Regular Morning Joe viewers are all too familiar with Joe Scarborough's annoying habit of working the fact that he used to be a congressman into conversations.

But for a bragging change of pace, Scarborough somehow managed to slip into his Mother's Day reminiscences that in high school, he apparently was a multi-sport star. 

In baseball: "I played baseball. All-Star, had a high average, all this stuff."

In basketball: "I was scoring like 30, 35 points a game."

Honk if this makes you think of another famous Joe who brags about being a football legend in high school in Delaware.

The irony is that, for Scarborough, on those rare occasions when he failed in sports, his mother was anything but sympathetic.

When he struck out to end a game, she told him: "If you can't do any better than that, Joey, you'd be doing yourself and the family a great service by never playing baseball again."

And when his team lost a basketball game, her reaction was: "You know, it would have been so great if God would have given us at least one natural athlete."

Yikes!

Scarborough also shared this poignant memory: that his mother really didn't want to have him at all! She didn't want a third child, who was Joe. Though Scarborough claimed she eventually got over it and that he was even the apple of her eye. 

I'm reminded of the joke about the two mothers chatting, and one brags to the other: "My son pays his psychoanalyst $375/hr., and all he talks about is me!"

Paging Dr. Freud to Scarborough's rescue...Or perhaps, Stuart Smalley. Repeat after us, Joe: "I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And doggone it, people like me." And sure, feel free to throw in: "Did I ever mention that I used to be a Member of Congress?"

Far be it from me to delve into Scarborough's psyche. But could it be that the scars of his mother's tough love, and knowing that, at least at first, she was disappointed to give birth to him, in some way account for his penchant for bragging, be it about what a macho man he is, having been a congressman, and now, about having been a high school multi-sport star?

Here's the transcript.

MSNBC
Morning Joe
5/13/24
6:03 am EDT

JOE SCARBOROUGH: You know, it's so interesting. I, um, everybody loves to talk about their moms. Oh, she was so sweet and the most loving, she was an angel.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Mary Jo.

SCARBOROUGH: As you know, Mary Jo loved Joey. She loved me so much. And some people would say, like, that I was the apple of her eye after she got over having me. She wasn't really pleased to have a third, a third child, but she eventually did. She was there every step of theway and was the biggest supporter. 

But, you know, there was another side of my mom that, that people don't talk about. And I know this sounds weird. This is only, like, 20, 30 seconds, but I saw Ed Sheeran on Howard Stern's show last year, and it explains the success of my mom in being a mom. Here's Howard Stern talking to Ed Sheeran.

ED SHEERAN: You learn nothing from success, nothing. You learn everything from the failures. And this is the thing that annoys me about the state that the world is in at the moment. No one talks about failureanymore. It's like shame.Like, failure is shame, like, let's just bury that and not talkabout it. No one goes, oh, what did we learn from this? Whereas with success, everyone shouts about it. But there is nothing in success. Success happens from failing hundreds of times.

SCARBOROUGH: So the reason that reminds me of my mom is one of -- I think one of her best moments was, I played baseball.  And, you know, All-Star, had a high average, all of this stuff. Bases loaded, and a key game, and I struck out. Threw my bat down, walked to the car. I was so angry.

I got in the back seat, and I said, I said, I'm just going to quit. My mom, you know, drives off. And she quietly says, Well, if you can't do any better than that, Joey, you'd be doing yourself and the family a great service by never playing baseball again. 

MIKA: Oh, ouch.

SCARBOROUGH: Right? So I sit back, and I'm like, what? That's not what a mom is supposed to say! Guess what? It made me go out and practice harder. It was unconditional love.

MIKA: Aww/ She knew you.

SCARBOROUGH: But man, she was tough. She was a tough mother, and she never -- like, no time for, like, sympathy for, you know, if we messed up. She let us know. And that, that combination of love and toughness, I think, it makes all the difference.

. . . 

SCARBOROUGH: And when we lost, my mom let us know. Like, I lost a basketball game. I remember, again, back seat, you know, and I was, I was scoring, like, 30, 35 points a game. We still lost, and my mother turns to my dad in the front seat, so her three children can hear it in the back. She goes, You know, it would have been so great if God would have given us at least one natural athlete."

MIKA: Aw, come on.

SCARBOROUGH: Who says that? No! No! So, what happens, we get home, I get the basketball out, and I'm shooting for, like, the next two hours. 

This is parenting! I mean, it's not just hugging people and being -- you know, Mika, that term, snowplow parents, where we, we want to do everything for our kids and we don't want our kids to ever feel any discomfort. No! That's not what's being a good parent is about.