Walking in the Valley A weekly column for those who live and walk in Silicon Valley by Barbara Dahlgren

Sea Biscuit Run Column for the week of August 31 - September 6, 2003

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The book Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand and the recently released movie Seabiscuit could be summed up as follows: four losers come together to make one big winner. The intro reads, “In 1938 the number one newsmaker wasn’t Franklin Roosevelt or Adolph Hitler. It wasn’t even a person. It was an undersized crooked-legged racehorse owned by a bicycle repairman turned automobile magnate trained by a virtually mute mustang breaker and ridden by a half blind failed prize fighter.”

1938 had some memorable events. The day before Halloween Orson Welles broadcast a play by H.G. Wells entitled “The War of the Worlds.” It was adapted to sound like a program was actually being interrupted to report the news of a Martian invasion. So effective was the presentation that people actually thought we were being invaded. Then the greatest weather disaster ever to hit Long Island, New York, and New England came in the form of a hurricane called the Long Island Express, which changed terrain, created inlets, and caused around $15 billion in damages. Time Magazine voted Adolph Hitler the Man of the Year. Roosevelt instituted the March of Dimes. But the big, big headlines that year belonged to Seabiscuit. In fact 40 million fans across the U.S. tuned into radio on November 1st to hear the broadcast of what was called “The Greatest Match Race of the Century” between horse champion War Admiral and Seabiscuit. Seabiscuit won and set a new track record, beating War Admiral by four lengths.

Why was Seabiscuit so popular? Maybe it was timing. People didn’t have much to cling to in 1938. We were knee deep in the Great Depression. Hardworking people who would have taken any job to feed their families were out of work. The Grapes of Wrath wasn’t just a book it was a reality. Maybe people just needed an underdog (in this case an underhorse) to root for. Even though horse racing was considered a rich man’s sport Seabiscuit captured the heart of all America. He seemed to give the poor man hope. If a broken down horse could win maybe they stood a chance to survive.

Everyone loves a winner but my theory is God loves the loser, too. He delights in making what the world would call a “loser” into a winner. I find it hard to believe that these four losers could come together and make one big winner without some kind of push from above. And believe it or not, even though we may seem like losers in the eyes of the world, we are all winners in God’s eyes. Many scriptures refer to analogies of running a race. (1 Corinthians 9:24, Galatians 5:7, Hebrews 12:1) The Bible seems to indicate that we each have a race designed specifically for us and we are instructed to run to win the prize. All we have to do is just finish our race to win so giving up should not be an option. So what’s our problem? If “an undersized crooked-legged racehorse owned by a bicycle repairman turned automobile magnate trained by a virtually mute mustang breaker and ridden by a half blind failed prize fighter” can do it, what’s our excuse?

©August 2003

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