Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
May 14, 2009, Washington Post

Love for the Game Beats Winning Anytime

The Washington Capitals played the seventh game of their National Hockey League playoff series with the Pittsburgh Penguins last night. Check today's Sports section to see if the Caps won or broke our hearts.

The seventh game of any playoff series is always special, win or lose. The other six games seem to build to the excitement of a dramatic finish. The seventh game always has an edge-of-your-seat, heart-in-your-throat intensity unlike any other. One play, one shot, one save may make all the difference.

The Caps-Penguins seventh game got me thinking about other things that make our games and sports so special.

For example, where we play our sports is often one of the best things about the games. Think of it: What is as perfect as a fresh sheet of ice after the Zamboni machine has made its final pass and left the surface as smooth as a pane of glass? Or a swimming pool on a summer morning, clear and calm, before the first swimmer has broken the water?

To me a freshly mowed and lined baseball, soccer or lacrosse field is as beautiful as any painting. So is a golf course in the early morning, or in the evening when the sun is setting.

The stuff we play with is wonderful, too. Is there anything that feels as good in your hand as a brand-new baseball? Or a nice leather football? Grab hold of either, and you just have to play a game of catch.

Notice the next time you open a can of new tennis balls. They seem to come out all yellow in a great swoosh, bouncing eagerly onto the court. New tennis balls even smell great.

The stuff we play in is fun, too. Sports uniforms are so much more colorful and comfortable than regular clothes. Maybe that's why so many Caps fans dress up in their team's jerseys when they go to Verizon Center and kids stay in their sports uniforms long after their games are over.

No shoes feel better on my feet than my golf shoes. Maybe that's because I know I am going to have fun whenever I put them on.

We talk so much about winning in sports. But if you are the kind of kid who is happy only when her team wins, then sports will let you down. After all, no team or player wins all the time.

But if you can learn to enjoy the parts of sports that have nothing to do with winning or losing -- the feel of a favorite bat or stick in your hand, or how your heart jumps when you put on your uniform or run onto the field -- then sports will always be fun. Whether you win or lose.

Fred Bowen writes KidsPost's sports opinion column and is an author of sports novels for kids.

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