[FASTLARRY]

Sportsmanship

In the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, Ben Johnson of Canada won the 100 meter dash, setting a new Olympic and world record for the event. Carl Lewis of the United States came in second place claiming the silver medal. After the race, the Olympic officials found that Johnson had an illegal substance in his body - anabolic steroids. Ben Johnson ran the Olympic race illegally. He was stripped of his gold medal and of his Olympic and world records.
Even though Ben Johnson ran faster than all of the other runners, he failed to live up to the sportsmanship of the Olympic ideals. Carl Lewis was then presented the gold medal and was named Olympic champion of the 100 meter dash.
Athletic Principle
The future holds extraordinary challenges for everyone, and you must accept those challenges as a part of life. Honesty and integrity are most important. Never compromise on what you know is right." Lenny Wilkins - NBA Hall of Fame Player and Coach
Some clubs want to win so much they'll do any-thing to get it. Our approach has been just the opposite. We've tried to do things the right way. And the right way is the rules and regulations, and they are precisely what we go by." Don Shula - NFL Hall of Fame Coach, World Champion Miami Dolphins Sportsmanship - is simply an athlete who behaves fairly, honestly and generously in sports competition. It is playing and competing within the rules of the game. It is training and competing with honesty and integrity in everything you do.
• In football, sportsmanship is avoiding anabolic steroids to develop strength, speed and size.
• In wrestling, sportsmanship is making weight with out the use of diuretics, saunas and plastic suits.
• In basketball, sportsmanship is keeping your tongue under control, not talking trash up and down the floor.
• In hockey, sportsmanship is keeping emotions in check, not high sticking, slashing and tripping an opponent.
• In baseball, sportsmanship is not throwing high and inside at a batter to leave a message.
• In pool it is not smoking weed, powdering your nose or taking speed in order to stay up all night and gamble. It is not sharking your opponent.
Sportsmanship is always thinking of the consequences before you talk or act. What you say and do as an athlete does affect others. Think about it. Sportsmanship is a character quality. The time to build character is now. Just as the building that stands the test of time must have a strong foundation, so must you. If you don't build that foundation you will have a hard time reaching your goals. If you are able to reach them without character, the satisfaction you feel will be fleeting.
Start building a solid foundation now! Do it with character, do it with integrity, do it with class, and do it as a true sportsman. The choice is yours. You can win by being a cheat. You can win by being a person of high moral character with rules, codes of honesty and fair play.
God's Performance Principle
There was a young Christian athlete who attended a southern university. He was on the football team as the starting wide receiver. The athlete was continually praying to God, saying, "Help me in the climax of moments to be absolutely honest. I pray for honesty - the one mark of integrity. I want to be that, Lord, and I'll work on it through the season."
A rival team came to town that day for the homecoming game. During the game, the young Christian athlete ran his pass route across the goal-line into the end zone. The quarterback rolled out to the right, and drilled a pass that was low and off target. The receiver slid and reached out at grass level to pull the ball into his chest. The referee in the corner of the end zone raised his arms signaling a touchdown!
But the receiver knew otherwise, he had trapped the ball. He hadn't caught the pass at all; his body all but blocked the view of the referee.
The stadium crowd was cheering wildly for the hero of the game. The receiver got up and said, "Wait a minute." He jogged over to the referee and shook his head. "I trapped it." The referee canceled the touchdown, and the home team lost the game.
The receiver stood there alone, not only against his teammates that said, "What does it matter, man?" but against the stands full of people. He said, "I can't take the credit. I did not catch it."
This athlete showed his true character - he played fair, by the rules, and he stood strong and alone for the truth. He showed integrity, for that is what sportsmanship is - integrity.
Tom Watson, Bobby Jones and several other pro golfers have moved a ball in the rough just slightly, nobody saw then do it, called a penalty stroke on their own selves which caused them to then lose that tournament by that single stroke. Their answer was, I did it, I called it, that is the rules, I play by, and I live by those rules.
When Fast Larry plays 3-cushion and he misses and then makes a point by accident, a fluke as it’s called a lucky shot. He will not take the point. He walks up, taps the cue ball with his ferrule and goes and sits down. He did not make the shot, therefore he can see no way he can then accept the shot. He performs an intentional foul to cancel it out. Everyone laughs at him for this.
During a division championship in a league when he was a captain, in the deciding match a lady 3 made a great shot way above her head to cut in an extreme cut shot. When the 8 fell she slammed down her cue on the table and began to do the boog ga loo, jumping up and down in joy. The cue ball went flying around the table and came off the 5th rail and gently bumped into her cue. Everyone on Larry’s team demanded it was a foul and she lost that game and did not win it.
Larry ruled, her cue ball did not come close to a pocket where it could scratch and her cue did not prevent it from scratching. She made a great shot, she beat us fair and square and I will not steal that victory from her with my rule book. One of Larry’s team mates quit over his ruling. Larry said, we win on the table, not in the rule book. To win that way, yes we bring the tin cup home, but it’s a tin cup of tarnished shame. It could never sit next to my other tin cups won correctly with honor. If I have to win it that way, I don’t want to win at all.
"The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes the crooked paths will be found out." (Proverbs 10:9) Ben Johnson took the crooked path, through a drug test he was found out, and lost much: an Olympic gold medal, a world and Olympic record, prestige, honor, glory, and his integrity. Carl Lewis showed his sportsmanship and his integrity and was honored as a champion.
Not everyone will honor integrity as noted in the above story. It is a sad statement when the prevailing attitude of the day is to "win at all costs." But God is calling us as Christian athletes to a higher standard of conduct. It is our charge to compete with sportsmanship, true to the rules, fully seasoned with class and integrity, for this pleases God.
"I know my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity." (1 Chronicles 29:17)
Sportsmanship

[THEMOS]

Without strict enforced rules of conduct, in pool, you will end up with cahos and fighting over everything.