"Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing," according to the old sports quote, but even the most passionate sports fan knows it's wrong.
Who you are, how you win and how often you win and lose are equally important.
If you're a player on storied franchises like the Montreal Canadiens or the New York Yankees, you are expected to win. Every time you play a home game, you look at the legends that wore that uniform before you and you feel the weight of history and your added responsibility to do that uniform proud.
If you play for the Chicago Cubs, who last won a World Series 107 years ago, history offers a different incentive. For the current Cubs, heading out onto the field this afternoon for a one-game sudden death playoff game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the opportunity to make history by ending the longest futility record in professional sports is just another motivating factor.
If you wear a Toronto Blue Jays uniform, winning the pennant as American League East division champions for the first time in 22 years is a fabulous accomplishment but the expectations of an entire nation now sit on your shoulders as you enter the pressure cooker of October baseball.
You are expected to win it all, right through the World Series, just like the other two times the Jays made the playoffs. You will have to beat a tough and resilient Texas Rangers team, then you will likely have to contend with the American League champion Kansas City Royals, runners-up in last year's World Series.
If you manage to win those two, there is still the World Series to be played against the National League champion.
If you're a member of the Prince George Cougars and the Prince George Spruce Kings, from management and staff down to coaches and players, both the Cubs and the Jays are a deep source of inspiration.
The Cubs may be losers but they are Chicago's losers, the Lovable Losers, playing at a historic 101-year-old field with the eternal optimism that this might be the year. Long-suffering Cougars and Spruce Kings fans in Prince George know nothing of the pain of Cubs loyalists, who have not seen their team in the World Series since 1945. Yet they love their team and they love Wrigley Field. A slim chance to win the World Series, which is all today's game against the Pirates offers, is special.
Regardless of their winning record, the Cubs have always been entertaining, always been competitive, always holding out the hope of eternal glory each spring with players proud to wear the uniform. Prince George should ask for no more, but no less, from the Cougars and the Spruce Kings than what the Cubs give Chicago.
The Jays provide different motivation for the Cougars and the Spruce Kings. The Jays started the season far from the minds of most Canadians but now everyone is talking about them and following them because they win and they win either by pounding teams into oblivion or in dramatic fashion in the late innings. The team and all of their players are exciting to watch.
But that's not who the Jays were six months ago. They limped out of the gate, got hit with injuries and lost too many close games. They showed flashes of promise but couldn't seem to deliver, but with a few key trades, followed up with some bold moves at the trade deadline at the end of July, they transformed overnight into the hottest team in baseball.
Suddenly the Jays were the talk of sports fans, both in Canada and the United States. Suddenly the park was filled with sellout crowds.
The Cougars and the Spruce Kings are both off to slow starts and fan support has been fickle. Yet both organizations are working hard to improve. The Spruce Kings are in the basement of their division but are retooling fast in a valiant effort to get back on track. The Cougars are taking a more patient approach, confident their core players will start to gell and manufacture victories. Both teams continue to work on an organizational culture that stresses character and hard work from everyone. Winning doesn't always happen with effort but it can't happen at all without it. Commitment also builds pride, both among players and fans.
Prince George is already proud of both of its junior hockey teams. Exciting players generating exciting wins with the potential for much more will not only bolster that pride, it will unite the whole city, just like the whole country has now clambered aboard the Blue Jays bandwagon.
--Managing editor Neil Godbout
