All right, enough about this year’s
presidential election. It’s getting too stressful, and we’ve all surely made up
our minds by now. It’s time to focus on two other election years, and on two previous
presidents.
Let’s talk about Teddy and Truman. Let’s
discuss 1908 and 1948.
Here’s why: On Tuesday night in
Cleveland, this year’s World Series will begin, and the two teams playing will
be the two who have gone the longest since winning their last titles. The
Cleveland Indians have not won a championship since ‘48, when the first Baby
Boomers were in diapers and World War II had just ended. And the Chicago Cubs
have not claimed a title since ’08, when the first Model T was coming off the
assembly line and one of our Mount Rushmore presidents was deciding not to run
for re-election.
The Indians and Cubs have endured
some of the most depressing strings of losing seasons in professional sports
history in the many decades since they last held a title trophy aloft. Their
fans have continued showing up, though, holding out hope every April and
cheering them on through excruciating September and October collapses.
But here they are, and it’s clear
that one of them will end their losing streak over the next 10 days. And as
they engage in this year’s Fall Classic, the Cubs and Indians will bring back
memories of the men who occupied the Oval Office when these teams last stood
atop the baseball world.
Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman
both started as vice presidents, and both stepped in after the elected
president died in office less than a year into a four-year term. Roosevelt’s
focus on taming corrupt robber barons and using executive powers to enhance
programs such as conservation made him an American hero, leading to his re-election
in 1904. In ’08, Teddy decided against running again, and promoted his friend and
cabinet member William Howard Taft, who was elected a month after the Cubs won
their second consecutive World Series.
As for Truman, he took office in a tumultuous
time, and found a way to help steer the U.S. through the end of World War II
and into the United Nations. After almost four years, it seemed that the American
people were going to vote against Truman for re-election and favor Republican Thomas
Dewey. In fact, the Chicago Daily Tribune
even printed a headline reading “Dewey Defeats Truman.” But this time, the news
media and pollsters really did get it wrong, and Truman was re-elected to
another four-year term. A month later, the Indians claimed their second title.
History has painted Teddy and Truman
as two of the 20th century’s strongest American presidents, and they
are widely respected for their determination and frank talk. As I review some
of their most famous quotes in the fabulous collection found on goodreads.com, I see words that inspire
on multiple levels. First of all, as with any great line, they can inspire an
individual in need of hope. Secondly, they provide much-needed perspective for
a nation searching for its next leader. And finally, they give long-suffering
baseball teams – and fans – words to live by. Let’s give a listen.
Teddy
-
“Nothing in the
world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty…
I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have
envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”
-
“It is hard to
fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
-
“Speak softly and
carry a big stick; you will go far.”
-
“It is not the critic
who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where
the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man
who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there
is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do
the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself
in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high
achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring
greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who
neither know victory nor defeat.”
Truman
-
“It is amazing
what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
-
“The only thing new in
the world is the history you do not know.”
-
“We must have strong minds, ready to accept facts as they
are.”
-
“Believe and you’re halfway there.”
The World
Series games will be played this week, and one group of fans will cry tears of
joy. The election will be held on Nov. 8, and we the people will select a new
leader. After that, life will go on for us all. Whether the signs on our lawns
or the jerseys on our backs reflect the winner, we will have our own victories
to pursue. Circumstances will arise in which we’ll need to decide whether we
want to step “in the arena,” and whether we are ready to “believe” – in ourselves,
in a cause, or in that which we can anticipate but can’t yet see.
I guess what Teddy and Truman were really
trying to tell us is that if you can sense a reason to hope, and you can feel
the courage of your convictions, then you need to go for it. “The only man who
never makes mistakes,” Teddy once said, “is the man who never does anything.”
These former leaders would tell us to make sure we take the initiative, and don’t
let the words and actions of others guide our own self-direction.
Go Cubs
go, for sure. Go Indians, absolutely. I’m with her, of course. But more
importantly, go Warren. Go all of us. We can get through this together. As
another American president once said, yes we can.