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Editorial: Lessons in sports, and life

 
Associated Press
Jackie Robinson marches in a civil rights demonstration in Frankfort, Ky., in 1964. Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball in 1947.
Associated Press Jackie Robinson marches in a civil rights demonstration in Frankfort, Ky., in 1964. Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball in 1947.
Published April 14, 2016

It's easy to dismiss professional sports as boys' and girls' games played for big bucks, mere distractions in a messy world where serious issues should command our full attention. But several events this past week showed how much sports can matter — the life lessons they can teach and the transcendent moments that can bind us together.

First, for anyone who's had a horrible, no good, very bad day on the job, pro golfer Jordan Spieth gave us a wise-beyond-his-years tutorial in dealing with defeat. Having already won last year's prestigious Masters, he was seemingly cruising to a second championship Sunday when disaster struck and struck and struck. He took seven shots to finish the par 3 12th hole. "Buddy," Spieth told his caddie, "it seems like we're collapsing." But the old soul, all of 22 years old, toughed it out and was a consummate professional, draping the winner's green jacket on the man who had beaten him. "Big picture," he said. "This one will hurt. It will take a while."

Then there was NBA All-Star Kobe Bryant scoring 60 points in his final game. A season that saw him reduced to a shell of the star he once was, he summoned up the will to make his creaky old body — old, that is, for a pro player — soar one more time and make shots that hadn't dropped all year. In a working world where people will seldom spend their careers with one employer anymore, Bryant played his entire two-decade career with one team — the Los Angeles Lakers.

And finally, there was NBA phenomenon Stephen Curry. His Golden State Warriors won a record 73 games, beating the mark posted by Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls a generation ago. He also made 402 three-point shots, a record far eclipsing any other player. But his gift is not his sheer athleticism. It's his work ethic. He makes it look easy because he works so hard at it.

Three stars, three life lessons. Yet perhaps the most important sporting event of the week was not a game at all, but Ken Burns' two-part PBS series on Jackie Robinson. Burns deconstructs many of the comforting myths about Robinson's breaking baseball's color barrier and gives a deep look inside the complex man, one who actually supported Richard Nixon early on. But the core lesson is the difference one man can make. Indeed, one person can change a nation.

Before President Harry Truman desegregated the military, before Brown vs. Board of Education desegregated the schools, Robinson broke the color line in professional baseball, giving hope and pride to African-Americans everywhere and making white Americans realize that a team — whether it's a sports team, a city or a nation — wins when all players are given a chance to participate. The corollary, though, is that this works only if people do participate. In an election year, this is a lesson to heed.

So here in the Tampa Bay area, as the Lightning makes its playoff run and the Rays hope to start hitting any day now, it's worth remembering that the civic pride and the social glue provided by pro sports teams goes far beyond the fans in the stadium. The joy of winning a Stanley Cup or a Super Bowl — and someday, a World Series — unites us as a region. At their best, sports helps to give us community identity and cohesion. No matter our class, color or background, we can all be fans of the same team and, in that unity, bridge some of our differences and stand on the common ground of Tampa Bay.