when did the sportsmanship leave sports?

I have now "experienced" 50 years and have participated in many sports, individual and team. As a kid I was often "the smallest" on teams and now as an adult I am often in the group of "the oldest". I have been on teams that finished dead last and only won one game [my HS basketball team] and I have been on teams that have won tournaments and championships, undefeated. It is the lessons learned that were far more important then the ribbon, trophy or Tshirt that awaited the victor.

I am now perplexed at the idea that even the youngest kids these days are rewarded for everything. They have graduations in elementary school. They are all winners in little league. Everyone gets a medal or a trophy. Really? What exactly are we teaching them with this?

Most of us went through things the old way. Someone won and someone lost, and you learned how to be a good winner and how to not be a sore looser.  But there are some people who just don't get it. Case in point... one softball team [unnamed] in a league [unnamed] that is for RECREATION has usurped all rules, ethics and civility and stacked their team with top tier players. They go through the season and whip most other teams, only loosing two games, playing with 9 players against teams using full rosters of 10.  They use illegally altered bats in doing so. For what? A t-shirt!

While other teams select/draft players who are children of women on their roster, players who are friends of someone, or just a player who no one would draft they are busy finagling a way to add another top tier player to their roster. While other teams want to win they concentrate on having it be about having fun. It makes it harder to have fun when you loose or get run-ruled but as I always say "karma will get them". And it did!

Great to see that in the year ending final game of the playoffs "that team" technically got run-ruled [which is not allowed in the championship game] and outplayed, to loose their second Tshirt. I wonder if they understood that all the people cheering for the winners were motivated mostly just by the fact that it was against them?  I hope they figure it out one day....