Halberstam's Speech

“Sport has the power to change the world.”(Nelson Mandela). Playing sport offers a variety of life lesson’s for both the child and parent. The ideals and values learned through sport transfer into the arena of life. In Halberstram’s quote he introduces us to the idea of “friendship” and shares with us the joy and happiness sport can provide during and long after one’s career. The temporary escape from human reality that sport provides plays into the fundamental idea of Halberstam. Ashe looks at what sports provides for the individual in his passage and stresses the idea that “lessons of sport cannot be duplicated easily”. He focuses on how sport has the power to shape a person by providing one with a sense of who he is. He aims to teach and guide his daughter through sport, where as Halberstam reflects on what sport has provided for four men who dedicated their lives to the sport …show more content…
In the passage Halberstam talks about how sport provided a rich life for four very different men. When they all meet up they deal with the struggle of becoming old and instantly reflect back to their glory days when “some big game was on the line”. Booby, Dom, Johnny, and Teddy show in the passage that sports provides gifts that are bigger then the game. The passage raises the question of can these “goods” provided by sport be duplicated from other activities? I would argue that because of the role sport plays in our society there is no alternative way to gain the educational process sport provides. Understanding the major theme’s of “friendship” and “a rich life” allow us to understand the importance of sport in each of the ball players lives. The two concepts are connected in that the friendship made through sport is part of the rich life which sport provided for these men. The Halberstam passage overall goal is convey the goodness and love provided to individuals that embrace the positive’s of