Sunday, February 03, 2013

Dean Jackson's Facebook profile

Winning by losing?

While you  were jamming out to Avril Lavigne's I'm With You and Christina Aguliera's Beautiful in February, 2003. Little Cal Tech in Pasadena was beginning a streak.

 And not one they you really want to cherish. That day, February 15, 2003, the NCAA Division III baseball team eked out a 5-4 win over Cal State-Monterrey Bay.
Then a loss becomes 10, 20 and ultimately 228. That was until Saturday, when the Beavers carved out a 9-7 win over Pacific.
And almost appropriately, a rookie on the mound who was never a part of the losing, worked a complete game victory.
That skid had stretched something like 3,640 days - essentially ten years. Two-hundred and twenty-eight consecutive loses. 
I'm sure there were times they came close.
The wrong pitch late in the game. The ball dropping in a gap. Maybe a dribble up the line. A bad bounce through the infield. An overthrow, a missed tag. Whatever it was. It was consistent.
Talk having a monkey on your back. That's some kind of perseverance. That's almost qualification for sainthood.

Are you stuck in a rut? Does it feel like you can't get beyond what you were, and where you need to be?

Have courage. It's never usually a quick process.

Need more encouragement? You aren't the only one on the slow-track.

My mother used to tell me it took Moses, 40 years. It actually took him 80. From the time he was born, till when he left Egypt and then when he returned to rescue the captive Hebrews from Egypt. Then it took another 40 years to lead them through the desert. Even then, he didn't get to cross over the Jordan into Palestine.

There were 400 years or so of silence between the Old Testament and the New Testament, before God revealed himself. 
So dig in, concentrate on the process and just do it.

Oh, I forgot to tell you. Cal Tech hasn't won a conference baseball game in 463 games. Or since the spring of 1988.

Get the point: Hang on. It's gonna be a slow ride to your destiny.