After watching a thrilling comeback victory by the Chicago Bears on Sunday afternoon, I received a pleasantly surprising notification that Cubs pitcher Alec Mills had no-hit the Milwaukee Brewers through seven innings.
Naturally, I turned on the game in time to see Mills finish the job in the final three innings, capping off an exhilarating day for this Chicago sports fan.
As many fans are familiar with by now, Mills was an unlikely hero.
After winning a spot on the team via tryout at the University of Tennessee-Martin, Mills was drafted by Kansas City in the 22nd round of the 2012 MLB Draft. Eventually, he worked his way to the majors in 2016 but got shelled in three innings pitched with the Royals.
He was traded to the Cubs, who took a flyer on the soft-throwing righthander. Following three seasons shuttling back and forth between Chicago’s AAA affiliate and the major league club, the Tennessee native appears to have won a spot in the rotation.
This story reminds me of how sports – baseball in particular – can reflect life.
Alec Mills wasn’t exactly a highly ranked prospect. His 90 mph fastball and 66 mph curveball don’t exactly blow hitters out of the water.
However, nobody is defined solely by rankings or metrics. Just because you don’t have the top GPA in your class, or haven’t received awards, doesn’t mean you won’t find success. Even the best hitters fail about seven times out of 10.
Many college students, like myself, have high standards for academic and job performance. Admittedly, it’s easy to fall into the trap of perfectionism, but failure is all part of life’s process.
Especially in a world ridden by COVID-19, failure is inevitable for college students. Opportunities are dropping like flies. The “college experience” we used to know is a thing of the past. Internship and job searches are ever-frustrating and any momentum we had in March appears to be halted.
Despite these struggles, you can’t let failure define your future plans. It’s not impossible.
For inspiration, I look no further than to my friend and former Scout Sports Editor Ronan Khalsa. While applying for jobs after graduating in May, Ronan worked in a cafe at home in Vermont. Last week, he took a job in the sports information department at Northeastern State in Oklahoma.
As sports show us, success is a process. More often than not, that process can be tumultuous. Life is more of a roller coaster than a linear progression.
As Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez said following the Nats’ 2019 World Series win, “Often bumpy roads lead to beautiful places.”
Needless to say, we’re all on a bumpy road right now. But the optimist in me can only believe that we’re well on our way to a beautiful place.
