Different spin on that Bird article
Great article, from back when athletes trash talked to create an advantage not to create a media frenzy. I miss the days of catchers messing with hitters, opponents seeing if they can mentally crack you by getting in your ear. I coach high school baseball and kids do not have any idea what to do when another kid starts to mentally crack them. I'm not talking about low level hs baseball, that inability to deal with a mental onslaught stretches all the way to our major D1 commits.
20-30 years ago you learned how to deal with that and respond to it on the town courts, or down at the field with your friends. Now that every single sporting event is organized in suburbs from ages 6 and on, the coaches are there to prevent any kid from making another feel bad during competition. Don't get me wrong, I am a big component of boosting self esteem in young lives, and I'll become very upset with any kid that tries to bring down another in a malicious manner as sometimes kids do. On the other hand, most sports are a version of bullying in themselves and these kids have to learn how to deal with guys that get in your head like Larry Bird. Every pitcher wants to bully hitters by throwing FB's buy them and in essence, embarrassing that kid at home plate. Every shooting guard wants to school their defender. Every linebacker wants to up end anyone across the middle. Sports were always a forum to teach kids how to be mentally tough, how to deal with adversity may it be physical or mental. Larry Bird would get T'd up so quickly in HS in 2015, he probably would have a HIB report on another kid by the 7th game of the season and his coach would be in big trouble. Is that good or bad in the grand scheme of things? I think you can make a case for it either way.
I'm curious to see the other members feelings on how sports have changed verbally, and mentally. Feel free to respond.
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