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BGonline.org Forums
Saturday morning speech in Pittsburgh
Posted By: Rich Munitz In Response To: Saturday morning speech in Pittsburgh (Chuck Bower)
Date: Sunday, 28 February 2010, at 9:33 p.m.
Finally back home and catching up after 2 1/2 days without power, heat or water. This topic deserves a better response than I was willing to provide via my iPhone which has been my only link during this time.
Backgammon, like any game is helped to thrive by its unique and colorful personalities. Yes, Chess had its Fisher. Tennis had its McEnroe. Backgammon has outstanding players and personalities like Ray and Stick.
I consider both of them to be friends and I think both of them can be and have been extremely positive influences on the game and its ability to attract others to it - both because of their high level of play and results, and because they are both colorful characters that get noticed.
Ray had an important message to deliver. He had the stage and the microphone and the attention of many people. He could have used this opportunity to make a very positive speech about the importance of good sportsmanship, fair play, honesty, integrity and in general taken the high road and made a positive, lasting impression on the many veterans and non-veterans in the room on how this game should be played and the ideals that some of the most accomplished players in the game hold of value; that greatness derives not just from how you play, but from how you act. But this important message was lost. The speech delivered was instead very personal with the bad blood that obviously exists between people very apparent; it was bitter, attacking, complaining and overall was a huge embarrassment to Ray, the ABT and the game itself. And that is a real shame, because the positive, motivational speech on values that a champion and potential role model could have delivered as a result of ones personal inspiration from the same underlying events could have had exactly the opposite effect. Ray has built a career as a firefighter on selflessness and helping others. I hope that he will learn from this experience and learn to channel his emotions to be the positive force and influence on this game and on others that he is certainly capable of.
Stick is another great character in this game who I have a great deal of respect for. He is not only a great player, but selflessly gives back to the community. This forum for example. The way he is willing to talk to anyone at live events and share his knowledge. The integrity and honesty with which he plays the game is a good example to all. And he's fun to watch and be around. But IMHO, Stick fucked up here, and I think he realizes that. There is no excuse for not attending the awards presentation and showing proper respect to the organizers of the event and the ABT who put in all of the effort to make it happen, and of course the players who managed to somehow get out of bed to see the presentation. With success comes responsibility. Imagine McEnroe winning Wimbledon and not showing up to the awards presentation? I have no doubt that Stick will quickly earn another opportunity on the ABT to get it right.
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