Team, with the World Series beginning tonight, I wanted to send you a note about baseball, a pitch we called “The Hickenlooper Curve,” and what it taught me about playing the long game.
(We’re playing a very long game here in Colorado—and bringing this home next November will take a team effort. Can you chip in now?)
Back in my Little League days, my coaches and teammates quickly saw that hitting was, to put it mildly, not a forte of mine. So in my backyard, with the help of my teammate and friend Henry Baird, I focused on developing the only skill I thought I had a reasonable chance of mastering: pitching.
For an hour or more every day, Henry and I would work on my pitches. My bread and butter was my curveball, what we called the “Big Bender” or the “Hickenlooper Curve.” For a long time, my curveball wasn’t much to write home about—but after more than two years of work, that pitch started to really curve.
The guys who’d stood around laughing at the gangly teenager on the mound started striking out. And I started to believe—for the first time, really—in the wisdom of playing the long game.
As we get ready for the World Series to kick off tonight, I’m thinking about the fact that we’re about a year out from next year’s election. That’s a long time, and while we can win this, we need to be ready for any curveballs that might come our way from the other side.
Cory Gardner, Mitch McConnell, and their allies are gathering forces and resources to hold on to this seat—and the best way to respond is to make sure that we can fight back at every turn—whether it’s this month, next spring or summer, or on the day before Election Day, in the bottom of the ninth.
Chip in now to make sure we’re ready to handle anything they throw our way.
Batter up,
John
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