Winning?

Trudging up the steps at Community Stadium last Friday night, I realized it’s been a while since I penned a column focused on sports. That’s the purview of the sports writers, correct? I’ll let them wrestle with who the Browns’ quarterback of the week should be, and whether Dwyane Wade should start or come off the bench for the Cavs. I’ll stick with the bigger picture instead.

One word comes to mind when I think about Ashland and Northeast Ohio sports over the past year: streak. Not as in the steaking actions of the young man who ran through the lecture hall during my freshman year in college, leaving nothing to the imagination. That term, “streaking,” originated with a reporter on a pay phone in the 70s: “They [533 participants in a nude run] are streaking past me right now. It’s an incredible sight.” Glad that fad’s popularity has waned since my college days.

No, my use of the word is more commonly combined with the word “winning,” or, in the case of the Browns, losing: a losing streak of seventeen in 2015-2016, and now seven consecutive losses to start the season. Winning can be overrated, but long-suffering Cleveland fans would be thrilled to have that streak broken.

In the world of professional sports, this summer brought a record-setting winning streak to the Cleveland Indians, as they won twenty-two consecutive MLB games in August and September. Unfortunately, they either peaked a month too early or they choked when facing the Yankees, and didn’t make it to the World Series this year. I’ll go with option one, repeating Cleveland’s tired mantra: “There’s always next year.”

Closer to home, the Ashland University women’s volleyball team has a home court winning streak of twenty-three matches of as last weekend. The Ashland University women’s basketball team has a winning streak of thirty-seven games, concluding last year by winning the national championship. And on the gridiron, both the Arrows and the Eagles are on a winning streak, each losing only their first game of the season.

It’s tough to cheer on a losing team, clearly evidenced by the empty seats at Browns’ Stadium. It’s likely that at least some of the missing fans agree with UCLA’s Henry Russell Sanders: “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.” But is it? Was baseball legend Leo Durocher right when he said: “I never did say that you can’t be a nice guy and win. I did say, if I was playing third base and my mother rounded third with the winning run, I’d trip her up”?

“Winning is fun, sure,” said the late University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach, Pat Summitt. She should know, having accumulated 1098 career wins, the most in NCAA basketball history. She won 84% of the games she coached. That’s winning. “But,” she continued, “winning is not the point. Wanting to win is the point. Not giving up is the point. Never letting up is the point. Never being satisfied with what you’ve done is the point.”

Olympian gymnast Simone Biles shares similar words: “A successful competition for me is always going out there and putting 100 percent into whatever I’m doing. It’s not always about winning. People, I think, mistake that it’s just winning. Sometimes it could be, but for me, it’s hitting the best sets I can, gaining confidence, and having fun.”

When life is couched in terms of competition, whether in sports, economics, or government, it’s hard to reject the foundational belief that life is all about winning. Yet is it? Or might sacrificing our own success for the success of others be an alternative model of living? Does showing up, working hard, and watching out for a brother or sister matter anymore?

Perhaps we can take a lesson about commitment and steadfastness from Browns’ offensive tackle Joe Thomas. His staggering streak of 10,363 snaps ended last Sunday with a season-ending triceps injury. A month before, he’d been the first NFL player to hit the milestone of 10,000 consecutive snaps in a pro football career. He didn’t miss a play, a game, since 2007. Sometimes, it is about how you play the game.