When Life Sucks, Don't Let It

I got lost in a rabbit hole of baseball statistics today.  I checked a few leader boards of the highest OPS… which is essentially a combo of how often the player gets on base and how “powerful” of a hitter they are.  Here is how wikipedia defines it:

The basic equation is:

where OBP is on-base percentage and SLG is slugging average. These averages are defined.

and

where:

• H = hits
• BB = bases on balls
• HBP = times hit by pitch
• AB = at bats
• SF = sacrifice flies
• TB = total bases

In one equation, OPS can be represented as:

Lou Gehrig, turns out has one of the highest of all time – one of only a few players to have over a 1.0000 (his was 1.0798).  Pretty freaking cool.  He was also known as the “Iron Horse” of baseball.  He held the record of most consecutive games played in a row – 2,130!!!  Crazy.  And then ALS set in.  He realized that he was sick, and that he was dying.

I found the speech that he gave to a sold out stadium and it really touched my heart.  He didn’t know at the time, that ALS would eventually take his life 2 years later.  Anyways, here are his words:

“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m lucky.

When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift—that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies — that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter — that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body—it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed — that’s the finest I know.

So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for. Thank you.”

This guy was DYING, but he chose to focus on all the good around him. His optimism is unreal.  He is the definition of a role model. Hopefully we can all be more like Lou.  When life sucks, just don’t let it.

Anyways, figured I would share.