Clear the mechanism," says a weary Billy Chapel for the last time in his illustrious 19−year career. Suddenly, he no longer hears the grinding of the D Train that rumbles through the Bronx, nor the thundering echoes of the 56,000 New Yorkers that populated Yankee Stadium on that historic September night. Chapel was chasing perfection. For the final time, the tall, slender 40−year−old grips the fastball that had brought him within reach of baseball's most prized pinnacle. He records the final out of the game and for the first time in its history, the Cathedral in the Bronx falls silent.
Billy Chapel had just pitched a perfect game.
"For Love of the Game" (1999) is a film about Billy Chapel (Kevin Costner), a veteran pitcher on the Detroit Tigers who is nearing the end of his successful, hall of fame career. While pitching, Chapel reminisces about his career and his troubled relationship with the love of his life, Jane Aubrey (Kelly Preston). Unwittingly, he throws a perfect game, tying a ribbon on his baseball legacy.
In general, the emphasis on Chapel's relationship with Jane detracts from the film's real moral about life's most prized fruit, passion. With the fall semester at Tufts just beginning, and the end of baseball season approaching, discussing the importance of passion in success becomes relevant. Just like passion can help a baseball team win the World Series, it also can be very valuable for us students. Finding a passion can help us find a career that we love and success in all our endeavors.
In "For Love of the Game," Chapel's passion was baseball. And it was passion alone that helped him to overcome the obstacles in his career and earn him a spot on baseball's pedestal of excellence. In one instance, Chapel injures himself by cutting his right hand with a saw. When doctors say his injury is one that will end his tenure on the Tigers, Chapel proves that not even a career−threatening injury can prevent him from playing the game he has loved and cherished for his entire life. Fighting against the doubts of his trainer and team management, Billy makes a remarkable recovery.
Passion is what makes dreams become reality. For us, as we begin the dreadful search for summer internships and post−graduation plans, we can learn a little something from Billy Chapel. Instead of fretting and worrying about the poor job market or that looming organic chemistry midterm, we should use the college process to find our passion. Just as Billy found his in the game of baseball, discovering our passion and acting upon it brings purpose to our lives, and at times, can change the world.
What does this mean? Well to answer that I'd like to introduce you to Steve Ells, the CEO of Chipotle. Ells' dream of opening a restaurant that paid heed to animal rights was realized in 1993 when he opened the first Chipotle Mexican Grill. Chipotle was founded on the principles of humane treatment of animals and environmental sustainability in their restaurant design. These principles make up the core of Chipotle's catchphrase, "food with integrity". In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ells said, "One of the pivotal moments for me was realizing that our ‘food with integrity' approach at Chipotle was satisfying my passion." Steve Ells let his passion carry him. When he created the first restaurant, Ells never thought it would take off. However, massive amounts of people responded to his passion and led to Chipotle's incredible growth. His passion resulted in the formation of a new kind of restaurant and a name known by every college student across America. Now Chipotle stands as a pioneer in fast−casual dining and one of the fastest growing equities in the stock market.
Like Ells, satisfying our passions can carry us along the road of success. His passion transformed Chipotle from a small eatery in Denver, Colorado into a rapidly expanding fast−casual empire. The point is, finding our passion can take us a long way. I firmly believe that the search for our passion is what the college process, and life in general, is all about. Every student here at Tufts has unbelievable opportunities to expose themselves to new things and to explore. Make the most of what this place has to offer. Discover your passion and pursue it. So, years down the road, when you stand center stage in life's baseball diamond, will you be able to feed off that passion that led Billy Chapel to pitch a perfect game, or will you cave and drop the most important game of your life?
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