I am a baseball fan. I have loved baseball for as long as I can remember. I recall being in grade school and wanting to stay inside during recess to watch a bit of a World Series game – back when those games were mostly played during the day. I recall sitting in a graduate school classroom and hoping for a break in the seminar in order to check the radio for an update on the World Series game. I’ve attended the College World Series several times, and followed my favorite college teams since I was a child. I read the box scores, and I have shelves full of books about baseball. Did I mention that I’m a baseball fan?
Picture credit: By user:evrik – File:Steve Garvey – Los Angeles Dodgers.jpg, File: Davey_Lopes_-_Los_Angeles_Dodgers.jpg, File:1971 Ticketron Bill Russell.jpg, File:Ron Cey – Los Angeles Dodgers.jpg, CC BY-SA 4.0
My favorite team since high school has been the Los Angeles Dodgers. How can a girl born in Texas and raised in Oklahoma become a Dodgers fanatic? They were really good in the 1970s (with an infield of Garvey at first base, Lopes at second, Cey at third, and Russell at shortstop, pictured), and I started reading books about the Dodger franchise. They have a storied and well-reported history of “firsts”, and some of the best writing in the world is about Dodgers baseball (check out The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn as one example).
In particular, I became enamored of Jackie Robinson and read everything I could find about his remarkable commitment to the expectations of being the first black player in the major leagues. His fortitude, his skill as a player, his ability to live under the spotlight that brought death threats and appalling racist taunts, his grace and eloquence still inspire me today. (There’s a framed picture of Jackie stealing home under the glove of Yogi Berra in my office that I have moved from office to office for the last 20 years. It inspires me every time I look at it.)
If you don’t know, the Dodgers won the World Series in October. They last won in 2020 in the season-shortened COVID year, but part of the beauty of baseball is the 162 game season – the slog and repetitiveness, the injuries, and the relentless daily focus required – all of which are arguably different from any other sport. So winning in a 60-game season just didn’t get the same respect (nor did it get a parade, because, you know, COVID). The Dodgers in 2024 had a myriad of woes – a dozen different pitchers on the injured list over the course of the season, for instance. But nonetheless they found ways to win during the season and the postseason, and are the reigning World Series champs – and beat the Yankees in five games to do it (always a plus if you’re a Dodgers fan).
In reading news reports about “my” Dodgers and their World Series triumph over the Yankees, I came across this phrase: persistent resilience. The Dodgers manager used it to describe how the Dodgers navigated a long and difficult season, full of unexpected injuries, high expectations, and come-from-behind wins.. Isn’t that a great notion?
Persistent resilience.
The world around us is distressed and unsettled and full of woe. The world of ACC is “in between” – we have a new chancellor but we’re awaiting the recommendations of the Design Teams to know what sorts of projects or changes we will pursue to help us meet our North Star of 70% completion by 2030. For our work at ACC, we all need to find a reserve of persistent resilience. For our unsettled and unpredictable times, we all need to tap that reserve of persistent resilience.
As we move into 2025, let us resolve to find a way to persist with optimism and hope. Let us resolve to help ACC respond positively to what comes our way and to always keep our students at the center of our work – our students who embody persistent resilience.. Let us resolve to adjust as needed, to advocate as required, and to be persistent in our resilience. And here’s hoping the Dodgers can win the World Series again next year!
Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons