Archive for the 'Baseball' Category

Put Pujols In

Published
by
Mike
on July 11, 2007
in Baseball
. 34 Comments

Tony La Russa had bases loaded in the 9th inning of last night’s All-Star game. Two outs. And Albert Pujols, the best player in the world, sitting on the bench. He chose not to use him. Now the AL’s streak continues at ten games.

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What makes something funny? Is it that it’s quirky? unexpected? off the wall?

During the game, they kept showing clips of the new Simpsons movie. And for some reason, everytime Homer started singing “SpiderPig, SpiderPig,” it sent Chris and me over the edge in hysterical laughter.

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When Bonds passes Hank Aaron’s record, it won’t last long. A-Rod will be lapping him in a decade or so.

You can put this prediction next to my earlier one that Tiger won’t break Jack Nicklaus’s record. (Believe it or not, not everyone agreed with this prediction!)

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Here’s a column by Grant Boone you’ll enjoy from his “Grant Me This” column on PGA.com.

Summer Restoration

Published
by
Mike
on June 30, 2007
in Baseball and family
. 24 Comments

Ok. So ONE MORE year of coaching all-star baseball. Didn’t I say that last year? After a rain-out opening night, we began last night with a 19-0 win. We’d all love to head to Waco again (state tournament), but there are lots of hard games to get there.

Just getting games in has been tricky this spring. Average annual rainfall for Abilene is 23 inches. We’re at 21 already. It’s been much-needed rain, refilling lakes that have been low for too many years now.

Hope all of you are getting some time this summer to break away from hectic schedules. To breathe deeply . . . to take a hike . . . to catch a movie (and YES, “Evan Almighty” is a lot better than the reviews indicate!) . . . to pick up that novel . . . to spend a morning in prayer . . . to head to the little league park . . . to make homemade ice cream with friends.

What are ways that your family finds summer restoration?

Boys and Girls of Summer

Published
by
Mike
on June 13, 2007
in Baseball
. 10 Comments

Jerry Rushford sent me a link to this wonderful piece by Jeff Strauss in the L. A. Times, wanting to know if I’d really written the article under a pen name.

Here’s part of the piece:

Every year, I tell the kids that I have four goals: 1. to have fun; 2. to help the kids become better baseball players; 3. to help them become a better baseball team; and 4. to have fun. (Twice? Corny? Yeah, I know.) From my point of view, this was an excellent year on all four counts.

So congratulations to everybody! And thanks to my assistants and to all the parents for the applause and waters and snacks and sunscreen. You were great and made coaching a constant pleasure.

That’s it. You can have your children back now. But if you’re driving by the John Burroughs Middle School on a late Tuesday afternoon and you see a guy with a touch of gray in his curly hair wandering around on the field looking a little lost, toss your kids and maybe a ball and a Gatorade over the fence. I’ll have ‘em back by dark. Or just after.

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Don’t miss Larry’s insights about the immigration law debate.

New Pitching Rules

Published
by
Mike
on May 25, 2007
in Baseball
. 19 Comments

Little league coaches have had to adjust their strategy this year because of a major change in the pitching rules. A much-needed change, in my opinion.

Formerly the rules specified how many innings a kid could pitch. But that’s tricky, because an inning could involve three pitches or it could involve forty-plus pitches.

The problem is showing up in sore arms and damaged arms with younger and younger kids. Just this morning I heard a report on middle school kids having to have “Tommy John surgery” because of too much pitching at too early an age.

The new rules don’t specify innings; rather, they limit the actual number of pitches. It’s inconvenient at times, of course. E.g., in my last game, I needed to limit both my first two pitchers to forty pitches, so they’d be available to play the top team two days later. In the last inning, we were leading 10-5 with two outs and one strike on the last batter. But that’s when my pitcher hit the magical forty. So, we had to stop the game to bring in pitcher #3. We all waited while he warmed up and delivered three more pitches to end the game.

Inconvenient, yes. But still the right thing to do.

And much of the reason this is necessary is that too many adults get too carried away and will do nearly anything — including taking a chance on a kid’s arm — just to win.

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“Here is my theory: I am all the ages I’ve ever been. You realize this at some point about your child — even when your kid is sixteen, you can see all the ages in him, the baby wrapped up like a burrito, the one-year-old about to walk, the four-year-old napping, the ten-year-old on a trampoline. . . . So how can I be represented by a snapshot, or any one specific aging age? Isn’t the truth that this me is subsumed into all the me’s I already have been, and will be?” - Anne Lamott, Grace (Eventually)

Baseball

Published
by
Mike
on May 22, 2007
in Baseball
. 49 Comments

I don’t just like the idea of baseball.

I like the smell of it. I like the crack of the wood bat or the ping of the aluminum bat. I like teaching a kid how to lead with his hips as he swings. I like a sore arm and shoulder from throwing 20 too many fastballs the night before at practice. I like calling pitches for my son. I like seeing a kid that can’t catch still hustle to the fence, hit his cutoff man, and stop the double from being a triple. I love hot dogs at the stadium. I like seeing the #9 batter get his first hit of the season. I like seeing a kid lay down a bunt. Shoot, I just like seeing a kid look down to third and SEE the bunt sign. I like seeing the two teams line up after the game and shake hands, remembering that there are more important things than who won.

I like almost everything about baseball.

Except the Yankees.

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Oh, yes. The robe? Check this out.

The Orlando Ball

Published
by
Mike
on March 22, 2007
in Baseball, General and justice
. 13 Comments

I mentioned in passing on the blog that my sister is lucky her name is Nancy because I begged my parents to name her Orlanda, after my favorite baseball player at the time, Orlando Cepeda.

I just received a little package in the mail. You guessed it: a baseball signed by Orlando Cepeda. Thanks, Terry (Rush)!

Have I mentioned that I was also a fan of Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays?

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“A Place to Call Home” from Larry James’s blog:

“I sleep on the street,” William told us. “I cover up with my blankets. My blankets are precious to me because of the cold. One night last week, I woke up and realized there was another person under my blankets with me! A perfect stranger just trying to stay warm. He meant me no harm at all!”

William told his story yesterday during one of our site visits by the United Way committee that will determine our funding level for our housing efforts for the coming year. Thanks to Rev. Jay Cole, director of Crossroads Community Services (a ministry of First United Methodist Church and one of our partners in outreach to the homeless in Downtown Dallas), five men joined us for the interview and tour. We met in the lobby of our recently acquired office building at 511 N. Akard, otherwise known as CityWalk @ Akard.

“The shelters don’t allow us to store our belongings,” Roger explained. “If we leave our stuff, they throw it away. What is precious to me, may not be to you, but it is to me!”

“If we look through the trash for what they throw away, they ban us from the shelters,” William added. “We just need a place to leave our belongings, a place that is ours.”

Three other gentlemen spoke–”Wild Bill,” Leon and Troy. Like their other two friends, each was articulate, clear, honest, rational and impressive.

Leon told us that he was living in a shelter at present where everything was “beans and rice and Jesus Christ!” But he said he was glad for the bed, even though the shelter turned everyone out onto the streets at 5:00 a.m. every morning. He has a job, so it works for him.

“But, what I really need is a place of my own,” he added.

“Wild Bill” described his campground home.

Troy told us about his struggle with drugs and life.

When the men were done, we all sat in silence for a few moments before the committee’s questions broke the silence.

I think we all realized what great neighbors these five men would make.

As I spoke with them afterwards, it was clear that the thought of a place of their own was beyond their ability to conceive at this point. The longer we visited, the more hopeful they became as I described apartments we would begin offering in May at another location in Dallas.

“Would the apartment be furnished?” Roger asked.

When I told him that it would be, unless he wanted to use his own furniture, he just shook his head and said, “Do you know how long it has been since I slept on my own bed?”

William told the group during our formal presentation that one of the greatest needs of all is for simple privacy.

“I’d like to be able to shut the door and take a shower or use the restroom. There is no privacy for any of us.”

“Every day we fall in line to join the ‘parade’ from place to place Downtown,” Roger told us. “We need a place to call home where this can stop.”

All the comments began when I asked these men the simple question, “What would an apartment of your own mean to you?”

I came away more convinced than ever that most of us don’t understand much at all about homeless people. Further, about all we need to understand is that they need a home, a place they can call their own.

We’re working on that right now.

One More Season

Published
by
Mike
on February 23, 2007
in Baseball and sports
. 45 Comments

One more season to coach. That’s all. And it’s about to get started.

All those basketball games; all those innings in the dugout; even one year (in Searcy) as a soccer coach.

And it comes down to one final junior league season. Then my youngest will be turned over to real coaches in high school, even as he’s already been handed over to real basketball coaches in middle school.

It’s been a good run. Nothing quite like teaching a kid to dribble, to shoot, to pass, to hit, to field a grounder, and to be a good sport.

One more season. Don’t try to reach me until about July! I’ll be at the ballpark.

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I can’t get enough of “Jacob’s Dream,” Jack Maxwell’s brilliant sculpture (and so much more) at ACU. What is it about great art that draws you to deeper places of beauty and faith? What’s the one piece of art that grabbed your soul and wouldn’t let you go?

Calling All Peacemakers

Published
by
Mike
on January 10, 2007
in Baseball, justice, missional and preaching
. 42 Comments

I guess the medicine going directly into my knee — medicine that runs out sometime today! — is responsible for keeping me awake through the night. So far I’ve had LOTS of time to read. Watch for coming blogs about books by Lawrence Wright, Sam Harris, and Greg Boyd.

But I also had time to listen to a message that was recommended to me by a blog reader who had heard me preach on some of the themes in the sermon.

Find 50 minutes and listen to this incredible message by Rob Bell. Go to this site, and find message #411 (December 10, 2006).

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I haven’t yet gotten to listen to Rick Atchley’s three lessons on “The Both/And Church” (explaining their decision to add an instrumental service), but they are found here.

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Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn made it easily into the Baseball Hall of Fame. But here’s my question: what 13 people voted AGAINST Gwynn? The man played two decades with the same team, and retired with a lifetime .338 batting average. He’s among the very best the game has ever seen.

The Attack on Big Mac

Published
by
Mike
on November 29, 2006
in Baseball
. 47 Comments

I read yesterday morning that Mark McGuire isn’t likely to make it into the Hall of Fame — at least not on this round. I understand the frustration of the sports writers: long-time records have been broken by people who were cheating.

The difficult part is this: how do we know exactly who HAS and who HAS NOT been getting juiced? Is body mass the only indication?

The McGuire/Sosa year was such a magical one for baseball fans. Little did we know (at least for sure) at the time that it was a question of whose steroids were better.

On one hand, how do you keep out someone with almost 600 home runs who has the highest home run ratio in history (a home run every 10.61 at bats); yet on the other hand, how do you allow someone in who knowingly broke the rules?

Glad I’m not having to vote. As a Cardinals fan, it would be tough.

What do you think?

Did the Early Church Have a Honeymoon?

Published
by
Mike
on November 2, 2006
in Baseball and missional
. 27 Comments

Here’s a great piece by Scot McKnight entitled “What is the Emerging Church?” (a copy of his lecture at Westminster Theological Seminary). It would be worth printing off. He looks at the strengths and weaknesses of this movement that he identifies himself with. Seems to me he’s right on target. (Thanks, SP, for the link.)

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Found these insightful words from N. T. Wright that relate to Monday’s blog:

“Meanwhile, there seems to have been a fourth ‘party’ — claiming that they were the real Messiah-people! Everyone else was following this leader or that leader, but they were simply following King Jesus! This, too, alas, is a well-known power-play in the church. . . . It’s a sobering thought that the church faced such division in its very earliest years. People sometimes talk as if first generation Christianity enjoyed a pure, untroubled honeymoon period, after which things became more difficult; but there’s no evidence for this in the New Testament. Right from the start, Paul found himself not only announcing the gospel of Jesus but struggling to hold together in a single family those who had obeyed its summons.”

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As you know from comments on an earlier entry, Terry and Dusty Rush wound up with tickets to the Cardinals’ winning game. How fitting. Dusty is a Cardinals’ fan, as am I. His dad is an obsessed stalker of the Cardinals, though. He’s not a Cardinals fan. He is THE Cardinals fan.

When he got back to his office at the Memorial Drive Church of Christ in Tulsa, his room had been decorated by the staff. There are pics here.