“You win a few, you lose a few. Some get rained out. But you have to dress for all of them.”

– Satchel Paige

My grandfather was a die-hard Cubs fan. He was scouted by the White Sox as a pitcher, but my great-grandmother was a good Methodist and doing anything besides going to church on Sunday was a no-no. When my grandparents moved to the North Side, Gramps became a Cubs fan and passed that down to his daughters and grandchildren. I don’t remember the first time Gramps took me to Wrigley Field. I just always remember going. That was in the 60s when the Cubs were the lovable losers. I didn’t care. I just loved going with my grandfather and hoping that Ernie Banks would hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth and win the game. My “boys of summer” were Ernie, Ron Santo, Billy Williams and the rest of the team. Who needed a boyfriend anyway? Tickets were cheap, Wrigley field was never sold out and ladies got in free on Tuesdays. When we would leave Wrigley Field after a loss, Gramps would often say “you win some, you lose some and some get rained out.” That never made sense to me until I learned the rest of the quote.

Satchel Paige was one of the best pitchers to ever play the game. Gramps was always taking about him and how great he was. When I was a kid, I just assumed that Satchel played for the Cubs at one time. I didn’t know that before I was born baseball was segregated and Satchel played for the Negro League. But he loved to play the game and dressed for all of them.

To me the quote is a perfect explanation of life. Life is not easy. Sometimes things go your way and every day is great. You can’t seem to do anything wrong. Then something happens; you lose your job, your car is totaled, you have a health issue, you have financial problems. Those are the losses. Then there are the times when things get rained out. You seem to be stuck in a big snow drift on a cloudy day; the roofer doesn’t call you back about when the roof will be repaired, no response to the resumes you put out, no matter what you do you are not feeling any better. But you have to dress for all of them. No matter what happens in life you have to show up and keep playing the game. When you are winning the smile is easy, when you are losing the smile is hard and when things get rained out sometimes the best you can do is smile.

Life is a cycle. There is always another game to play and another chance to win. So dress for it every day.