This Is Sportsmanship

11/23/2022

Spanish players salute Keylor Navas of Costa Rica after a 7-0 match

Keylor Navas has probably never had a day as bad as Wednesday, in the World Cup, when he played goalkeeper for Costa Rica against Spain, and lost, 7-0.

Not much of it was Navas’ fault -- the ball kept coming at him from many angles – but a keeper always takes these things personally.

Navas is no stranger to Spanish soccer. From 2010 to 2019, he played goalkeeper in Spain, most of it for Real Madrid, the perennial champ. Then he moved to Paris St-Germain, the powerhouse of France.

Any soccer player in Spain knows Navas, or knows of him – a modest-looking bloke, with a silvery thatch of hair, who does not appear to be 6 feet, 1 inch tall, as listed.

Near the end of the one-sided match, I hoped the tv camera would stay with Navas.
I often think of the second World Cup I covered, in 1986, in Mexico, when Argentina and Italy met in the first round in Cuauhtemōc Stadium in Puebla – a nasty game between two masters of infighting.

Yet at the end of a 1-1 draw, Diego Maradona of Argentina was hugged by many of the Italian players – a salute to his impact on the Napoli team in the Italian league. I witnessed a tactile camaraderie among highly-paid players on the two squads, who had been booting each other around all afternoon, and rolling around in gestures of mortal pain.

On Wednesday, a knot of Spanish players immediately jogged over to the Costa Rica goal and hugged Navas or patted him. What they said was among them. But the body language showed their respect for his long career on European clubs and with the Costa Rica national team.

It’s a lesson to fans in the stadium and watching on television. Athletes play hard, and sometimes it gets nasty, but when the whistle blows, quite often the respect is tangible.

Lee Lowenfish link

11/23/2022 04:56:53 pm

It's the best things about sports - the genuine respect of competitors for each other. It's Ted Williams at his induction to the Hall of Fame calling for the best Negro leaguers to be equally honored. It's boxers at the end of a grueling match congratulating each other. There can be only winner in high-level competition, but that doesn't mean the others are losers. Something we forget too often.

11/23/2022 09:55:49 pm

Lee, good point. I was there when Williams made that speech.
One of the nicest gestures I ever saw (on TV) was in 2002 when Turkey beat South Korea, 3-2, --two total outsider teams -- in the third-place game in Daegu, SK. The Turkey players showed good sportsmanship (and political sense) by inviting the South Korean players to join them in the romp around the field -- prompting a great reception.

Alan Rubin link

11/23/2022 05:06:48 pm

George, an excellent observation. After playing for ninety minutes or more at full tilt, most teams and their players show their respect for each other.

I was surprised and moved by Swarthmore’s coach after Lehigh had lost the them 6-0. He rushed across the field to comment that I had played an outstanding game in goal.

I jokingly asked if had watched the same game that had just finished. He laughed and indicated that I was too busy to count, but I had stopped at least ten breakaways.

The lesson that came away with was that I had given it my best and enjoyed myself.

Many professional athletes have stepped away once they were no longer enjoying themselves.

11/23/2022 10:01:51 pm

John, Nice of the coach, and maybe you really did turn away more ,shots than you remember. (I can't say Navas had one of his better games today.) Still, it was nice of the Swarthmore coach to say it. I will send a link to our grand-daughter who was a recent co-captain of the Swat team. The Div III women are generally sportsmanlike after the match.
GV

Marty Appel

11/23/2022 05:12:36 pm

Sportsmanship extends to good fans as well. Friends can root for different teams and also enjoy the happiness a win can bring to others. It’s not about enjoying elimination or defeat.

11/23/2022 10:06:37 pm

Marty, it's a good point. Even as a former fan, I got over some of my NY grudges. I remember a few 1951 NY Giants being at a baseball gathering in the early 80s (Dusty Rhodes was one of them) and I had a great team with them -- a lesson. Plus, I always knew Bobby Thomson, the guy who hit the home run was a terrific guy, and every casual meeting or sighting over the years proved me right. And my childhood terror of the NYY faded in the late 60s, as a reporter, when the Yankee clubhouse included Bill Robinson, Roy White, Horace Clarke, Steve Hamilton, Ruben Amaro and of course Mel Stottlemyre, some of the best people I've met in baseball. Fans should try to see that part...GV

John Wilcockson

11/23/2022 07:11:46 pm

Thanks, George. I'm sorry that Fox is not lingering after each match like NBC/Peacock does at the EPL. Those post-game images are among the true highlights.

George Vecsey

11/23/2022 10:14:31 pm

John, great to see your comment here. I see 45 Tours???
I noticed that scenario on TV today -- don't know whether that was a Fox feed or a general one-size-fits-all feed, but the camera lingered a while. Does Fox usually cut right away? Shame. I like seeing who greets whom after the whistle. I haven't watched an NFL game in years, but it is always interesting seeing the matchups -- college roommates? NFL teammates a year or two earlier, childhood friends, same position? It' s a guessing game. Keep pedalling...GV

Edwin W. Martin Jr

11/23/2022 10:32:02 pm

GV, the discussion re fans reminds me of a great example. It was the last game of the year between the Dodgers a d Cardinals at Ebbets Field. The Cardinals had won and Brooks were eliminated. Stan Musial came to bat, after hitting fabulously against the Bums all year.

The entire Ebbets Field got up on a losing day to honor a great player and someone everyone respected as a man, as you well know. I have seen opponents applauded, but never anything like that.

11/24/2022 08:12:59 am

Ed, quite right. That's how he got his nickname. Fan near the press box shouted, "Here
Comes that man again!" And somebody -- maybe a Cardinal press agent or something -- heard it and told others. Musial loved Brooklyn, went there even after Dodgers moved.

ahron horowitz

11/26/2022 06:01:31 pm

i remember reading he had 5 doubles in a double header and got that ovation.regards,ahron horowitz

Ed Martin

11/26/2022 07:03:40 pm

Aaron, thanks, that may be right. I remember thinking he hit about .600 in Ebbets Field against the Dodgers that year, and he received a standing ovation!

Somehow over 70+years my memory slips, dont inderstand why.

11/28/2022 06:09:04 pm

Ahron: Sorry I'm so late in replying. There's a World Cup going on.
I did not give the specifics of Musial's nickname in the book I wrote, but it seems a fan in 1946 (June 23, Sunday) shouted, "Here comes that man again," and somebody in the press box heard it. Maybe it was the St. Louis PR person, maybe it was Bob Broeg, longtime reporter. Musial went 1-for-2 that day, but he had many better days there., My bio does make the point that Brooklyn loved Musial, and vice versa. Best GV

https://www.mlb.com/news/stan-musial-the-man-nickname-origin

Randolph

11/28/2022 06:43:44 am

George,
I ask myself what is heaven like?
I think I have the answer.
6:30 AM, a good cup of coffee from a French press, the New York Times in my hand and a World Cup match, Serbia versus Cameroon on the tube.
R

11/28/2022 04:54:08 pm

But, but, but. When you turn to WC coverage you do not see the GV byline.

Randolph

11/28/2022 05:47:12 pm

Ed,
Your assessment is spot on.
R

Andy Tansey

11/29/2022 07:25:42 am

I thought his nickname was "Stash" (pronounced 'stosh'). ;-)

11/29/2022 08:02:00 am

Polish kid from Donora --
Steel town, learned gymnastics at Eagles club in Donora -- I'm sure he was called Stash by friends along the way. He referred to himself as Stanley. (I do a riff on that in the book. He gave hitting tips to farmhand Jim Frey, punctuating each crack of the bat with reference to "Stanley." Very social guy. GV

11/28/2022 06:13:58 pm

To All: Thanks for the nice words above. I've been watching parts of most games, and certainly the two US matches. There's so much good stuff out there, I'm not trying to write regularly, but I am gearing up for the Iran match on Nov 29...I wasn't overwhelmed with the England draw, and I don't necessarily think the US will beat Iran (although they should). I will write about that match right after it's over...I love the sport, love the event, and plan to watch the WC right to the end, US or no US. Thanks so much, GV

Brian Savin

11/29/2022 01:29:17 pm

Keep your eyes on Josh Sargent. He has impressed me as a special, inspirational player. Tireless.
Brian Savin

Comments are closed.

QUOTES

Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

This Is Sportsmanship

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