Well, here it is the first week of December and I’m already
receiving notices from Major League Baseball about next year’s season and Spring Training. I really love baseball and especially love going the spring training
games in Florida where you can get close to the action and see how the teams
are forming up for the season.
If you read my earlier article, Discouraged? Lessons From a Would Be Athlete (Click to read), about my early days trying to be a baseball player you will understand why I am
primarily a spectator.
I have followed baseball since I was very young. I remember listening to the Cincinnati Reds
games when I was just a small boy.
My big sister Carolyn and I shared the upstairs bedroom in our house
on Jefferson Avenue in Chillicothe, Ohio. We had a small white Crosley radio
that could pick up Cincinnati stations and Carolyn was so understanding, letting me listen, radio turned low.
Waite Hoyt |
Waite Hoyt was the baseball broadcaster, after a career that included being one of the dominant
major league pitchers in the 1920s, and the winningest pitcher for the New
York Yankees during that decade and a Hall of Famer. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. He
was known for entertaining radio audiences with anecdotes during rain delays
and his stories were so fascinating that sometimes you wished that it would
keep raining while he finished his stories.
Waite Hoyt with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig |
"Big Klu Ted Kluzewski |
At these games sometimes I wondered what it would be like to
be the son of a baseball player, maybe Big Klu’s son. What fun it would be,
watching the game from the stands, relying on Dad to do the work while I ate
popcorn and hot dogs.
There came a time some years back when that thought struck
me, made me think about the son watching the father play, and to realize how much baseball parallels life’s journey.
We start out in life as a young player, a rookie. There is so much to learn, life's equivalent of how to bat, throw,
catch; how to play your “position”; how to get along with the manager and the
teammates. Most of these things take some training… but
a LOT of experience. Most of life is
like that. Sometimes we feel like that young Rookie, so
much to do, everything depending on our doing the right thing at the right
time in order to succeed.
As a “player” in life, I have often felt like a “rookie”,
even after playing for a number of years.
Sometimes not confident in my abilities, concerned about the lack of education, about supporting my family, worried about my career, pressure in almost every aspect of my
life. This resulted in my being plagued by a burning desire
to CONTROL situations. Not that I was feeling
overly important, just RESPONSIBLE!!
You’ve probably heard
the saying; “If it is to be it’s up to me!!!”
Well, I fell for that line, that kind of thinking. Now I
did many admirable things I suppose. I
worked in a number of companies, many
hours a day in some, up to 100 hours in one miserable never to be forgotten week, hardly made it home
for a nap before I was called back to the office. Early data processing guys
weren’t supposed to sleep! I took on the
responsibility for making everything work and come together in every aspect of
my life, had to have my finger on the pulse, ear to the ground, nose to the grindstone.... WHEW!! There were times when the
pressure was almost unbearable, my feeling inadequate but still knowing “it was
up to me".
At a point in my life when I was finally ready to grow spiritually, to let go of “self” and find a better
resource, a friend introduced me to a different view of The Bible and how God,
the infinite intelligence, is close at hand, available, there to be leaned on
and trusted in.
I began to study how an itinerant prophet and teacher named Jesus, a man who through an
incredible grasp of the spiritual nature of life, an inseparable closeness to God, was able to
demonstrate life far above his contemporaries by healing sickness, uplifting
the downtrodden, feeding the hungry, overcoming all manner of material
obstacles. As a man who had no formal
education and little religious training, he actually turned to and relied on
God as a present help. And he didn't seem "pressured" at all. That sure is
what I needed!!!
Several of his statements gave me a lot to think about: He said, “I can of mine own self do nothing’
* and, “ The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. **
He also said, “The
Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things
soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” ***
This humble man was able to see so clearly the fact that
life is really spiritual that he could calm a storm, walk on water and heal
every adverse "material" circumstance. Definitely someone I wanted to know more about and to emulate to the extent
possible. If someone like that could let the Father do
the work, what was I waiting for??
Relating back to baseball, and wondering what it would be
like to sit in the stands and watch my father play. Here was the answer. God,
as our Father, takes the field for us every day and we can enjoy watching the
Father play the game of life, take the pressure off of ourselves, turn over the
burdens, see that life is not about worry, worry, scurry, scurry. That doesn't mean that we don’t do anything, but our job is to do what all good
children do, live the kind of life that makes the Father proud. That same Jesus gave us this instruction, indicating that following his pathway, would truly free us from worldly pressures, lift us to the understanding that Life is Spirit: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." ****
It takes effort to let go.
At least it did for me, I had to overcome the fear of turning loose of the wheel, learning
to trust, to put my hands in my lap and let God control the situation. But I can vouch for the fact that sitting in
the stands watching the Father play is wonderful!! We can trust God to take the stress, to handle the fast
pitches, the curveballs that are thrown at us. I personally have seen Him hit a lot of home
runs!!!
It’s a new season. This is "Our Year"!! Play Ball!!!!!!
* John 5:30
** John 14:10
*** John 15:12
*** Matthew 11:28
3 comments:
19th century spiritual umpire and theologian, Mary Baker Eddy, said "To strike out right and left against the mist, never clears the vision; but to lift your head above it, is a sovereign panacea."
You really hit one out of the park, Pat!
I've always thought of infielders executing a double play as a great expression of Soul!
I love reading your blogs. I always learn something new about you, or your life, that I didn't know. One would think after being someone's son for nearly 50 years that you would know everything there is to know. Keep on writing and ill keep reading and learning!
Love you dad
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