It Ain’t Over Until It’s Over
June 30th, 2008“It ain’t over until it’s over.” - Yogi Berra
It was the great philosopher…okay, so he wasn’t a great philosopher. He was a great baseball player who happened to have a knack for saying things that were simplistically profound.
While Berra was definitely a better batter than super scholar, his point is well taken. Things really are not at an end, until they reach the true end. (Sounding a bit like Yogi, aren’t I?) What I mean is that when situations look hopeless, there is always still hope.
Do you believe? Let me convince you.
I’m not sure how many of you paid any attention to the College Baseball World Series (the sport’s championship tournament), however, this event gave us one of the greatest stories in sports history. And since sport is the ultimate metaphor for life, there is application in this story for us all.
The Fresno State University Bulldogs were not even supposed to be in the tournament. The team’s regular season record was only 37-27. They did not even win their own conference. They began the season by losing 12 of their first 20 games. They had to come from behind to win the Western Athletic Conference tournament just to make the NCAA field of 64, then fought off elimination in regionals and super regionals, and became the first No. 4-seeded team from a regional ever to advance to the College World Series.
In Omaha, the site of the College World Series, the Bulldogs lived up to their name. Coming into the tournament ranked 132nd in Division I in batting average, 102nd in scoring, they were playing with what looked like a MASH unit. Their best pitcher was injured and out for the season. One of their best hitters had a torn ligament in his left thumb. Another had a torn ligament in his knee. They lost their first game in the double-elimination event. Playing with their proverbial backs to the wall, they proceeded to play through the roof.
Facing elimination, FSU came back from the brink of defeat in five times, down in each game, to win and finally advance to the best-of-three championship final versus the University of Georgia. It was Bulldogs versus Bulldogs. And one dog showed they had a bit more bite and a bit more fight.
Fresno lost the first game 6-1. They were down by 5 runs in game two before erupting for 15 runs late in the game to win. It was yet another return from the brink to play one more day. In the deciding final game, it was clear Fresno was a team of destiny. With a 6-1 win, the team from the central California town that is known most as the largest city in America not directly connected to an interstate highway, took home the school’s first ever national championship in a men’s sport. The Rocky Balboa of college sports reached the Promised Land. No previous national champion has ever had more losses than the Bulldogs with 31, and to do so meant defeating 7 of the top 10 teams in the nation in the post-season.
So was it serendipity?
It was William Jennings Bryan who once said, “Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice.”
The Fresno team won because they did whatever was necessary to win. While they may not have been the most talented, fastest, strongest or deepest team, they were the most tenacious. They never gave up. They understood that destiny is not a matter of the planets aligning properly. Rather, it is a matter of choosing to never let go of the dream.
“It’s mind over matter,” outfielder Steve Detwiler said of playing through the pain and overwhelming challenges. “It’s just a little pain. The pain is temporary. Pride is forever.”
So, I ask you, what is your dream? In life, in your marriage, in your job, in relationships, what is your vision? How are you doing in terms of hanging on to that dream? Are you a bulldog? Your destiny is a matter of your choice – what you choose to believe and what stance you choose to take.
If you have a vision in your heart (which most of us do), and it is not yet fulfilled, here is a simple piece of advice: hang on.
No matter what the scoreboard shows, even if it’s the bottom of the ninth inning, the opposition you face is formidable, you are on the brink of elimination, and you feel like walking-wounded, do as Winston Churchill once famously told a group of college graduates and, “Never, never, never, never give up.”
After all, it ain’t over until it’s over.