If You Never Ask ...

If You Never Ask …
… you’ll never know.
It is easy to be shy. It is far more comfortable to keep quiet, stay at a distance, never take chances. We are taught from an early age that gambling is bad and loses far more than it wins. Yet the biggest success stories are from those who did gamble, took a chance, and won.
Remember the tortoise and the hare story? Well, there is another moral rarely mentioned besides the familiar “slow and steady wins the race.” That other moral is this: “you will never move forward if you don’t stick your neck out.”
Detroit Tiger fans all know Ernie Harwell. He was the voice of Tiger’s radio for decades and is a Baseball Hall of Fame broadcaster. Growing up in Michigan, I listened to him every day during the summer, hanging on his words, loving his commentaries, and feeling like he was a friend of the family.
Fast forward to the 21st century. I am living in Arizona and Ernie Harwell is on his farewell tour with the Tigers. He is in his eighties and still broadcasting. I knew if I ever was going to meet him, I would have to do it on the Tiger’s trip to play the Arizona Diamondbacks. So I wrote to the Detroit Tigers organization, hoping against hope that I might get a chance to meet this man I admired so much.
I really didn’t expect anything to happen. After all, in 60 years of being the voice of the Tigers, Ernie Harwell had literally millions of fans. Nonetheless, I took a chance.
One day, a week or so before the Tigers were to come to Arizona, my phone rang. I answered it and the voice on the other end said, “John Haldane?” I answered in the affirmative and the next thing I heard floored me: “This is Ernie Harwell.”
Ernie Harwell, a man loved by millions, called me personally to invite me to join him in the Tiger’s broadcast booth during one of the games in Arizona. I could hardly contain my excitement. I called my brother, Mark, perhaps the world’s greatest baseball fan, and told him that we could both meet Ernie Harwell.
The Diamondbacks organization was fabulous. They gave us passes to the booth and we spent more than 2 innings with Ernie Harwell and the Tiger’s broadcast team, seeing and hearing the baseball game like we never had before and will never again.
If I hadn't taken the long shot and asked, it never would have happened.
This isn’t a story of becoming a Bill Gates or President of the US or any other spectacular story of taking a chance. It is better, I believe, to show that even little things can yield great results when we stick out our neck. Don’t be afraid. What do you have to lose?