Jim is Gone - Baseball is Dead

 I started writing this a few days ago and concluded it this morning. As many of you know, my brother Jim went to be with Christ on Thanksgiving Day 2020.

The Major League Baseball season begins three days from now on April 1, and I don’t care. I confronted this realization last week, and it has been working its way within and without since then, the baseball thing is over for me. I’m not saying that Vickie and I may not attend a game or two, I image I’d still enjoy a minor league game; but the myth is over, and since Jim is gone there is no reason to cling to the myth – after all, it was our shared memory of baseball that made it enjoyable – even when we both knew that we were creating our own fictional world, one that easily rivaled anything that Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones inhabited.

I peer into the bottom drawer of the desk and take out a cellophane package of cards. When did Jim give me these for Christmas? Five years ago? Ten? Fifteen? Twenty? I should have kept a journal. Well, there are a lot of things I should have done, or wish I had done. I remove the twenty-four cards; twenty-three of them have photos on them of individual baseball players, the twenty-fourth card is a team picture.

I’m looking at baseball cards containing the 1963 Washington Senators, that was fifty-eight years ago. I was thirteen that year, Jim would have been around eight.

While I don’t recall what Christmas Jim gave me these cards, I do recall how pleased he was when we talked about them on the phone. He mentioned Chuck Hinton, Don Lock, Eddie Brinkman, and Jim King; each name invoked a memory that needed no articulation. Yes, we could talk details about these players in our shared mythology, but we didn’t need to, just saying each name carried a story and often a long-vanished hope. These players were not so much about the Major Leagues, as about boyhood, brotherhood, and the mythical fabric of baseball.

It was divinely poetic that the Washington Nationals won the World Series just over a year before Jim left us. While there was a baseball season of sorts in 2020, it was pretty much an abomination and it was not something that Jim and I spoke about much – it was too deplorable, too disgusting, too sacrilegious. It requires an asterisk beside that year and all the statistics associated with it; but it doesn’t matter to me now, Jim is gone and baseball, in the dead of night, has left my soul. This is akin to returning home and finding that someone has removed all the furniture from a room in your house, the furniture of baseball, which was extensive, is gone. It isn’t that Jim took it with him when he left, it is that I have no use for it anymore, not even a mythically aesthetic use.

I began writing this before the start of the baseball season, it’s now April 5 and there is yet more poetry to mention. The first series that the Washington Nationals were to have played, against the New York Mets, was postponed due to covid-19. This makes sense to me, since there is no Jim there is no reason for the National’s to play – they should take the season off in memory of Jim. But then, these are no longer the Nationals, not the Nationals who won the World Series in one of the most improbable of baseball seasons ever; many who were on that 2019 team are now playing for other teams.

You really do have to suspend common sense, and a sense of fair play if you are going to be a Major League baseball fan; after all, how can virtually an entire team cheat at baseball and win the World Series, as the Houston Astros did, and not be meaningfully punished? Jim was pretty disgusted with the hypocrisy in this – had Jim been the commissioner of baseball those players would have paid a price and also had the Series title stripped from the team. Go Jim!

When Bill and Jim and I were kids, it was nice when the lowly Senators won a game here and there, but it wasn’t integral to our enjoyment of the game, we just loved baseball and our local baseball players – every baseball game was an opportunity for us to exercise modest hope that the Senators just might win one. I still recall a team slogan from 1964, “Off the floor in ’64!”. The “floor” of course means last place in the standings, the perpetual dwelling place for the Washington team; as the saying went, “Washington, first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League.” For a Major League team to simply want to not finish in last place is a modest hope indeed.

What to do with these baseball cards? I think I’ll send them to Jim’s grandson with a note, maybe I’ll enclose what you’re reading. I don’t know if he is a baseball fan or not, but maybe he’ll treasure these, as much as baseball cards can reasonably be treasured, knowing that they meant a lot to his Grandpa when he gave them to me.

Baseball and Life

The Major League baseball season consists of 162 games per team, far more than the NBA (82), NHL (82), or NFL (16). This means, among other things, that baseball players deal with failure far more frequently than players in these other sports. In fact, when you look at it one way, position players in baseball fail more than they succeed; consider that a .300 hitter in baseball is well above average, and yet, to hit .300 means that you are only getting a hit 3 out of every ten 10 at bats.

Baseball does not have a “failure” statistic, as in a ballplayer having a .700 average for failure (the opposite part of the .300 batting average calculation). Image what it would do to a batter’s mind if he looked at a failure statistic – it could easily suck all of the hope out of him for a better game or a better season. A .250 hitter can visualize becoming a .260 hitter, then a .270 hitter, then a .280 hitter – there can be hope. But a .750 failure hitter, what is he going to visualize…becoming a .725 failure hitter, a .700 failure hitter – thinking about failure, visualizing failure, isn’t much to look forward to, it isn’t likely to inspire hope in a player. Having a goal of “failing less” isn’t a thinking that is likely to produce more hits in a game or season, it isn’t a trajectory likely to produce a good big league career.

A benefit about a long season is that there is always tomorrow; major league players have to learn to shake off a bad game and focus on the next game. While they need to learn from their mistakes and poor at-bats, they can’t dwell on the past or the past will paralyze them.

Sometimes our days get off to great starts, and then something happens and things spin out of control and then we wonder what happened to the great day we had going. (This has probably never happened to you). It’s like a baseball player having a couple of good at-bats early in the game and then he makes an error in the 9^th inning that causes his team to lose. The ballplayer can’t blame his error on anyone else, and we can’t blame a bad day on other people because how we respond to other people and events is really up to us (yes, there can be unforeseen tragedy that invades our lives, I’m not talking about those terrible times).

One thing is sure, dwelling on yesterday’s poor game will not help me play a better game today, let me learn what I can and move on – and not worry about avoiding failure but focus on making contact with the ball, for I know that the more contact I have that the more hits I’ll have.

Perfectly pitched games in baseball are rare; in over 140 years and 210,000 games of major league baseball there have only been 23, and no pitcher has thrown more than one. Also, those who have pitched a perfect game did not do it by themselves, they all needed their teammates.

Maybe this is one reason why baseball is the game I love, failure is woven into it – but you really don’t look it long and hard because you know you’ve got another at-bat coming up.

Well, I had a bad 9^th inning yesterday, I’ve got to get out on the field now and play today’s game.

0 for 25

In baseball, going 0 for 25 is no fun – that means that in the last 25 at bats that you haven’t gotten a hit. 0 for 25 is no fun for the player, no fun for the team, and no fun for the fans – at least for the hometown fans.

A baseball player can have a great game, but he has to move on from that game to the next game, if he lives in the previous game he won’t do well in the current game; the pitcher in the last game is not the pitcher in the current game.

I’ve had a streak of games in which it seems I’ve gone 0 for 25 – and they have come after a pretty amazing game in which I saw the Lord do some wonderful things. Even though I’ve been taking batting practice, and even though I’ve been praying to “see” the ball so that I can connect with it, it has been 0 for 25. I’ve been watching game films and repenting and realizing (in some measure) how I’ve missed the ball and blown the plays, but I’ve gone 0 for 25 – either striking out, or hitting into double plays, and leaving men on base – that’s one thing you really don’t want to do in baseball, leave men on base.

Well, it’s another morning, so it’s time for more batting practice; prayer, praise, worship, time in the Word – let’s see how today’s game goes. The great thing is that I can’t play the game without Jesus, can’t hit the ball without Jesus, can’t field the ball without Jesus – it’s all about Him playing the game in and through me…I’m not out there by myself.  

Exclusive Photo of Ty Cobb

With apologies to non-baseball fans…

Ty Cobb had the highest lifetime batting average of any major league player in the “Modern Era”, .367. By all accounts he wasn’t a pleasant person; in fact it seems he was downright mean.

I have acquired a rare photo of Cobb which purports to be the only one of him engaging in humor – telling corny jokes. I’m not sure what I’ll get for it on EBay – but thought I’d let you see it before I put it up for auction.

Oh no, this isn’t it. Let me try again.

Nope –wrong one…sorry. I’ll try again.

Give me one more chance…here…I think I’ve got it!

Can You Find Roger Clemens?

Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGuire – where are they in our lives? Can you find them in your heart?

“No,” you say. Are you sure?

Even if you are not a baseball or sports fan, you may have heard or read that Roger Clemens has legal problems because it is alleged that he lied to Congress under oath, a deed frowned upon by the population on The Hill.

Clemens was the recipient of the Cy Young Award, given to the best pitcher in each league, a number of times. That is the highest award a pitcher can receive. Sosa and McGuire drew people to baseball parks by putting on a seemingly amazing display of homerun hitting. (There is also another baseball player who later broke McGuire’s record, but my opinion is that he was so obvious in his use of “enhancing substances” that he does not belong in this reflection.)

While these players were breaking records, making millions, and receiving standing ovations all was not as it appeared – for their records were not their own, their accomplishments not their own accomplishments – they were using performance-enhancing substances. Their deeds and awards were illegitimate. We, and more importantly they, will never know what they really could have accomplished.

On the other hand, the day-to-day baseball player who played every game clean of foreign substance but who didn’t make headlines, who wasn’t on talk shows, who didn’t make millions in advertising endorsements; that player knows what he himself actually did and he need not second guess himself in terms of playing the game clean and honestly – at least as honestly as possible in a game that encourages the stealing of bases.

Paul writes to Timothy, “…if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.”

Clemens won prizes, but did he really? Where are those prizes now? They may be in his trophy case, but the luster is gone and no polish can remove the tarnish.

But what about us? When Jesus greeted Nathaniel He said, “Behold an Israelite in whom is no guile.” Can Jesus say that about me? Can He say it about you?

Roger Clemens used substances to enhance his performance, to make himself better than he really was. Do we employ ruses and devices to make ourselves appear other than who we are? Do we present tainted testimony to the world and to heaven? Are there trophies in our lives, despite their glistening appearance, that we know are tarnished?

Our economic system is largely based on appearance – marketing it is termed – substance matters little, inducement to purchase is everything. Our political system pays spin doctors more than real doctors are often paid – healing public opinion is of more value than healing a broken body.

Analyzing spin and often applauding it has become a national sport, and it has given us all a license to lie, cheat and steal – we do not tell the truth, we rationalize it away; we cheat whenever we fraudulently represent anything, including ourselves, as other than it is; and we steal when we take that which is not ours – the truth – and pervert it and twist it to our own ends.

What is there in my life that is not what it appears to be? What is there in your life that is not what it appears to be?

Roger Clemens can be a good reminder to us all that one day all will be revealed – better to deal with it today before God.

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Yahweh, my rock and my Redeemer,” Psalm 19:14.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way,” Psalm 139:24

Talking About A Perfect Game in Baseball

With apologies to football, basketball and hockey fans – baseball has the rare perfect game, you all have the clock.

Yesterday, for only the 20th time in Major League history, Roy Halladay threw a perfect game for the Philadelphia Phillies against the Florida Marlines. Since 1880, that’s 130 years, there have been just 20 perfect games out of thousands of total games.

While Roy Halladay will get credit for the perfect game, he was quick to give credit to his teammates, for he knew, as all baseball fans know, that without the other eight men on the field that there couldn’t be a perfect game – someone’s got to call the pitches (the catcher) and someone’s got to catch the balls that are put into play (the catcher and the fielders).

I once got within one out of seeing a no-hitter at RFK stadium (before it was named after Robert Kennedy). The Washington Senators were losing to the Chicago White Sox, 1 – 0, it was the bottom of the 9th with two outs and Washington didn’t have a hit. For the only time in my life I wanted my home team to lose so I could say I saw a no-hitter. I thought it was the least the Senators could do for me, seeing as how they ended up in last place every year. But nah – they couldn’t even do that; one Senator got on base and the next guy homered and they won the game 2 –1.

Anyway, back to the perfect game – on our best days, whether it’s pitching a perfect game, or a no-hitter, or going 5 for 5, whatever the case may be, on our best days our accomplishments are never solely our own – others have contributed to them. The thing is, not only do we need to be aware and thankful for those who have built into our lives, but we ought to be intentional about building into the lives of others. I hear so many people talk about what they’re going to do for others some day – and I see that it seldom happens – we are not suddenly going to change our lives when we retire, we are not going to miraculously reverse decades of self-centered living. And then there are those funerals I’ve conducted that happened long before the deceased had planned for it…strange how that can happen.

Who am I helping throw a perfect game today? What about you, who are you helping?

Baseball, Chickens, and Being Left-Handed

A few weeks ago Patrick and Alice on the Zuck Homstead decided they’d purchase some chickens for fresh eggs. They had chickens previously but predators got to be too much of a challenge. Seems like lots of critters enjoy chicken, with or without Colonel Sanders’s secret recipe.

Now I don’t know much about keep’n chickens. When Patrick and Alice and their young’ns were out of town a few weeks ago during Spring Break I made sure the chickens had scratch feed, mash feed, and water. That wasn’t too bad a chore. What was a chore was cleaning the chicken house, putting fresh bedding in and cleaning out possible compost-fertilizing material – not a pretty chore – but hey, the Bible says to love thy neighbor and the Revere family – well, they’re not just our neighbors they’re our friends, just like family – so what’s a little chicken chore between family?

Now like I said, I don’t know much about rais’n and keep’n chickens. But for you folks that do know about chickens, I direct your attention to the above photo. As you can tell there are four chickens. Four chickens eat’n the Revere’s food and drink’n the Revere’s water and liv’n in the Revere’s chicken coop. You’d think that four chickens could do better than one egg a day – at least I’d think so…even though I don’t know much about rais’n and keep’n chickens.

So when I found out that they were only producing one egg per day I wondered what the problem was. Were they union chickens and refusing to work until they negotiated a better contract? Were they Northern chickens refusing to work south of the Mason-Dixon line? Were they New York Yankee fans refusing to work for a Red Sox fan? (I am pleased to report that Mr. Revere is a Red Sox fan). There was some discussion about the lack of egg production.

Then yesterday as I was out on our lane pruning trees, Alice Revere stopped on her way out to run errands. She rolled down her car’s window and said,  "Well, we’ve figured out why we’re only getting one egg per day. Three of the chickens are roosters.”

Now as you know by now, I don’t know much about rais’n and keep’n chickens – but I do know that if you’ve got three roosters and one hen that that probably explains why you’re getting one egg per day.

And that got me to thinking about baseball and being left-handed, which I am. Just like those three roosters were being asked to play a position that they couldn’t possibly play, there are some positions in baseball that a left-hander can’t really play, most notably second-base and shortstop. And while I’ve been told that there have been left-handed third basemen, I’d put third base in that category too. You see, when those three positions field ground balls the majority of throws are made to first base. Whereas a right-handed fielder has a natural throw across his body to first base, a left-hander has to throw against his natural momentum, thereby losing precious seconds and also sacrificing accuracy. Having a left-hander at those three positions just isn’t efficient – you end up frustrating not only the player in question, but the team as a whole. (I wonder if the hen kept wondering why she was the only one doing the work?)

Psalm 139 teaches us that God made each one of us as unique individuals. We are hard-wired by God. Now while we can all learn things that might not be the most natural things for us to learn, and acquire skills that might not be the most natural for us to acquire, the fact remains that we still have hard-wired dispositions and talents. Learning how we are wired, and learning and appreciating how others are wired, can make life not only easier but also fun and exciting.

One of the primary New Testament images of the people of God is the Body of Christ. One body with many members. One people with many variations of gifts and graces. When we honor God in His people and when we honor people in God we open up possibilities for both individual and collective growth.

By the way – do any of y’all need a rooster?

Talking About Baseball – A Single Eye

The highest single season batting average in the “modern era” (which is basically from 1900 forward) is .424 by Rogers Hornsby in 1924 when he played for the St. Louis Cardinals. If you are a baseball fan you know that was an amazing feat. Hornsby also hit over .400 two other times. To put this in perspective, the last person to hit over .400 was Ted Williams for the Boston Red Sox – and that was in 1941, 69 years ago.

Hornsby was a “nut” about taking care of his eyes. In fact, he didn’t go to the movies because he thought the moving pictures might be detrimental to his eyesight and he didn’t want anything to impair his ability to see pitches coming to the plate.

I wonder how we compare to Rogers Hornsby in the things we expose the eye of our minds and hearts to? In Colossians Chapter 3 we are exhorted to fix our minds on things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God; and the author of Hebrews challenges us to look to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. Just as great batters like Hornsby developed and maintained an “eye” for the ball, so Christ-followers are called to develop and cultivate an eye for the things of God.

There are a lot of things we can do with our eyes which are not sinful or wrong, there are a lot of things we can apply our hearts and minds to that are no more evil than watching a movie would have been evil for Rogers Hornsby. The question usually isn’t whether something is evil, it is usually whether something dulls our spiritual hearing and seeing, it is usually whether something is focused on Christ.

It is like the adage that the enemy of a great book is a good book. Am I investing my life in good things or in great things? Am I taking care of my “eye”? What’s my batting average looking like these days?

Talking about Baseball – How to Fail and Win: I

Baseball ain’t what it used to be; while I don’t care that much for the Major Leagues anymore I still love the game.

One of the neat things about baseball is that every batter fails more times than he succeeds. Yes, every batter fails more times than he succeeds. That means that the most successful batters in the history of the game failed more times than they succeeded. That means that the players who win the batting championships this year in the American and National Leagues will have failed more times than they succeeded.

Batting averages are a measure of a hitter’s consistency. A batting average of .200 means that the player gets a “hit” 2 out of 10 times at bat. A batting average of .300 means that a batter gets a hit 3 out of 10 times at bat. Get the idea? A .300 hitter is a star, especially if he can hit .300 year after year. But that also means that there are 7 out of 10 times at the plate when he doesn’t get a hit – he fails more times than he succeeds, and yet he is a star ballplayer.

The top lifetime batting average is held by Ty Cobb and is .367 – that means that Cobb failed more times than he succeeded, and yet he holds the highest lifetime batting average in baseball history.

There are some lessons for life here, including lessons for our life in Christ. To begin with, most people don’t try new things because they are afraid of failure; and many other people don’t try things over again if they have failed at them the first time or two. Most people would rather sit on the bench in the dugout rather than go up to the plate and try to make contact with the ball.

One of the greatest center fielders of all time, Willie Mays, made 12 straight outs when he first entered the Major Leagues, and though he steadily improved during the year he didn’t set the world on fire his first year in the league – but he went on to have a Hall of Fame career. Suppose his manager, Leo Durocher, had given up on him?

I think one reason people are afraid to try things and fail is the critical reaction they get from other people. Some families have a culture of criticism, some companies have a culture of criticism, and sad to say, far too many churches have a culture of criticism. These cultures watch people go up to the plate and rather than encouraging them, rather than rooting for their success, they actually want them to fail – especially if they don’t do things the way certain people think (know!) they should be done.

It is any wonder that so many cultures stagnate, and in stagnating resemble pools of water with no inlet or outlet? Is it any wonder that the Body of Christ as expressed in local churches often does not grow because its members are afraid to exercise their gifts and graces, they are afraid to learn and grow because of judgmental criticism?

We value efficiency while God values character and growth. Efficiency would say, “Let’s play something other than baseball, there are too many failures.” What that game would be I’m not sure, but you get the idea. Maybe they’d prefer a basketball game with the hoop 4 feet off the ground?

As a pastor, and as a business executive, I’ve always enjoyed seeing people try new things (well…mostly I’ve enjoyed it). And I’ve also valued failure for a couple of reasons. One reason is that it gives me an opportunity to encourage the person to try it again, or to try something else, to get back on the bicycle. Another reason I value failure is that it gives me an opportunity to guide the corporate or church culture away from criticism and into encouragement and affirmation. If others can see that failure is not the end of the world, if others can witness encouragement in the midst of failure, then maybe they too will get on the bicycle and try something new – maybe they’ll try that thing they’ve been dreaming of.

I’m reminded of the Apostle Peter. I think if he played baseball that he would be a catcher. Catchers have to be fiery team leaders, not afraid of staring at 100 MPH fastballs or leery of  bats swinging over their heads; not afraid of base runners barreling into them trying to score a run. Peter made a number of “outs” in his life, he didn’t always get it right, and in fact one time he got it terribly wrong, the time he denied Christ with curses. But you know what? The old boy kept going up to the plate and Jesus stuck with him, Jesus kept saying in effect, “There’s the bat Pete, let’s give it another try.”

One time, when the crowds turned away from Jesus, Jesus asked the disciples, “Are you leaving me too?” And Pete replied, “Where are we gong to go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Peter was saying, “You are the only game for us. We’re not playing with anyone else. It’s your team or no team.”

Yes, Peter made his share of outs, but he also had some key hits. He cleared the bases when the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost (Acts 2); he knocked the Gentiles across home plate in the house of Cornelius (Acts 10); and he was man enough in Christ to acknowledge when he got picked-off base in Antioch (Galatians 2). And in the bottom of the 9th inning, when the game was on the line, Peter showed that he could not only live like Jesus, but that he could die like Jesus.

Pick up that bat lying next to you, go up to the plate, get in the game.