Lets get one thing straight. Sports do not imitate life. Nor do
they offer us a distraction from our lives.
Sports are life.
One such tale of how sports permeate through life resounds with
me nearly every single day.
I have a friend who loved baseball. It didn’t matter to
him that he wasn’t particularly good at the sport.
What mattered to him was going out there everyday, taking
batting practice, fielding ground balls, conjuring up new trick
plays, and just chilling with the rest of the guys on the team.
When in an actual game, the kid was intense. On close plays,
he’d be the first complaining to the umpire when the call
didn’t go his way. Called out on strike three, he’d
treat his bat as if it were a flyswatter.
But at the end of the game, win, lose or draw, he’d be the
first to high-five his teammates, regardless of how he played.
Baseball wasn’t offering him a career, but it offered him
everything else you need in life to be happy.
That is until one day, the gift of sport was taken away from him
in the form of a stray bullet entering his spinal cord. A few
inches to the left or right, he still might be playing
baseball.
Alive and well, and getting closer to walking everyday, I
can’t imagine what my friend wouldn’t give up to have
one more chance to run the bases, to hit a single, and most of all,
to play a game that is more than just a past time.
Which brings me to this.
Next time you’re walking through campus, stop.
Look around.
See what’s at your fingertips, the endless possibilities
offered at UCLA.
Go to Drake Stadium, and jog on the track while Maurice Green
zooms past you.
Go to Pauley Pavilion, and shoot hoops with Grant Hill while
John Wooden watches.
Go to the Wooden Center, and train next to world-class gymnasts
while scaling a rock wall.
Sure it may be fun to watch athletes that compete at a high
level, but don’t let that deter you from competing
yourself.
After all, most of the athletes at UCLA do not compete on a
varsity team. They aren’t on full scholarships and their
wardrobe closets aren’t packed to the brim with complimentary
Adidas gear.
Most of the athletes at UCLA are like you and me.
We play sports like ultimate frisbee, flag football, and even
lacrosse. And while most of us aren’t competing for a career
stake in our sport, we are competing for the thrill of victory,
which is what sports are all about in the first place.
I’m sure you’ve been told that college will be the
best four years of your life (for some of us five).
So while at UCLA, maximize your time and savor the view, it may
not get any better than this.
Life, like sports, is a game of inches.
Seth is the 2004-05 sports editor. E-mail him at
sglass@media.ucla.edu