Winning Doesn't Suck

My team won the other night.
Not the Twins, but my team, the one I play on.
It ended a losing streak of about 30 games. Now there were a variety of factors that contributed to that streak - which I won't get into here.
But what I will say is that I learned alot about competition during said streak.
Winning, no matter how much assembled talent you have, is hard. In a team sport, especially baseball, there are no gimmes. The game is hard, and is meant to be hard. The game is unforgiving, demanding and sometimes even cruel. No matter how many L's pile up, the game does not owe any W's. They must be earned.
I won't sit here and say we finally went out and played a great game - we didn't. But we did earn it. We did deserve it. And though it was a meaningless, non-league game, it was a terrific moment when the final out was recorded.
A weight was lifted from our collective shoulders, sure, but more than anything it reminded why it was worth it to keep plugging away even as the L's piled up.
A lesser team would've packed it in a while back, I think.
Lesser players, many of whom were a part of the streak, got tired of the losing, placed blame elsewhere, and quit. Many of them were far more talented players than the ones who picked up a win on Tuesday, but that just reminds how unforgiving the game is. Talent alone is not rewarded.
I don't know how many more wins we'll capture, but I do know that winning, like losing, can be contagious.
Tonight we host the number one team in the state - a club that is just shy of being minor league caliber.
And while I don't expect to win the game, I certainly don't dread it as much as I may have had we not won on Tuesday. With a win under the belt, even the toughest opponent seems a little less daunting today.