Wednesday; October 7

On this date in 1936, the 7th place Brooklyn Dodgers fired their manager.  Why is this footnote in history 90 years old noteworthy?  The manager was Casey Stengel.  The Mighty Casey would go on to become one of best known and most beloved characters in baseball history.  In all, he would rack up over 1900 wins as a manager.  In the twelve years he was with the New York Yankees (from 1949 to 1960) he would win 1149 games, and amass a .623 winning percentage.  He would collect ten American League pennants and 7 World Series titles.  Not bad for a guy who was looking for a job a decade earlier.

It is tempting to think that achievement is the culmination of a steady stream of successes, but that’s not always true.  Often, accomplishment is found in managing peaks and valleys.  It is about sticking with it when things are tough.  In essence it is getting up once more than we are knocked down.  (Yeah, I know there are a lot of clichés in this paragraph, but they are true!)

Are we struggling?  Do we want to give up?  Let’s not let our struggles end our efforts.  Sure, we will fail, but we only become failures when we quit trying.  Hang in there, who knows what the future holds.

Think About It!

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