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By Randy Gardner

I usually save my holiday rant for the last issue of the year but I broke it out in the past issue and thanks for all of the feedback about it.

All year long, I write about the world of sports. A world that lets us all escape the pressures of daily life. It takes us to a place where we can escape for a few hours and worry about nothing else more than if our team wins. For some though, it is more than a couple of hours a week, for some it is hundreds of hours a month in watching sports.

I bet there are a lot of wives agreeing with this statement about their husbands. Its okay though. It gives us something to believe in and look forward too. All of us ex-athletes can live through these players and what they are doing and what we did not do.

The one thing that seems to strike the cords of most people are when I talk about personal stories of my self in defeat, whether it is in life or in coaching. Many say they can relate to that because they have experienced it in their own lives with their kids.

A quick story about a defeat, I have had my older boys team for about six months now, a team of 14 boys put together from all over for soccer. We were very lucky and hadn’t lost in 15 games, last night (Tuesday) we got a butt kicking so bad that I am standing to write this article because I cant sit down.

The team hadn’t lost since we were formed and they lost their minds after the game. They didn’t know what to do. I explained on a positive note that it is okay to lose, it builds character and gives you a bad feeling that can propel you to try harder to win so you don’t experience that feeling again. Did they buy it, I don’t know. As I was saying this to them, I was hurting inside because I hate to lose also. Winning is a habit and losing is a habit also. You have to be able to take a loss and use it as a tool to win again. This is a lesson that I hopefully can teach the kids that they can use in real life in relationships, jobs and in sports.

Mixed Reviews on the 2014 Sports Seen

I thought I would write a year of wrap up in sports but honestly it was a mix bag. The Cards did make it to the NL championship for the 4^th straight years, but Rams likely will below .500 again. U.S. soccer lose and Ambush lost. But the Blues are winning. So it’s been a mixed bag.

The bigger stories I think will come next year as the Rams move will be in the front of everyone’s minds, the Cardinals will come out fresh and hopefully look to get back to the Series. For the Blues, hockey season carries into next year will hopefully bring us a Cup to St. Louis. I used the word hopefully a lot in this paragraph because that is what all of us sports fans do in St. Louis, Hope a lot.

Hope for a championship season in 2015. Finally, as we bring 2014 to a close, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone. Remember to tell the special people in your life, you love them and do something nice for a stranger. It will make you feel great. Happy Holidays.

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