Tuesday, April 12, 2011

i've been sitting here for days [not literally of course] trying to pound out a blog about the day long interview i just had, and the journey i'm about to embark on as a result, but my words have come up empty. while i'm still attempting to put my heart down on paper, i have something else to share with you today.

this may come as a surprise to some of you, but i am the biggest toronto blue jays' fan. i went to five games in one week last summer among other games, paid a scalper $75 for regular $11 tickets to ensure that i got the full home opener experience, and i took the five hour greyhound trek from ottawa to toronto last week to catch their second game. on top of all of this, as long as i can help it, i catch every single game on TV, followed by each game's highlights afterwards, just in case i missed something the first time.

and last night was no different.

let me set the stage for you. toronto was coming off of a two day losing streak; seattle, seven. toronto is known for their ability to hit; seattle, not so much. it looked like a no brainer, really. the odds were in their favour; the jays should have crushed them.

i fell asleep in the top of the seventh inning, and, as predicted, the jays were up 7-0. seven to nothing, people. that's quite the gap. it was fair to say that i could fall asleep with another victory under their, er, our, belt.

to my surprise, however, i woke up to the whole seattle mariners' team jumping for joy around home plate. surely they weren't that excited to lose eight games in a row, were they?

i wish that were the case, but to my dismay, they were celebrating a ... win.

what the heck happened, i wondered? we were up seven runs with two innings left. and then two innings later, we were up 7-6 with only out left to go. we should have had it!

despite their record of 2 and 7 [the 7 losses being the result of their last seven games played], and the fact that the jays' dominated over half of the game, the mariners ... hear this ...

DIDN'T GIVE UP.

they took advantage of every walk issued. they batted and scored. caught and threw out. played hard, and came back.

could you imagine if they had chalked it up as an other loss by giving up in the seventh inning when all odds were against them? not only would they have headed to the locker room even more discouraged than when they came out, but they would have missed out on possibly one of their greatest and sweetest victories yet.

this got me thinking. can't the same be said about life sometimes? aren't we too apt to quit when the odds are stacked against us? when we're down 7-0 in the seventh? when things don't look good? or feel right?

no matter what you're facing today, i'm here to encourage you not to give up - your victory could be just around the corner!

so take heart. persevere, and get back on the field. the game is far from over.

1 comment:

  1. that was powerful and it meant A LOT more to hear a jays fan giving credit to another team.
    good sportsmanship and a good word right thurr!! classy all the way, paula :)

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