Five down, four to go

“To everything…”

 Dateline: La Crosse 

“When I race my mind is full of doubts, who will finish second, who will finish third.”
Noureddine Morceli
1996 Olympic Gold Medalist
1,500 meters

I don’t fancy the beginning in a sporting event.

I don’t fancy much the end of a sporting event.

Me, my favorite time, the time I pay attention to is the gut check time of the game. 

And here we are, five events down, four to go, roughly 7 minutes or halfway through the 3rd quarter. If you are watching a horse race this is where the field starts to widen out. 

A Vegas odds maker once told me when the horses widen out on the straight it’s gut check for every horse in the race. 

And so it is for us. And so it is for those out here who play the game.

I’m a huge fan of La Crosse, Wisc., love the downtown college vibe, love the folks who live and work here, reminds of my hometown of Buffalo, N.Y., hard working people, no pretenses, especially love the used record store downtown, good thing my 401K account isn’t linked to a debit card.

Fitting place for a gut check.

“…there is a season…”

“It’s better to be in the arena getting stomped by the bull, than to be up in the stands or out in the parking lot.”
Steven Pressfield
The Legend of Bagger Vance

So while I would love it if all of you just came by and hung out with me and watched what I was watching, that might be a bit creepy mainly for you since I can get a bit hyper focused when doing stuff like this and zone out, so let me share with you what I will be looking for at this here La Crosse gig.

Up first is Brent Champan’s race to AOY.

Flash back seven years to June of 2011 when I wrote this story about Brent and his wife Bobbi

To be concise back then things were not working out real well for them, and I wrote the story hoping things would turn around. I wasn’t sure if they would, but I hoped knowing that for Brent it was gut check time.

Fast forward a year…Brent Chapman 2012 Bassmaster Angler of the Year.

There’s a lesson here, a gut check can take you from tears of failure to tears of success. To be honest when I saw Brent lift that AOY iron after knowing what he went through the year before, I had tears myself.

Right now he is leading the AOY race 456 to 427 over Bradley Roy, like I said four more events to go so it’s very possible that four events from now it could be a whole new leaderboard.

But if you are watching what I’m watching I know Brent has the talent and the gut check to pull it off having basically come from a worst place to a first place in one season.

I pull for no one out here, but I do hope a bit more for some folks, and that will be the case with Brent Chapman and AOY.

“…and a time to every purpose, under heaven…”

“I don’t regret the decision to retire. My body was losing its edge. I was taking longer to recover from injuries. You have to get out at some point.”
David Beckham

I want to be very clear here, there is a huge difference between playing hurt and playing injured.

I get playing hurt, that’s part of the game.

I don’t get playing injured.

Playing injured is when it takes more than a soak in ice for the pain to go away.

Playing injured is when you need to see a doctor as opposed to the team trainer.

Playing injured is when you need heavy-duty meds or a needle to take to the field of play. 

Nicked up is one thing, disability is a whole different game.

We have several anglers out here who are playing hurt, that’s normal, we have a few who are playing injured, that’s not smart.

To those injured there is life beyond the game, more life beyond than within the game. You need to think not of today but of tomorrow, you need to think of those who stand on the dock waiting for you, those at home who keep refreshing BASSTrakk, you need to think of your loved ones and the time you will spend with them off the water.

When I was young, when I was new to this gig of covering sports I was all-in about whatever sacrifice needed was worth it to win the game. 

Short of killing yourself I took the “just keep me in the game, coach,” approach to athletics. I in fact told my docs the same thing. 

I was an idiot to do so, I’m paying dearly for it now.

If you are injured tap out, get fixed and come back to play another day as Mark Davis did.

There is life off the water and I want you to enjoy it. 

“…a time to plant, a time to reap, a time to laugh, a time to weep…”

“Success is a little like wrestling a gorilla, you don’t quit when you are tired, you quit when the gorilla is tired.”
Robert Strauss 

What if during a sporting event we never showed the players the scoreboard?

Imagine that, no quick looks up at the big board from down on the field, no numbers hand turned within the Big Green Monster in Fenway, no huge TV screen monstrosity hanging over the field. 

Just a time clock.

Play as hard as you can until 00:00, then we tell you who wins.

Certainly not reality, but just imagine, and here’s what I’m getting to. I think all the point business in NASCAR killed it. I think if you have to know math to know who’s winning it ain’t worth it to watch, just put up a spreadsheet for a minute or two and let us viewers go on our merry way.

There is drama up there in the AOY points race, but trust me, there is as much drama down there in the bottom of the points as well, and that’s where I’ll be looking at this gig.

Back in the day when I wrote about other sports, and as the seasons of various athletic endeavors were coming to an end, suddenly up popped the infamous, “run for the bus games,” teams out of the race, let off the pedal.

It sickened me, as does the thought of tanking to better the draft odds in professional sports.

There are some at the bottom of B.A.S.S. math that won’t make it back next year, I know it and they know it. To them I say one thing, play for the clock and not the score.

Play proud because if it turns out these will be your last four gigs as an Elite, live up to that word … Elite.

Swing for the fences, don’t go down with a whimper, go out screaming and kicking, biting, go down fighting.

Here’s why, next year we will reset the points, will do it the following year and all the years after. 

You can’t reset the mirror you look into, you’ll know in your heart how you finished up.

Finish like a star because here’s something you need to know as well:  I’ve done some Googling in the 0.00045 seconds and found this, supposedly in 2017 37-million folks took part in freshwater fishing with about 40 percent of those fishing for bass. (There are figures all over the place on this but I’m going with this one since it was the only numbers I could get to work on my calculator). That works out to about 14.8 million people fishing for bass.

Of those gazillion people fishing for bass, 108 have made it to the Elite level, which means you are in the 0.00072972 percentile of bass fishing. 

Now, up top I said I hate numbers, and that’s true but dudes no matter how, or when, you finish this gig…you are one hell of a bass angler.

World class is what you are. If you have to go out, go out with world class as well.

“…a time for peace…” 

If you are a fan of this game, you are a fan of a sport where every swing matters, every cast matters, every launch, every weigh-in, every event whether it be the first, the fifth, or the last. 

To be honest that’s what makes this gig cool.

I believe that the only reason that sport should exist is that it is a microcosm of life. It is the pay raise you get, the layoff slip you are handed, the new car in the driveway or the clunker dripping oil.

It is the bridge to talk to your children, friends, folks at work. Give to a sport that gives you something back in return. 

Give to a sport who gives to their fans, no sport stands alone, no fans in the stands no players in the field. 

I’ll try to along the way let you know what I’m watching out here. I promise it won’t be the obvious, won’t be the easy, but will fall within why I cover sports…the microcosm that they are of life.

May we all learn something from the games we love.

db

“…I swear it’s not too late.”
Turn! Turn! Turn!
The Byrds

“It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become.”
Dr. Seuss