SML Takes (Intro)
Since I can remember, I have been passionate about Sports.
It started with running. The 50m dash was my speciality in grade school and my friends called me Flash. Alongside came football (aka soccer), which was dominant in the Middle East where I was born and spent my early years (Iran & Kuwait).
As age 8, my family immigrated to New York. My 1st real exposure to American TV was the Dukes of Hazzard. In fact, my first memory of NYC was the glow of a TV screen in a cold hotel room in Midtown. I should have been sleeping, but I couldn’t resist peeking over the covers as my Mom watched this orange car glide like an airplane across the sky. I’m sure she was equally in awe.
Then came Price is Right, Indiana Jones, and American Sports (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL). No one in my direct family was into sports. I gravitated towards it. Like a sideline reporter, I observed, took notes, and soaked it in. Uncles that came to visit and stay for what seemed like months at a time accelerated my sports education. (Asian Indian household , we take care of each other no matter how many cousins removed you may be!)
During this period, I had a front seat to sports history in the making. Select broadcasts shaped my youth such as Wimbledon ’85 with Boris Becker, Lakers/Celtics Rangers/Islanders rivalries, and Patrick Ewing’s emergence with the Knicks to name a few. My backyard was MSG and Shea Stadium, both a LIRR hop away.
My love of sports was solidified with the glorious run of the Amazin’ 1986 NY Mets baseball team. Funny enough, the Islanders (NHL), were in the midst of their historic four in a row Stanley Cup run, but I was oblivious. Blame it on Culture Club or Raiders of the Lost Ark, I’m not sure which was more captivating…likely the latter. Either way, the METS took the championship that year in dramatic fashion! …and they haven’t won since, a discussion for another day :( ... However, Game 7 @ Shea, just 20 mins via train from my childhood home took place on Oct 27th, 1986. My 12th birthday!
Needless to say, I was hooked. #LGM
Around this period, I became a loyal sport radio listener. 660 AM WFAN was my jam as it hit the airwaves in ‘87. Under the covers with Steve Somers often guided me to deep pubescent sleep. If not my min transistor radio, then the Led Zeppelin discography playing through my Sony Walkman (grey, not those bright yellow ones) lulled me to bed. I grew up watching Ralph Kiner & Tim McCarver on WWOR Channel 9 (Secaucus, NJ). On the radio, Mike & the Mad Dog, Bob Murphy, and Pete Franklin filled my ears while I built model cars and legos. Great personalities, wonderful story tellers.
It was around this time, in my early double digit years, that I become aware of the parallels between sports and life. I played Police Boys Club (PBC) baseball and travel team Soccer. This blossomed into JV, then Varsity sports in High School. I even earned co-captain honors for baseball during my senior year. I tried out for my the basketball team every year, but never made the final cut. Inevitably, I was on losing teams playing sports that were not popular with the cooler crowd (Lacrosse & Football were king). My exposure to the latter was through the marching band (I played the drums).
I learned a lot from the experiences and stuck with it. It was through losing a ton of games that I embraced the joys of winning. Those rare times we came out on top as a team, we celebrated with gusto. The majority of times, we took on the chin and learned from it.
Losing taught me about patience, about embracing the process. Failure is a theme that continues to repeat itself through the years. Yet, showing up everyday even when I didn’t always feel like it taught me about grit, discipline, and most importantly, about myself. I didn’t always start games. Some days, I didn’t play a single minute. However, I prepared just the same. Coaching 1st base, keeping score, rooting for teammates kept me engaged.
My coaches taught me about sportsmanship.
Specifically, losing with grace and winning with class. Through this, I formed a love for what sports has the potential to teach us. This has carried through to present day where I’m into my 7th year of coaching my 2 girls in youth sports (soccer & softball). In addition, mentoring and providing guidance to others is something I love to do. “We rise by lifting others” is my mantra.
In my senior year of high school, our baseball coach gathered us around a conference table to lead a review of the season that was. Looking back, this was my first reflection moment. My family didn’t lead such discussions at the dinner table, so this was new. We learned to pause and retrospect on what took place and how it could help us get better. Fast forward now 20+ yrs in Silicon Valley building software products, we regularly retro as a function of our sprints.
It was in this setting in June of 1996 that I received what to this date remains one of the best complements someone has ever given me. My coach went around the room sharing a few words about each player. He stated, in front of the entire team when it came to addressing my season, “Rohit, I would be proud to have my son grow up to be like you”.
Nothing about my mediocre batting average, my paltry defensive squats at 2nd base to trap the balls between my knees (my special move 😛!), nor my lowly run production. At the time, I took it as a complement and nothing more. No special revelations, just moved on as my adolescent self. However, since that moment I have come back to this scene many times. The comment from my Coach was about my character, about me as a human being. He noticed someone with the potential to lead and do good in ways that were not limited to “on the field” performance. For this, I am grateful.
In seeking justification for why I love sports, I have come to conclude over the years that it is about the process. The learning. It’s what sports teaches us about ourselves that resonates with me more than anything else. It mirrors life in so many ways that the analogies are crazy. In fact, I obsess over connecting these dots and love to share them with whomever will listen (often notes in my journals and more recently, my girls).
“Sport don’t build character,
they reveal it”1
Quotes such as this one flood my mind every time I listen to coaches speak, players share their journey, or see the best drama anywhere play out.
Because of what it teaches us and the parallels we can draw in our everyday lives, SPORTS is LIFE. Sports Mirrors Life because it provides examples many of us can relate to. “You only understand something relative to what you understand.”
In my case and I suspect for many of you reading this, sports is that basis that enables us to learn about something else. Every human being has the potential to relate. At its core, sports requires no language, no religion, no barrier. It promotes community and brings people together.
It is though this medium that SML Takes hopes to bring simple stories and lessons to life. My goal is to use the sports lens to cover topics ranging from joy to failure and mindset to equity. Enjoy the scribblings from my journal and countless voice memos on my phone over 2+ yrs to this medium, this newsletter.
SportsMirrorsLife = SML takes on how lessons learned through SPORTS can be applied to everyday LIFE.
Follow us and always be learning. @SMLtakes #SMLtakes LIFSKL | SML Takes YT
Attributed to renowned basketball coach John Wooden & influential sportswriter Heywood Hale Broun.