Okay, I have a story that I think is funny. When I was growing up, my father always disliked any sports figure that showed off, or acted out, or had any type of personality other than just being a quite gentleman and only taking a bow when it was appropriate but never anything else. In tennis he used to root for Bjorn Borg and he hated Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe. He hated Ilie Nastase more than anyone else. He hated how these guys would throw temper tantrums, point at spots on the court when they though their ball was in or the other players ball was out, throw their rackets and a whole host of other things. He also hated Muhammad Ali for all his talk and in baseball a player he did not like was Ricky Henderson. He hated that Henderson would lead off, walk (not even get a hit but walk), get to first, take a huge lead while sticking his tongue out at the pitcher, and steal second on the first throw, even if it was a pickoff move. Then he would steal third on the next throw. His model for what a baseball player should be like was Ted Williams who always, only said the right things and said as little as possible, would not take a bow for a homerun, always was quite and modest. In American Football he hated Mark Gastineau for his sack dance and of course others like him as well.
Now, I was always entertained by all these things because they seem so ridiculous. They really are silly. And especially the tennis stuff, it seemed to me like when one of those guys got worked up about trying to get their way with the umpire, it always worked to the other player's advantage. First, the other player got a rest and some extra time to get their mind focused on what they needed to do against their opponent, second, rage and that kind of getting worked up does not really help your control. So, it just seemed to me like a sideshow in a sense.
With all this, my father was obviously implying what a good sport he was. So, one day when I was in college, I went to meet my father at a local tennis court (he has been playing tennis now for over 60 years). When I got there, he was playing doubles with some friends. I sat in the stands next to the court and watched. He was yelling, he was jumping up and down, he was calling balls that his opponents hit, that were clearly in, from where I was sitting, out, he argued that shots he hit that were out, were in. He threw his racket at the fence and at the net. He slammed the side of his racket into the ground (the surface was clay). I was amazed. And none of his friends were doing things like that. And it seemed like they put up with him as though it was no big deal. I had such a good laugh about how he was doing exactly what he complained about when watching professional athletes. And he was not even really aware of himself in the situation. I tell the story to his friends and they all laugh but he will tell them it is not true, that he is not like that.
I really got such a kick out of seeing what a bad sport he was and I will always be entertained by that aspect of things but I will not care about it. It does not really make him any worse of a person. Off the court he is a great guy, truly. He just got so involved that he was not seeing how he was acting and he was acting out. I could psychoanalyze and say he grew up in the depression and had 5 brothers and was really poor and starved for attention. But, I don't think it matters and none of his friends seemed to care. They were all having fun in their own way while playing a sport they loved.
