Worst Seat in the House: It’s easy to dislike someone, or not

Every once in a while I think about some of the athletes I played against when I was in high school. There were some really competitive, tough kids that I knew were going to make my day or night difficult.

We never assumed victory because our coach would never allow it. I know that the night before a few of these games I tossed and turned. Sleep was a premium and it seemed like I played the whole game in my dreams.

When I say that they were competitive and tough I mean it as a compliment. I really don’t remember any one player that I disliked, but there were many that I feared. Not because they played dirty, but because they never quit.

You see it is a lot more difficult to beat someone that gives up easily than the one that doesn’t know the score or how much time is left in the game. They assume they will eventually be victorious.

As sports fans, it is easy for us to find the bad guy and hate on them a lot. Some of these guys aren’t bad or mean they may have just made a dirty play in retaliation and we saw the second swing not the one that provoked it.

However, there are players that want to think they are better than everyone else and will do everything they can to show another person up. They have little sportsmanship and usually have an attitude to make matters worse.

A few kids have told me that a certain player refused to shake or slap five after a game and they have no idea why. My thought is this; if a player doesn’t shake an opponent’s hand after a game then they probably aren’t worthy to shake it.

Who creates this animosity? Did it come from a parent or a coach or from another player? There is no written rule that you have to shake every player’s hand. But the reason it is done is to show good sportsmanship.

When I was growing up and going to the high school games with my family, I often saw someone from an opposing team play a bit dirty. I never saw one of our team’s players do this.

Or maybe I didn’t want to see it.

I probably was responsible for a couple of forgettable actions during my high school years. Funny thing is, I wasn’t called for a foul on those occasions. Usually my fouls were aggressive and poorly timed rather than dirty.

I’m sure there was more than one fan from the other teams that most likely didn’t like me. I can live with that. I’m much more likable now.

As fans of high school, college and pro level sports we all have those players that we absolutely can’t stand. Most of the time the reason is the guy is playing for the other team, not yours. And chances are even greater that the player you hate is pretty good.

I’ve often wondered why one player could do no wrong against the Seattle Mariners. The player in question was someone who was batting over .400 when he played against Seattle pitching and about .250 against the rest of the league.

To me that doesn’t make sense.

I remember when the Mariners traded for a player that was hitting everything until he put on a Mariners uniform.

Then he was hitting under .250 against every team in the league including the team that traded him. There are no words to describe how I felt about him.

This fall will mark the first time in the last four years that I will be attending a game at EWU and not watching Cooper Kupp catch a pass.

Kupp will be suiting up for the Los Angeles Rams; a team that I really don’t care for. Funny thing is I’ll be rooting for Kupp and against the Rams. How weird is that?

You see for me it can be easy to dislike someone that is wearing another team’s uniform but I can never dislike Kupp. He’s just too good of a person and he left me with a lot of fond memories during his days as an Eagle.

The only thing that might be stranger would be if I hated the player and loved the team. So far that has never happened. Okay, so I wasn’t too disappointed when a couple of players got traded. That’s just business, right?