Katey is good at pretending to be interested in hearing my old stories about playing sports. Our unspoken understanding is that it better be the brief version. So, to cut to the chase, I told her my grandfather taught me it was shameful to withhold one's best effort during any athletic contest, especially team sports, because of disappointment or anything else. He told me to never quit, no matter how lopsided the score. It was one's duty to the game to play it properly.

Naturally, when he took me to a Richmond V's baseball game at Parker Field, when I was little, we always stayed through the last out, no matter the score. He explained: "You never know when you'll see something new." 

Eventually, as it was with everything to do with how to carry oneself properly, while playing sports, I adopted his rules. Therefore, it's at least partially his fault I became such a hard-head about going all out -- all the time -- until the game is over. Sometimes my teammates and or opponents found it to be annoying. 

For instance, in basketball, on defense I tended to pick up the man I was guarding at half-court and stay on him, closely, no matter where he went. Maybe a little hand-checking or a shove when emphasizing the setting of a pick. Some guys don't like that. I did it anyway. In softball, I happily took out infielders planted on a base, by sliding into their feet, in taking an extra base. With Frisbee-golf putts, I didn't much believe in laying up to play it safe.

However, trying your best doesn't mean winning is the only point. Once the game was over, after the initial rush for winning, or feeling of defeat for losing passed, I wasn't usually as pumped up over winning, or deflated over losing, as some of my teammates (I'm sure there were exceptions). 

For the most part, once it was over, it was over, because I loved the process of playing hard more than I loved winning. Thus, while I always tried to win, mostly I was more of a process guy than a results guy. Like Jamie Raskin, I wanted to make a great play in a clutch moment. 

Raskin gave it his all. It was plenty. He should win, but it's like when he got into the game the score was already way in favor of his opposition; something like a mop-up relief pitcher who comes in from the pen in the bottom of the seventh inning with his side down, 12-to-2. 

Nonetheless, Raskin and his fellow managers went all out. I'm proud of their effort and Raskin's leadership, in particular. And even if some Republican senators weren't paying attention, a lot of young people were. Hopefully, some of them saw something new to them -- an honest effort.

-- 30 --