I was playing basketball on Garden Street the other day when the main guy on theopposing team said somethingvery interestingthat made me think. In response to myquestion about how we wanted to keep score, he told me that "This is Hoboken; we playstraight up." His tone was prideful, indignant, even arrogant. Only idiots and non-natives wouldn't know that in a game of outdoor basketball in this town, a teaminterested in winning need not do so by two points or more -- as is the case in mosttowns, more often than not. Instead, any margin of victory would do, even a singlepoint.This guy was justified in talking down to me. I should have known. It took thisguy's outburst for me to realize that these were the same weird rules I'd played undersince the first time I walked onto that court nine months ago, when I first moved here. Itgot me thinking. What is it about straight-up(win by one)games that makes them sucha natural fit for Hoboken?Here's my analysis."Win by two" games are more common and considered fairer. When a team winsby two points instead of one, it's less arguable that the winning team is better. "Straightup" games, however, aren't unheard-of. In fact they are expected, as a matter ofcourtesy, when there are many players on the sidelines waiting for the next game, thegame after that, or maybe even the game after that. The idea is that in "win by two"games, a one-point advantage can swing back and forth between Team A and Team Btheoretically forever, with no one team eking out that elusive victorious basket,andthereby leaving the sideliners sidelined for an uncomfortably long time.But these were not the circumstances; there was no one on the sideline. Andeven if there were, the content and tone of Mr. Hoboken's response would haverendered them trivial. "This is Hoboken; we play straight up." He didn't say, "There arepeople waiting; we play straight up." The "straight-upness" was an inherent quality ofthe town, not of the circumstances of this particular game. Andhis tone did -notexactlythe type of tone thatconnotesgenerosity. Surely, he wasn't saying, "This is
Hoboken; we are considerate of newcomers."And neither was he expressing opposition to the fairness of "win by two" games.He wasn't saying, "This is Hoboken, land of undeserving winners." That's notsomething to take pride in.Perhaps he was referring to the astute awareness and tenacity brought about bythe "sudden death" nature of playing straight-up. When your team is capable of losingby one point, you better stay on your toes. There's no buffer.Every point is critical.It's
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