari

My vote for the greatest sports quote of all time.

We in the stands should always boo the, “Kneel Down.”

We in the stands should always boo running out the clock.

If those on the field run for the bus, they need a permanent ticket out of the game.

If any of 80-106 don’t give it their all these next few days, next year they need to be fishing from the bank.

Our field of play is thinned by the cost to play, thinned by the toll on the body, thinned by the toll on the family back home.

I’ve never seen it thinned by lack of desire.

I’ve never seen it thinned by lack of willpower.

Here, in the 4th quarter of our game, you in those seats watching, take the time to follow 80-106.

Up top is where the game is.

Down there at the bottom is where life is.

Up top is where greatness is found.

Down there is where extraordinary is found.

80-106 is where hope is found.

And it is for hope, why we take to the field.

And it is for hope, why the games are played.

And it is for hope, why we build the stands.

“…not to keep on pushin'…”
Keep On Pushin’

The Impressions

db

“The principle is competing against yourself. ”
Steve Young