I’ve seen some fielders make errors on plays another fielder would not even try to make. He had his personal record in mind. The fielder who made the errors had the team’s success in mind. He was willing to sacrifice his personal record in the greater interest of the team’s success. There is a kind of religion in that attitude.
Incidentally, I’ve often wondered how it would be, I mean how it would affect the lives of us, if we all kept a daily box score on ourselves. I think what I am trying to say is that I believe in sports as a way of life. It was Wellington, you know, who said battles are won on the playing fields of Eton. I believe it can be said with equal truth that the principles of decent citizenship are born on the sand lots of Toledo, Ohio; Peoria, Illinois; and Southgate, California.