We can't join in a good-natured ribbing of another team's misfortune without being told, "Well, at least I have a team".
In the end, however, wisdom wasn't enough: Team Know-It-All ended up in seventh place and had to endure some good-natured ribbing from the team at the next table.
The Cardinals' jauntiness in recent days made Manager Tony La Russa the subject of some good-natured ribbing from the team's beat reporters before the game.
For Hurdle to reach this point, which is as the good-natured manager of a team that has won 17 of its last 18 games, is a study in patience.
Quick, lithe, competitive, he challenged the other team with a good-natured roar.
Reagan, though, had a depth of experience, an underestimated grasp of issues, a gift for expedient compromise, a seasoned and loyal team and a good-natured charm that all translated into public trust.
Matt Damon, in all his squat retroussé-nosed handsomeness, plays Mark Watney, a Nasa astronaut who in some future time of viable human spaceflight exploration is part of a team undertaking dull scientific research into the red dust and red rocks on Mars, earnestly decanting them into little plastic pots and exchanging good-natured walkie-talkie badinage with his team.
He understands it's a long season, that the team will need something good-natured to break up the monotony.
He compares his role as a lab manager to that of a baseball coach who brings the team together by employing good-natured "locker room" humor.
The next day Cole told me that many of the boys on his team gave him some good-natured ribbing about keeping the batting-practice home run balls.
Lippi and Ferguson enjoyed a good-natured rivalry in the days when their Juventus and Manchester United teams were regular adversaries in the later rounds of the Champions League.
