{"id":509,"date":"2014-03-27T23:40:29","date_gmt":"2014-03-28T03:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=509"},"modified":"2014-03-27T23:40:29","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T03:40:29","slug":"were-number-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=509","title":{"rendered":"We’re Number One"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"angelish\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Boy oh boy.\u00a0 When I was a little bit younger, I used to be about as competitive as they came.<\/p>\n

I am pretty sure this was sparked… the first time I went into the church at Our Lady of Mercy… and I saw a bunch of the statues giving the “We’re #1” Sign.<\/p>\n

I still have a little whiff of this competitive zealousness in me.\u00a0 But not like back in the day.<\/p>\n

When it came to sports, I was cutthroat.\u00a0 No hold bars.\u00a0 I used to sacrifice m body just for the sake of the game.<\/p>\n

It started when I was a little chimp.\u00a0 Or chump.\u00a0 I used to play softball for North Riverdale Little League.\u00a0 It all started when I was about 8 years old… maybe 7.<\/p>\n

Part of the Little League Motto was “I will Play Fair, and Strive to Win. But Win or Lose, I will ALWAYS Do My Best.”<\/p>\n

Play fair.\u00a0 Check.
\nStrive to win.\u00a0 Check.<\/p>\n

DO MY BEST. All caps and bold letters… CHECK.<\/p>\n

Around tournament time is when I really got a taste for it.\u00a0 Holy smokes, how I would want to win.\u00a0 I could taste it.<\/p>\n

But it made me nervous too.\u00a0 Sometimes, I get such a case of nerves, I would throw up before a game.\u00a0 One of my coaches, Bev Johnson, sat me down one day.\u00a0 She said… “Polly.\u00a0 Those girls on the other team are the same as you.\u00a0 Everybody puts their pants on the same way.”<\/p>\n

I didn’t know what the hell she meant….\u00a0\u00a0 which was okay.\u00a0 BUT…. it was the WAY she said that made ALL the difference in the world to me.\u00a0 I would go on that field, and play my little heart out.<\/p>\n

Bev Johnson was my all-time favorite coach.\u00a0 It was the WAY she made us feel about ourselves, and playing ball… even as very young girls.\u00a0 We knew we were strong and smart, and able.\u00a0 We knew we were good enough to win….. but at the same time… JUST like everybody else.<\/p>\n

Bev died some years back.\u00a0 I heard about it long after the fact.\u00a0 It is one of those times in life, that\u00a0 I wish I had told someone just how much they meant to me.<\/p>\n

I’ll try not to let those times slip by me again.\u00a0 I’m competitive…like that.<\/p>\n

And if there is a heaven… Bev is probably there.\u00a0 With the Angles all around her…. giving the #1 Sign.<\/p>\n

\u201cOrdinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.\u201d\u00a0 – Oscar Wilde quote<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boy oh boy.\u00a0 When I was a little bit younger, I used to be about as competitive as they came. I am pretty sure this was sparked… the first time I went into the church at Our Lady of Mercy… and I saw a bunch of the statues giving the “We’re #1” Sign. I still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nowyouseeit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=509"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":514,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions\/514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}