It’s never too late

I’m writing this post as the Dodgers are trying to catch up to the Mets in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. They were down 10–2, but cut the lead to 10–6, only to have the Mets tack on another run. This is a game where most baseball pundits had written off the Mets after they were crushed in Game 4 and were on the verge of elimination.

At this point (the bottom of the seventh inning), we still don’t know if the Mets will hold on to force a Game 6 at Dodger Stadium, or if the Dodgers will come from behind to win.

That’s why baseball is not like other sports. In American football, if you’re down 28 points in the fourth quarter, you have no chance to win. Same with soccer (football) if you’re down by 6 goals in the 89th minute. But in baseball, you can be down by 5 runs in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, and you can still come from behind to win. I’ve seen it happen.

And that’s why I think baseball is a good model for life. It’s never too late.

This election is full of stories of people for whom it wasn’t too late. President Jimmy Carter, who had turned 100 and has been in hospice care since early last year, cast his vote in the 2024 election. And 82-year-old Betty Cartledge who never voted because her husband didn’t think she should. After he died, she cast her first vote.