Eizehu Gibor and the W Column

Leo Durocher, legendary manager of the old Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, famously said, “Nice guys finish last.” Vince Lombardi, the storied coach of the Green Bay Packers football team, had his own famous line: “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.”

Fascinating, you say, but why are these people appearing in a magazine like this? For the answer, stay tuned.

Life, people say, consists of winners and losers. The winners seem to come out on top in everything — business, professions, sports, academia, relationships — while the losers invariably fail to win any prizes. As they say in the sports world, the only thing that matters is the “W column.” We celebrate the winners and remember them, but losers are losers and are relegated to the trash heap and quickly forgotten.

Such is life in the fast lane. But the fast lane can lead to a dead end, and sometimes the losers are the winners, as in the true story of Gershon Kahn.*

Although he was not fully observant, he and I were good friends early in my rabbinate. A brilliant attorney, he was highly intelligent. Perceptive and — most crucial for me as a pulpit rabbi — a loyal and supportive congregant, of which, in those days, there was not an abundance. We studied Torah together and discussed Yiddishkeit, but our friendship was cemented on the tennis court. We were both better than average, and over the years we played many hard-fought matches. Until, that is, Gershon had a mild heart episode, which sidelined him from tennis until further notice.

Several months later, he called and excitedly told me that his doctor had given him the green light to resume tennis. We met on the courts the following Sunday, but it took only a few moments to see that the long layoff had noticeably weakened his game: his timing was off, his sharpness had dulled, he had become very rusty, a mere shell of the fine player he once was. Before the set was half over, and although he was trying very hard, I was already ahead 3-0.