"[I]t's our game; that's the chief fact in connection with it: America's game; it has the snap, go, fling of the American atmosphere; it belongs as much to our institutions, fits into them as significantly as our Constitution's laws; is just as important in the sum total of our historic life."
- Walt Whitman
"Nothing in our daily life offers more of the comfort of continuity, the generational connection of belonging to a vast and complicated American family, the powerful sense of home, the freedom from time's constraints, and the great gift of accumulated memory than does our National Pastime."
- Ken Burns
"A game of great charm, in the adoption of mathematical measurements to the timing of human movements, the exactitudes and adjustments of physical ability to hazardous chance. The speed of the legs, the dexterity of the body, the grace of the swing, the elusiveness of the slide -- these are the features that make Americans everywhere forget the last syllable of a man's last name or the pigmentation of his skin."
- Branch Ricke
Growing up in Cleveland, I loved playing sports, but there was only one sport that consumed my life. Baseball. My heroes were Cleveland Indians players like Rocky Colavito, Tito Francona, Mudcat Grant, Vic Power, Woodie Held, and Jimmy Piersall. I dreamt of hitting a home run with the bases loaded and winning the World Series for my beloved Indians. My dream ended when I soon realized that being the best baseball player on Kenmore Rd. wasn’t the same thing as being the best player in little league. But my dream of seeing the Indians win the World Series never died, even after we took a one-run lead into the ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series only to lose to the Marlins in the 11.th (see The Highs and Lows of the Indians)
Tomorrow night marks the first game of an historic World Series between the two teams with the longest championship droughts in baseball- the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs. Like life and law school, baseball is a game of skill, focus, and attitude. As sports columnist and author Terry Pluto has noted, “It's Bigger than the Game”. The team that wins will likely be the team that most believes in itself. As Harvard Business School Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter notes in her book, Confidence, about the relationship between the winning and losing streaks of sports teams and how institutions succeed, “Cynics are too ready to dismiss positive messages about will, team spirit, and motivation as self-help babble. They are wrong.”
In my first Monday Morning Message in August, I noted that during this historic year of Cleveland’s first professional sports championship in 52 years, I sometimes refer to our law school as “Believeland-Marshall College of Law.” Now we are on the verge of winning our first World Series title in 68 years, and Cleveland is on the verge of a rare double world championship. LeBron James and the Cavaliers were underdogs to the Golden State Warriors; Andrew Miller and the Cleveland Indians are underdogs to the Chicago Cubs. We will win despite the odds.
Our students at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law have the unstoppable drive to succeed despite whatever odds they’ve faced in life. They’ve worked very hard to earn the right to attend a law school of quality and opportunity. We believe in them and we are committed to do everything we can to enable them to believe in themselves. Together, inspired by the CAVs and the Indians and our city’s continued renaissance, we can take C|M|LAW to the next level of excellence, impact, and distinctiveness as a great public law school in a championship city.
We just have to believe in ourselves. As Yogi Berra once said, “90% of this game is half-mental.”