Thursday, April 3, 2014

Finishing Last Isn't So Bad

I don’t know when it was that I first heard the question, “What do you call a doctor who
graduated at the bottom of his class?”  Of course the quick thinkers among us had the obvious answer, “Doctor.”   Then there was a similar question about the officer who graduated from West Point, “How does a soldier reply to an officer who graduated last in his class?”  Without hesitation, “Sir!” or “Yes, sir!”

Well I hadn’t thought about this one regarding sports figures.  What do you call the guy who comes in last?   You could include the professional baseball player with the worst batting average in the league or the entire football team that took the bottom position in the season’s end of year standings.  For most of us sitting on the sidelines we should come up with the obvious answer, “Rich!”  Maybe not super rich, like Bill Gates, but rich nonetheless.  Most of us would agree that anyone who makes it to the major leagues (or PGA, NFL, NBA) is a whole lot better off financially than us peons who cheer them on from afar.

If you’re interested in a more wordy dissertation on this subject, while researching something completely unrelated to this subject I ran across the following:
Life In TheLast Lane: What's It's Like To Be 'That Guy' In Last Place
Here’s an excerpt:
The fact that this man also made a better living than 99% of the world was intriguing. When you're the worst player in a real professional sport, you're still better off than most people. Here he is, the worst in the PGA, and making at least a million dollars.
Enjoy.  ~ Norman E. Hooben

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