Joey learns about Sportsmanship
Idioms about
bragging
Joey had played in so many different sports that he had heard a lot of people
bragging about how good they were and how they could beat you. He didn't
like to hear these kinds of things. He thought that it was bad
sportsmanship. If he was
a shoo-in to be the game star he would never
knock the other players
who were also trying hard. He would always try to
blow them away
with his skill and expertise, but he would never say to another player, "I'm
going to
blow you away."

Even when he thought that the game was
in the bag
he would never say to the other team players that they were
dead meat.
Joey tried to win with effort and skill not words. One of the worst things
that he heard other players saying were things like, "I'm going to
eat you for breakfast
or your
goose is cooked!"

He didn't feel that it was a good idea to say these kinds of things. He'd
seen many times when players had spoken this way and the people that they talked
to had turned around and said things like, "
put up or shut up
or
Put your money where your mouth is."

This meant that everyone ended up
saying mean things to each other. In other words they had to give the
other person
taste of his own medicine.

This name calling and put downs made Joey
sad and he felt that it took away from the fun of the game. He'd even seen
players come back with ,"I'm going to
knock you out!" At a Track Meet one time he was running in the 100
yard sprint a runner had come up to him and said, "I'll
give
odds you're going to see nothing but my
tail lights,
you're running with the
big boys
now!"

Fortunately Joey had
blown them away
with his running and winning the event had been
a piece of cake.
He saw this player at the end of the race and he was very angry that Joey had
beaten him. It would have been
a snap
for Joey to have gone up to this player at the end of the event and said, "
If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen!"
Joey didn't think that would make things better and would only
add fuel to the fire. Joey thought that the boy might start a
dust-up and
then Joey would be
in a jam for
fighting. He couldn't see any point in that. He had won and he was
happy. Why try to give someone a
taste of his own medicine when it would only end up hurting himself.
Joey went home happy from the Track Meet, because not only had he
blow them away
and shown them his
tail lights
but that he had proven himself to be a "real"
big boy
without having to
knock anyone.!
Idioms in the Story:
a shoo-in
knock
in the bag
blow them away
dead meat
eat you for breakfast goose is cooked put up or shut up
Put your money where your mouth is
knock you out
tail lights
big boys
a piece of cake
taste of his own medicine
blown them away
give
odds If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen!
aa snap
add fuel to the fire
dust-up
in a jam
taste of his own medicine
blow them away
tail lights