Recently, an old column by the retiring Inquirer columnist Bill Lyons [a nice tribute to Lyons was in Sunday's Inquirer] was brought to my attention. The column is from February of 2000, and I remember reading it. I can't recall if it was online or in the actual newspaper, but I do recall reading it.
In it, Lyons describes a cartoon character as one of his favorite athletes:
His team had the longest streak of futility in the recorded history of sports.
It always lost. It never won. It went on like that for almost 50 years. Even the designated opponents for the Harlem Globetrotters never lost so relentlessly.
And yet he never failed to come back for more. The thought of surrender was abhorrent to him. So he never failed to climb the mound again, even after another scalding line drive back through the middle had undressed him. Literally.
Surely, no one ever persisted with such admirable, if unwarranted, determination and with so little reason to have hope as did the cantaloupe-headed pitcher and manager with the infinite patience and the unbreakable optimism.
You just couldn't discourage him. That is why, whenever I'm asked to submit a list of favorite athletes, I always include the name of Charlie Brown.
Don't we all have some Charlie Brown inside of us? For instance, I always know that when I step up to a golf ball, I am about to hit the best shot of my life, even if I've had difficulty just keeping the ball on the course that day. And, whenever my round of golf is over and I head home, settle into a chair, and turn on the Phillies, I just know they are going to win, even if they are in the midst of a five game losing streak. It's one of the reasons I tend to gravitate towards statistics...they can show me some proof as to why I should be optimistic about my team. All year long I marvelled at the Phillies ability to get on base. Why? Because that is an advantage they had over other teams, something that could help them win games. But, you might ask, what about the team's abysmal ERA? Stop confusing me with the facts, I am trying to be optimistic. After all, to quote another of life's cartoon-like character's, ya gotta believe. ----------------- Be honest, completely and totally frank...How many of you thought that the Eagles would pull out yesterday's Giants game when they pulled within three points?
