ASHLAND — I confess that I have watched only bits and pieces of the Summer Olympics in London. It is not that I dislike the Olympics, but as an avid fan of the Cincinnati Reds for 56 of my nearly 64 years on this planet, I have been distracted by the surprising and amazing success of my beloved team.

I mean who cares about how many medals Michael Phelps has won? The Reds won 10 straight games and 15 out of 16. Can you get any better than that? Not much. They even won two out of three from the Pittsburgh Pirates with their two best position players — Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips  — injured.

And speaking of the Pirates, who would have thought at the beginning of this season that the Pirates and the Washington Nationals — not to mention the Reds — would be among the best teams in the National League? What can be better than that? Well, the Philadelphia Phillies and their fat payroll being in last place, that’s what!

Just before the start of this season, I finally signed up for Fox Sports Ohio. My reason was because my nearly 3-year-old granddaughter was living with us at the time, and Fox Sports Ohio was part of the satellite package that included the stations she enjoys. So I did it for her, not me.

In recent years, I have only seen the Reds on TV when they were on ESPN or on the Game of the Week. That was fine with me. Instead of wasting hours watching the Reds on TV, I listened to them on radio while doing work on my home computer. I got a lot of things done while listening to the Reds.

But that was then. I admit that I am hooked. I am doing just what I feared I would do when I signed up for Fox Sports Ohio — I am spending my evenings watching baseball instead of doing more productive things. I hate myself for doing so, but I can’t help it. Come October, I plan to quit cold turkey and maybe even drop Fox Sports Ohio, expecially since my daughter and granddaughters have moved into their own house.

Because of my Reds addiction, about the only time I have watched the Olympics is between innings. That can be interesting. The other night I watched a tiny, 15-year-old gymnast from Canada do what amounted to a belly flop off the vault. It looked painful. I felt sorry for her. I mean the eyes of the world were on her and she flopped. Oh well, at only 15 there are probably future Olympics for her. But as someone with minimal athletic skills, I always have empathy for those

athletes who don’t do well

in the Olympics.

I also was fascinated by the cheating scandal in badminton, in which eight women were disqualified for trying too hard to lose. That’s right. These women did not want to win their matches that would establish the seeds in the Olympics. They wanted to lose so they would be paired against weaker opponents in the opening round.

I admit that for most of my life, I have considered badminton to be a rather gentle game played in backyards.  It wasn’t until I made the mistake of entering a badminton tournament  at a campground where my family was staying that I  learned the hard way that there is a gap several miles wide between the badminton I played with my friends and family in the backyard and the badminton serious players play.

In the opening round of that campground badminton tournament, I played a kid 20 years my junior who put me to shame. To me, the object of the game was to gently hit the “birdie” over the net. To him, the object was the slam the shuttle cock over the net at lightning speed.

The result? I was shut out. Not only did I fail to score a point, but I only managed to hit his serve once or twice and never across the net. Thank God for the mercy rule!

However, unlike the female badminton players in the Olympics, I was not trying to lose. If I could have done better, I would have. My loss was completely because the kid was light years better than me.

In fact, I have never tried to lose at anything I have ever done. That’s just not in my nature. When my youngest son was five, he had brain surgery and was in Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington for almost a month.  During that time, I taught him how to play Crazy Eights! My wife criticized me for never intentionally losing to him.

“You’re beating a 5-year-old!” she said. “What joy can there be in that?”

“If I let him win, he’s never going to get better,” I explained. “Besides, I don’t like to lose, even to my own kid.”

Thus, I never could have done what the badminton players did and lose one for the team. If you are not going to always do your best, what is the point in playing or going anything else for that matter?

JOHN CANNON can be reached at jcannon@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2649.