What does ‘sportsmanship’ mean?

Sometimes, I wonder just how committed people who are into competitive athletics are toward the concept of sportsmanship – as in the idea of trying to maintain some sense of honor and decency while also trying to beat the sense out of the other team!

Because it often can come across as a lot of nice-sounding rhetoric that is ever so cheap when put into practice.

A PAIR OF incidents occurring this weekend make me wonder just a bit more.

One involved the World Baseball Classic ballgame Saturday in which Team Mexico managed to get knocked out of the tourney – a 10-3 loss to Team Canada that turned into a brawl on-field and also saw some fans insist on throwing objects onto the playing field.

At least one Canadian ballplayer was hit with a bottle, and a Canada coach was nearly hit with a baseball thrown on-field by a “fan.”

The Mexico/Canada incident was provoked by the fact that Canada’s national ball club was well on its way to a victory in the 9^th inning when a ballplayer did something that Mexican athletes interpreted as an act meant to show them up.

THAT PROVOKED A bean-ball war, brush back pitches, and ballplayers charging onto the field for that group wrestling match that is usually what baseball brawls devolve into.

The final inning follies angered the crowd gathered for the match played in Phoenix to the point that warnings had to be issued – in the form of public address system announcements saying that the ballgame would end in a forfeit for Mexico, if their fans didn’t behave themselves.

Yes, the bulk of the nearly 20,000 fans on hand were cheering for the Mexico ball club – although any objective look at their play in the World Baseball Classic says that Equipo Mexico would still be alive and playing IF ONLY they hadn’t have blown that 9^th inning lead they had last week when they played Italy’s national team.

That is where Mexico fan anger ought to be placed – not on any group of Canadians whose own fate in the tourney was resolved on Sunday.

WHICH IS WHY World Baseball Classic officials decided no suspensions, fines or penalties were necessary – since the surprise play of Italy means that both national teams were done.

To an athlete, a loss in the standings is the ultimate punishment.

That same sentiment seems to have prevailed in Peoria Saturday night, where the smaller-enrollment schools played out their state basketball tourneys.

Harrisburg High School in Southern Illinois won a state championship – beating Seton Academy of suburban South Holland 50-44.

HURTING SETON WAS the fact that their top scorer got ejected from the championship game in the second quarter after he made physical contact with a referee.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Seton coach Brandon Thomas was so disgusted with the loss that he refused to have his team participate in the post-game ceremonies – in which the high school would have been presented with a “second place” trophy for making it to the championship game.

Illinois High School Association officials told the Tribune that as far as they’re concerned, Seton “would not receive its trophy, ever.” It was also reported that Thomas got into a verbal scuffle with Harrisburg fans so intense that those fans had to be removed from the Carver Arena.

That has state officials saying they are “disappointed with and embarrassed by” both high schools that took part in the Class 2A basketball championship game, while adding that both high schools will be contacted Monday to inform them of what future actions might occur as a result.

PERSONALLY, I DON’T know what kind of punishment could be meted out.

Do you suddenly re-write the history books to try to claim Seton didn’t play in the championship game, just because they wouldn’t take their crummy second place trophy (just like that climactic scene in “The Bad News Bears” film)?

Or will the ultimate “punishment” for this bad behavior be that most high school basketball fans will focus their attention on the large-school championships (Class 3A and 4A) that will be played in Peoria come Friday and Saturday?

Just as many baseball fans will either focus their attention on the fact that Team Italy played so well, rather than how poorly teams Canada or Mexico behaved in one inning.

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Perhaps that’s what they get for living in the most isolated parts of Illinois

The Harrisburg, Ill. tornado of 2012 wasn't severe enough to be a federal disaster.

It may sound so cold to think such a thought. But that seems to be the reality in Harrisburg, a Southern Illinois town of just over 9,200 people.

When a string of tornadoes managed to whisk their way through Missouri and on into Kentucky, Harrisburg was one of the Illinois communities that managed to get hit on Leap Day (a.k.a., Feb. 29).

BECAUSE THERE WASN’T much there to begin with, it didn’t take much for the entire town to be devastated. Plus the fact that everything that happens locally always seems more severe than a major tragedy taking place elsewhere, and you can appreciate how Harrisburg sees their storm of a couple of weeks ago as a major historic event.

They’d like to have the sad saga of tragedy; followed up by the heroic comeback as the people don’t let Mother Nature get them down. They rebuild, possibly to something even more significant than what was there to begin with.

That literally is the tale of Chicago – which could easily have ceased to exist after the great fire of 1871. Instead, it leaped far ahead of other Midwestern towns to become a major world city.

But nothing like that is going to happen in Harrisburg, or surrounding Saline County, Ill. Because in addition to getting walloped by nature, it seems the federal government did a number that will likely keep this town forevermore in the dumps.

BECAUSE IF THEY do choose to rebuild, it’s going to have to be a purely local effort. They’re not about to get much in the way of help from anyone.

Federal officials have ruled that the natural disaster that occurred in Harrisburg wasn’t severe enough to qualify for federal disaster status. There won’t be any federal aid headed for the Southern Illinois community.

A letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to state government said they believe Illinois government is more than capable of providing the finances to help the people of Harrisburg.

“The damage was not of such severity and magnitude as to be beyond the capabilities of the state, affected local governments and voluntary agencies,” FEMA officials informed Illinois government.

WHICH MAY BE true on a certain level. There is only so much money to go around, and I’m sure the people of Branson, Mo., will feel relieved that every dollar not being spent in Harrisburg means potentially another dollar that can be spent on rebuilding their community with all those theaters that attract the country music crowd (although for what it’s worth, I have an uncle who lives not far from Branson who claims it’s actually a nice place to visit for a quick show).

But back to Harrisburg, which has been told that even though they had fatalities and there are people who will be left homeless without some assistance to rebuild their residential structures, their suffering just isn’t important enough.

Even though I realize there’s only so much federal money to go around and the devastation may well be worse in Henryville, Ind., or West Liberty, Ky., I’m sure that doesn’t ease the pain of those who suffered within our own state’s boundaries. It certainly didn't make Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., any less disgusted (which was the image I woke up to Monday morning when my television went on to CNN's Headline News and anchor Robin Meade was having her way with the story).

Just like Allstate?

I’m sure we’d be equally ticked off if, somehow, a tornado had managed to clip its way through the extensive suburban area – only to find that someone in Washington thought that Chicago officials were wealthy enough to pay for repairs themselves.

IT’S PART OF why we have a federal government to provide these services. Their actions these days reek of the same stench that we sense whenever an insurance company prefers to look for excuses not to pay a claim – rather than providing the services they’re supposed to for all the years of payments the clients made so they’d be protected on that “rainy day.”

The United States of America, behaving like a face-less insurance company – that is a sad moment for all of us, regardless of where we live.

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