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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Nothing Beats Reality, But There’s A Sports Movie For That

Art helps us reflect on some of sports’ best lessons, writes Mike Heika. Plus, a playoffs thought experiment, a social-distancing survey, and more.

If you’ve read Mike Heika for even a few months, you know how much he loves movies. And like many Dallas Stars fans, he suddenly has more time to spend watching and rewatching them.

In his latest post, the Stars’ senior staff writer goes back to a few sports classics for lessons about those moments when things are bigger than games. After watching the Carroll Shelby documentary “Shelby American,” Heika reflects on how the racing legend from East Texas remained true to himself in both success and failure:

Shelby goes through highs and lows and becomes an automotive influencer at both Ford and Dodge because of his relationship with Lee Iacocca. Because that industry is so volatile, he is both incredibly successful and near bankruptcy on many occasions. But so many of the interviews during the documentary talk about how he was calm and smart and human, how people loved to work with him and for him.

He certainly had his flaws, and those were also pointed out, but he was remembered by most as just a good dude who loved cars. That’s another great lesson to be learned as we all deal with the different pressures presented by social distancing.

And lessons like that are worth sharing, he opines:

The guys I hang out with repeat movie scenes all day long. “The Other Guys.” “Step Brothers.” “She’s Out of My League.” “Old School.” “Dumb and Dumber.” We relate through shared experiences. We make each other laugh with just one line from a familiar film.

We also learn from the movies and repeat those lessons. I send my daughter a clip from “A League of Their Own” a couple of times a year when she’s feeling down or that maybe her challenges are too difficult. When Dottie Hinson is going back to Oregon and she tells Jimmy Duggan that the whole baseball experience just became “too hard,” he shoots back with one of the great lines in the history of sports movies.

”It’s supposed to be hard,” Duggan says. “If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard ... is what makes it great.”

There’s more at Mike’s place. [Dallas Stars]

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Finally

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