B-log

Reflections on years as a sports dad and coach

• There’s a lot more pink in softball than baseball. This gets less so as the kids age.
• Children under the age of seven like to play in dirt, regardless of sex
• Boys will tackle each other to be the first to get to a ball. Girls are much more polite in their approach. This is also true in basketball.
• Coaches for boys think that what they’re doing today for 5-year olds could make or break whether or not they get to the big leagues. Coaches for girls think that what they’re doing for the 5 year-old girls will make or break whether or not the girls will have fun that day.
• Both groups really need a lot of work on fielding grounders, dribbling the ball, and listening to the coach.
• Dads of either group tend to be more insecure about their child’s performance than do moms.
• Parents of either group can be the most un-fun part of the sport.
• Kids accomplish much more with encouragement than by humiliation or dread.

Yesterday, husband/dad/golfer/magnate Tiger Woods offered his mea culpa for repeatedly committing adultery against his wife, Elin.

He asked for forgiveness from (and I think in this order, but I could be wrong):

• The employees at his foundation
• His business partners
• His family
• The parents of children who idolized him.

To be honest, it’s a little silly to suggest that I, or any fan, needs to forgive him. To do so also suggests that there is a relationship that has been damaged. To use the word “relationship” between him and myself would be to stretch the term tenuously thin.

The truth is, he is a professional athlete and we live in the age of where virtually every professional athlete is little more than a well-managed, messed up human being who happens to excel at sports. My son has taken down more posters from his wall in the past few years thanks to steroids, cheating, and now… sex scandals.

Tiger asked the golf fan world to “one day believe in him again.” Make no mistake, to believe in Tiger Woods is no different than believing in the Tooth Fairy. Both have lots of coin, and they’re both happy with a hole in one. Oh, and both are fictitious creations. “Tiger” is a mythical beast who dominates the golf course. His alter ego, Eldrick, is the one I hope finds restoration in his marriage and redemption from God (although I’m pessimistic about the latter given his Buddhist inclinations).

My son asked me who the best golfer was, in light of these developments. I told him, as far as golf goes, it is still Tiger. When he plays, I enjoy watching golf…and that’s saying a lot.  But when it comes to being an honorable person, I have no idea. And it doesn’t matter if you are making hundreds of millions of dollars a year, if you have no integrity of character, you offer nothing to believe in.

If Tiger never golfs again, I suppose it would be sad, to some degree of sports significance. But if Eldrick fails to follow through on this proverbial tee where he finds himself with all his personal relationships, the result will be far more sad and significant. May God show him grace, bring him healing, and lead him to truth.