By wpengine
Pride (pr d) n. A sense of one’s own proper dignity or value; self-respect. This was the result of my search for the above-defined word on dictionary.com. While my obsession with dictionary.com deserves a column of its own (who knew vocabulary could be so much fun? Look up my last name; you’d never believe its primary definition: Heroin! Who would’ve guessed it!) this time around I was genuinely searching for some place that still had a good sense of the word pride. Why, you may ask, were you looking for this word Scott Cameron Heroin? Well, friend, I couldn’t help but think that, in recent years, pride has begun to lose its essence here in the good old U.S.A. and I wanted to set things straight. Our President tells us to be proud that we’ve immorally overthrown another nation, while our culture claims pride in such things as 50 Cent, Britney Spears, and Maxim, and all around us proud people pedal their ideas off as worthy of such standing. But this is a sports column Mr. Heroin, is it not? Yes, friend, it is and that’s what I’m getting to. Though America at large has lost its sense of pride, sports has also lacked in this department and remains a surprisingly lucid mirror of our culture at large. Sports’ loss of pride has not, however, come with a consequent lack of the word’s prominence in sports rhetoric. Post-game and preseason interviews are saturated with the term and its constant use seems merely to represent several recurrent malapropisms, rather than a general ubiquity of the notion in the world of sports. The first misuse of the word is its confusion with winning at all costs. This is not pride; this is greed. Witness Barry Bonds being walked four times in a single game. The opposing team claims, “We have to take the bat out of his hands, it’s our only chance to win.” Such a comment would’ve gotten pitchers, in years past, laughed out of their own locker rooms. The game is meant to create such moments of purity and a bat in Barry Bonds’ hands is exactly that: pure. You therefore taint the game with your own selfish motivation by not allowing such moments to occur. Bob Gibson didn’t pitch around anyone. He refused to intentionally walk guys, but instead found it more constructive to simply hit players in such situations. In his mind, it saved his arm three pitches. That’s pride. The second misuse of this word that has become pervasive in sports is maintaining one’s dignity in the face of a losing season. Witness Terrell Owens whining like a four-year-old during last week’s annihilation of the Niners. Owens continued his diatribe throughout this week and remains the biggest sissy in all of sports. With hands like that, you’d think he could at least hold things together. After the game, Terrell said, “We’re frustrated, we just want to win.” I’m sorry, did you say we? Because I’m pretty sure Jeff Garcia wasn’t crying like a baby after the game like someone else we know. In fact Garcia said, “My overall play needs to improve
By wpengine
Men’s soccer head coach Bryan Scales has watched his team lose to the defending Ivy League champion Penn (2-2-2, 0-0-0 Ivy) in each of the past two years. However, when the Red (3-3-0, 0-0-0) travels to Philadelphia to play the Quakers tomorrow, Scales doesn’t plan on letting them make it a three-peat. “For these Ivy League games you can throw the records out the window,” said Scales. “These teams are so close.” Cornell is coming off of a very close win over Colgate on Tuesday. So far, this season has been up and down for the Red, which opened with a 4-1 win, only to lose its next three matches. The Red has won its last two games, but it seems that the team has yet to find its stride. “I can’t really say we played great against Colgate,” said Scales, when asked about his team’s confidence going into this first Ivy League matchup of the season. “We’ve had two shutouts this season, which is a good thing, [and] we definitely feel pretty confident going in.” The Red will have its work cut out for it with the Quakers. Despite the loss of several key players from last year’s senior class, Penn still has a number of all-around threats that the Red will have to systematically neutralize. The most obvious problem for Cornell will be Penn’s goalie, Ivy League Player of the Year and All-America senior Matt Haefner. Haefner managed to break several of Penn’s records last year, including lowest GAA in a season (0.45), shutouts in a season (10), save percentage in a season (.923), and minutes played in a season (1,598). He will be a major problem for the Red, which has relied heavily on offensive ability in several games this season. Penn junior forward Stephen Kroculick will lead the Quakers’ offense. Kroculick was first on the team in goals with four last season, and was second in points with eight. He was also Penn’s offensive player of the year. Still, while Scales and his team are mindful of the threats, they are also looking to turn the tables this year. “There are a couple of guys that help their team go,” explained Scales, “but at the end of the day, we’re going to try to make Penn deal with what we do.” The fact of the matter is that the Red has a lot more to worry about than just the Quakers right now. This upcoming match will be the first of three straight Ivy League games for Cornell. In addition, considering that this game is against the defending Ivy champ, it may very well set the tone for the rest of Cornell’s conference matchups. “Everyone’s soul is really in these Ivy games,” said Scales. “But for us, all we’re thinking about is the Penn game right now.”Archived article by Michael Pandolfini