Baseball has many parallels to real life. You don't have to scratch the surface very hard at all.
In the National League Division Series and the NLCS National League Champion Series, the Giants played the Cincinnati Reds and the St Louis Cardinals. In the first series versus the Reds, it all appeared to be going badly as the Giants lost their first 2 games in their home park. No screaming and yelling orange-ed faced, black beard-ed fans made any difference to the course of these games. The team was flat, or nervous or like-wise uninspired. But something propelled them onward to take the next 3. What was it... what was it that caused the winds to shift? Some say it was Hunter Pence and his speech to the dugout. One player said "it was a speech that left us speechless". It must have been some sort of speech because the next 3 games in Cincinnati had a decidedly different result.
I was walking in Washington DC when the radio shouted out "Buster Posey hits a grand slam home run". From improbably to inevitable.
The NLCS National League Champion Series continued with the same come from behind story. In the St Louis series, it was also looking bad....but perhaps, one Cardinal sliding much later than many would not consider accidental, gave that wonderful boost for the Giants and carried them forward. When Matt Holliday wrapped his nusclar body around the vulnerable legs of Marco Scutaro he may not have known how that would affect the team (and Scutaro!) Down 2 games - The Giants roared back to get the series back to SF as a rain storm raged.' Then the final out, a pop up by Matt Holliday to none other than Marco Scutaro was recorded - Resulting in 9-0 rout over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Unfairness has an uncanny way of uniting people. Blatant disregard and disrespect is a great motivator at times. But there is more to it than that.
You know, it looked bad (behind in both series). It looked as if it would take a miracle for the Giants to pull it out. Asked why they we able to do this, after yesterday's 4-0 sweep of the Detroit Tigers to win the World Series, to a man they said, "We never gave up. We were playing for each other."
They had a slogan 25 men one goal. It is miraculous what happens when people unselfishly work toward the same goal. I spoke about this during my survivor speech when I said,
"Hope is a wonderful thing. Because if you allow yourself to hope then the next thing that comes is optimism. And what follows optimism is belief. AND WHEN WE BELIEVE there will be a cure there will be a cure."
Each of us individually can do great things. But the power of the combined belief of people makes history.
Outside there are storms raging. My daughter in the East Coast with Hurricane Sandy on top of them. Our other daughter in the Northwest with an illness that is still not identified has her own stormy weather. There is my Dad who is trying to recuperate in a system that is not providing him with the assistance he needs. There is Cancer that powerful foe who creates in people's lives more turmoil and destruction that anyone can imagine. How can we more forward when the tide seems obviously to be against us. It starts with Hope. It moves to optimism and from that place we see the possibilities, we accept the reality that we will win.
My last 60 miles walk is just around the corner. I have some training left to be done in the middle of crazy crazy busy days. This weekend Patti and I were able to take one walk together even though we had to split and go separate ways half way there. She headed on to work in the City and I headed back to work in Marin. Today I walked in to work to just squeeze in a few miles. Wednesday I will be taking the Ferry into the city to celebrate the Giants and I will be thinking of what their journey can teach us.
What had seemed impossible became inevitable.
Together we are GIANT in baseball and in life.
Together we can and will end Cancer in our lifetime.
Looking forward to San Diego and joining an army who feels the same way.
Pictures from my walk back to Marin on Saturday
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