A Cleveland, Ohio suburb has cancelled its annual Recreation League All-Star Game for 9 to 12 year olds. In a letter to coaches, the league announced that the decades old tradition would end because certain kids were being singled out as better players than others.

             - WTAM Newsradio 1100

Man, some blogs just write themselves don’t they? I mean, seriously?

Do the children that are stunned and crushed by some peers “being singled out as being better players than others” feel the same way when “some kids are singled out as having better grades than others?” Perhaps we should do away with the honor roll and report cards too?

Look, I am generally all about fairness and preventing hurt feelings at all costs. As a once shy, unathletic, two-left footed child myself, I understand all too well how the have-nots (or “catch-nots”) can be made to feel the chilly frost of separation from the herd. Of having it be known that you aren’t “all that” in the chosen arena. I am the girl chosen last. Yeah, that kid. Nice to meet you.

Even I, however, see the merit in competition. In team spirit. In lauding the chosen few for their extra-special accomplishments, hard work, or yes, God given talents.

Why? Because real life works like that too.

Like all aging hipsters certain that “kids these days” are “going to hell in a handbasket” I fear that we are raising a nation of wimps. Entitled wimps at that.

So used will they be to kudos and certificates and a ticker-tape parade just for showing up that they will, I fear, be unable to function in any real, competitive workplace. “Just do your best” can be both a balm for the less gifted or a catch-phrase for the uncommitted. “But it’s not fair!” the battle-cry of the entitlement mentality.

Turning sports into just another “you show up, you get a sticker!” (and hell, probably a snack) endeavor is not the way to save children from hurt.

When I sucked at sports (and oh I really, really did). I learned that sports were not for me. Not in the “I’m going to be a contender!” sense anyway. Those All-Star games of old certainly culled the likes of me from the stand-out-sports-star herd and I, for one, am better for it. Realizing I was never going to make a living, or much more than a fool out of myself, in the athletic arena allowed me to hone my skills in other, more appropriate, ways.

Today my sign reads “will write for food” and I don’t think the sports world has missed me much. Imagine if I’d spent my formative years being assured I was “just as good” as anyone else, despite all evidence to the contrary? 

In truth, all this “you are all stars!” mentality probably only postpones reality for a decade or two until the overly coddled generation discovers that in the “real world’ just showing up is not enough. You have to perform - nay OUTperform others - too.

In life, like in baseball, sometimes you’re the Louisville slugger, and sometimes you’re the ball.

Rarely, in either, however, do you win it all just for showing up.

Bookmark to: