The other side of winning...a Magpie tale

How many times we obsess with the idea of being the best, of getting somewhere before anybody, to be first place of anything. Some humans are competitive by nature; other, feel the need to be recognized.


First Place. Gold Medal. Employee of the Year. World Champion. Titles and places rewarded by the ultimate glory, a prize, recognition and honor. Have we ever considered that in order to win somebody has to lose?

Before the miracle of 2004, when the RedSox came back from hell after being down 3 games to 0 against the Yankees, not just to catch up but to win the playoffs and then been the MLB World Champions, 86 years had passed. It was in 1918 when Boston was the crowned world champ for the last time. Between 1918 and 2004 great players joined in, some of them recognized as amazing sports legends, who started and ended their professional career believing in the RedSox, been a diehard BoSox. Ted Williams played 19 seasons, twice interrupted to be on duty as a pilot for the Marines, all 19 with the RedSox; Carl Yastrzemski lived his 23 years as a professional baseball player with the Sox. Jim Rice, another big one, dedicated his life from 1974 to 1989 to the same team. All of them have things in common: not just they were baseball phenomenon and hall of famers, but they are the perfect image of what it takes to belong to a team in heart and soul. They also share the fact of NEVER have won a World Series, holding the trophy, getting a ring. That’s what I call to have guts…to remain standing and supporting the same team, season after season, with the head up and the hope that next year would be the year. It never happened for them. From 2004 history changed for the RedSox; the team harvested triumphs over the foundation created by the tears and sweat of the loyal and consistent predecessors that never gave up despite the non-winning fact. That is baseball… that is the spirit of believing, that is the magic that keeps us fighting.

Every day we wake up knowing that every year, from April to October, there will be another season full of hope, with the possibility of reaching the goal; but, what is the real goal anyway? Winning? A ring? That is the ultimate prize, a free pass to be labeled as big ones; but at the end of the day, the greatest accomplishment was to feel, to live passionately what we enjoy the most. To suck in the energetic reminder that the end has not been written, we can change it, we can believe that it will happen and that during the process of discovering the future, we can totally live by the edge of our sits knowing that IT CAN BE DONE.

It is important to keep focused on the objective, of course. But if while working on it we don’t enjoy the ups and downs by living each step towards it with full intensity, if we allow one single thought of mediocrity while trying, if we don’t recognize our vulnerability at the end to enjoy the glory or to cry for our failures, then the magic is gone. Is living by some book; living considering that we may not make it. Is living just to live; and in life, like in baseball, the game is not over until is over…and sometimes we win when we lose.

This is a Magpie tale - Mag 42 - for other Magpie tales click  Magpie tales