Mind Gym

THE BIG WIN

I’m proof that great things can happen to ordinary people if they work hard and never give up.

—OREL HERSHISER

I may win and I may lose, but I will never be defeated.

—EMMITT SMITH

Hobbled by foot injuries, Mark McGwire missed most of the 1993 and ’94 seasons. Each of those years he hit only nine home runs. When the slugger, who then played for Oakland, suffered another setback the next spring, he wondered if the baseball gods were trying to tell him something. Frustrated and worried about his future, he turned to family and friends for advice. They urged him to give it at least one more year.

Imagine if McGwire had quit baseball. Think of what he and all of us would have missed. McGwire would never have hit home run number sixty-one ...