Rapid City Post 22 is back on top, again. For some baseball fans from Rapid City and across the state watching the Hardhats win yet another title was excruciating to watch. Like any sport at any level, when the perennial powerhouse wins it leaves a bad taste in the mouth of everyone who was rooting for the underdog, and despite beating Post 22 on Friday Post 320 was still the underdog. Anytime you pair a program with 35 titles versus a program looking for their first that is the case.
For anyone who’s ever been involved or rooted for a team that wins year in and year out, you know winning is one thing that never gets old. No matter how many titles Post 22 has won, it is a new group of players each year that are trying to live up to the tradition of those that have come before. For this group of players it was especially sweet since Post 22 had not won a state title in two years.
People got so caught up in the Post 22 versus Post 320 saga that they forgot that this rivalry is like so many others. You want your team to win so badly that you almost come to despise those on the other side. This is a healthy part of sports (for the most part). There is nothing wrong with hating the Yankees if you’re a Red Sox fan. The only difference is that these are high school kids and it shouldn’t be taken quite as far. But once kids reach a certain age there are no more medals for participation, ultimately it comes down to winning or losing. If you aren’t prepared to face both don’t play or be involved with sports.
Like it or not this rivalry is here to stay and for those of us who love sports because of the drama rivalries provide it was a great week of baseball. From a local point of view it was fantastic to see to Rapid City teams in the championship game of the state tournament, it won’t be long and we’ll be watching East River teams battle it out for state titles in football and basketball while our mediocre programs struggle to be .500.
Congratulations to the Post 320 Stars on a great season in which they won 40 games and earned their first ever victory over Post 22. It was fun to watch you all year long.
Congratulations to Post 22 who overcame many challenges this year and earned their 36th state championship. This group of players has come a long ways in the last couple years. Good luck at the regional tournament and I hope to see you at the World Series.
-Jake-

This entry was posted on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 at 4:32 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.