Archive for the 'sports' Category

Keep Your Eyes Open Today

Published
by
Mike
on October 16, 2006
in General, Megan and sports
. 41 Comments

I wish T. O. didn’t play for the Cowboys. I don’t like listening to him or watching him. Even when he scores three TDs.

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I still have my program from the 1968 World Series between the Cardinals and the Tigers. I hope there will be a repeat this year.

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Congrats to the ACU football team. They’re 6-0 for the first time since 1950. Saturday they blew away their rivals from Angelo State in the Homecoming game.

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Yesterday afternoon we saw the Homecoming musical, “Singing in the Rain.” Since I have all the theater majors in my “Life and Teachings of Jesus” class, it’s fun to watch them as they continue their theater careers. Ryan, Jason, Jessica, Shannon, etc. — wonderful job.

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Yesterday our “other daughter” (she has her own parents but she became part of our family when she helped take care of Megan and Chris) had her second child, a daughter. She called last night to tell us that they named the little girl Zoe Megan. She liked having the words “life” (zoe) and Megan together. So do we.

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God is working to repair this world. He’s doing it in obvious ways; mostly, he’s doing it in ways that don’t catch headlines. The whole mustard seed thing, you know. He’s inviting us to join him in that. In big ways, and small ways. Keep your eyes open today for opportunities.

Baseball’s Alltime All-Star Team

Published
by
Mike
on October 7, 2006
in Baseball, General and sports
. 41 Comments

Great time at the Zoe Conference. It was nice to see many of you there.

On my way back, I got to gather with a small crowd at DFW to watch the Tigers celebrate. It’s been a long time since I’ve been so happy about a prediction being wrong (that the Cards would face the Yankees in the Series). I love the Tigers.

On the plane I read SI’s all-time baseball list: their top 25 players of all time. A few disappointments for this Cardinals fan. A-Rod at SS instead of Ozzie? I know that his four-hundred-something HRs is impressive, but you might have a hard time convincing some Yankees fans that he’s even the best SS on their team, much less one of the best of all times. It’s early to include Sir Albert, but here in a few years someone is going to have to be bumped off the list for Pujols.

Yogi and Johnny Bench are the two catchers. Fair enough. But you could certainly make a case for Pudge. (Old Rangers bias there.) And I guess I’d rather see Greg Maddux than Warren Spahn. And Bob Gibson rather than either of them, though I know I couldn’t defend that statistically. Just fondly remembering that ‘68 season. Glad they didn’t include Bonds.

Here’s the list:

Pitchers: Spahn, Roger Clemens, Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Sandy Koufax, Mariano Rivera, Lefty Grove, and Dennis Eckersley.

Infielders: Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, Stan Musial, Rogers Hornsby, Honus Wagner, Mike Schmidt, A-Rod, Bench, and Berra.

Outfielders: Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, and Joe Dimaggio.

Any suggestions?

World Series Prediction

Published
by
Mike
on October 5, 2006
in Baseball and sports
. 39 Comments

Here it is, folks.

Cardinals over the Yankees in 7. Just like ‘64.

You read it here first. When it comes down to it, the world’s greatest baseball player — Sir Albert — will take over. Even over the Best Team Money Can Buy. (Joe, if we get to such a series, we’ll visit again about another blog smackdown. I won’t be merciful this year like I was last time.)

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The Rangers fired Buck Showalter. A good manager, best I could tell.

Note to Rangers’ Front Office: Your pitchers have been averaging about a 5.0 ERA for years. That’s not Buck’s fault. Shell out some money, make better decisions, and get some pitching!

Section 2 Champions!

Published
by
Mike
on July 19, 2006
in Baseball, General and sports
. 38 Comments

It happened. We beat the Dallas district champions twice last night, and we’re going to the state tournament in Waco as the champions of Section 2.

Congrats to Josh Brooks, Grayson Bunnell, Chris Cope, Dalton Douglas, Parker Gragg, Ryan Heslep, Austin MacGruder, Jacob Martinez, Joey Mendl, Colten Sanders, Hunter Self, Gilbert Torres, Reese Williams, and Kolby Yanez — as well as to the other coaches, Glenn Gazaille and Bobby Woodward.

On to Waco! I’m having to cancel a speaking gig for this Sunday (Sorry to those organizing Landon’s Heartbeat retreat!) and a vacation on Monday (to celebrate my 50th on Tuesday), but you don’t get to do this many times!

As THE DAY Approaches

Published
by
Mike
on July 10, 2006
in General and sports
. 31 Comments

With 50 only fifteen days away, these words from Anne Lamott’s Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith. The quotes are taken from a chapter entitled “Untitled.”

“Age has given me what I was looking for my entire life — it has given me me. It has provided time and experience and failures and triumphs and time-tested friends who have helped me step into the shape that was waiting for me. I fit into me now. I have an organic life, finally, not necessarily the one people imagined for me, or tried to get me to have. I have the life I longed for. I have become the woman I hardly dared imagine I could be.”

“I still have terrible moments when I despair about my body — time and gravity have not made various parts of it higher and firmer. But those are just moments now — I used to have years when I believed I was more beautiful if I jiggled less, if all parts of my body stopped moving when I did. But I know two things now that I didn’t at thirty: That when we get to heaven, we will discover that the appearance of our butts and our skin was 127th on the list of what mattered on this earth. And that I am not going to live forever. Knowing these things has set me free.”

“I live by the truth that ‘No” is a complete sentence. I rest as a spiritual act.”

“On the day I die, I want to have had dessert. So this informs how I live now.” (Good news, Dad!)

“Look, my feet hurt some mornings, and my body is less forgiving when I exercise more than I am used to. But I love my life more, and me more. I’m so much juicier.”

“As that old saying goes, it’s not that I think less of myself, but that I think of myself less often. And that feels like heaven to me.”

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Lessons learned from watching soccer yesterday:

1. Reports of religion being out of favor in Europe are incorrect. It’s just that soccer is the religion.

2. Remember what you learned in kindergarten: no head-butting. Especially if a billion people are watching. It’s considered rude.

3. A 2-hour game can come down to about an inch — that must be about how much lower the ball hit on the crossbar early in the game for France (when it came down across the line as a goal) than it did in the shootout (when it come down on the line).

4. When watching the World Cup Final with teenage boys who actually play soccer and love soccer, do not try to make insightful comments. You only look like an idiot who ought to stick to coaching baseball.

The Appalachian Trail

Published
by
Mike
on June 24, 2006
in faith, sports and travel
. 33 Comments

Yesterday we went on two hikes in New Hampshire. Both were on the Appalachian Trail. A part of me wishes I could do it — take a few months off and go from Georgia to Maine. But would it still be fun after that first month? Would the twenty miles a day — sometimes with heat and sometimes with bugs — get old? I like the idea of doing it a week or two at a time over many years.

Here are some things I picked up about hiking from reading Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods : Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail.

First the joy is in the journey. You can’t just hold your breath waiting for Mt. Katadin at the end of the trail in Maine. It has its own thrill — and there really is a goal for the trip! — but the deepest joy comes every day. It’s the people you meet; it’s the shelter you find; it’s the trees, wildlife, hills, and streams. Bryson mentions once finding an old paperback novel in one of the shelters and the great delight he found in having something to read.

Second, weight matters. He made fun before his trip of the people who walked into hiking stores willing to pay exorbitant prices just for “better,” lighter gear. But on the trail, he realized that over the long haul it made a lot of difference. It was indeed worth paying for the lighter tent and the lighter backpack. (Now, check out Heb. 12:1: “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.”)

Third, you don’t walk alone. There may be times of solitude, but you find encouragement by traveling with others. There are those you hook up with for a few miles, those you come across at the shelters, and those who sit around in the local pubs to visit before pressing on. Plus, there are all those who’ve come before you to actually make the path. The goal isn’t to find your own way. You have to trust the wisdom of those who’ve preceded you.

And fourth, you must endure. If you’re going to finish the Trail, you have to press on. Past bugs, past exhaustion, past blisters, past boredom.

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Today, that counter hits a million. Leave me a note with your real e-mail address (that doesn’t get published in the comment). I’ll get back with you in a day or two. (We’ll be traveling today.) Good luck!

Y-Ball

Published
by
Mike
on May 30, 2006
in Baseball and sports
. 30 Comments

This weekend Chris and I went to a game where a little buddy of ours was playing. It was Y-ball — tee-ball played through the YMCA. It had been a LONG time since Chris’s Y-ball days.

I love Y-ball. There were no grumpy parents, no thrown bats, no slammed batting helmets, no hysterical coaches. It was, well, fun.

The third baseman rarely looked at the plate, but he compensated by having really cool sunglasses. One of the players woke up that morning just wanting to wear his favorite camo shorts instead of his baseball pants. Not a problem.

There are no strike outs. Everyone hits the ball. If you can’t hit it with your coach pitching it, the ball goes on the tee until you do whack it.

Actually there are no outs. Well, there are and there aren’t. The team in the field can get an out by fielding the ball and throwing to first or tagging the runner. But — here’s the interesting part — the runner isn’t considered out by the team batting. He gets to stay.

And everyone scores. When the last batter comes up each inning, he runs all the way around, no matter whether he hit it 100 feet or 1 foot.

Fans on both sides cheered every player. One of the dads pitching had a younger son who wanted daddy. Not a problem: he pitched while holding him. At times, the child wanted mommy (the first base coach), so he’d run back and forth. Everyone just thought it was cute.

I know that in later years more of a sense of competition has to kick in. But it wouldn’t hurt us if every once in a while in little leagues all around we decided to play by Y-ball rules. Just for a night.

Relaxing at the Plate . . . and at the Office

Published
by
Mike
on April 19, 2006
in Baseball and sports
. 49 Comments

I’ve been inspired over many years by Terry Rush. I remember attending the Tulsa Workshop when I was a young man and listening to his fiery “listen to me now!” as he spoke passionately about Jesus.

A couple days ago, I got a note from him inviting me to speak at the workshop again next year. I wrote back that I appreciated the invitation but that I am trying to keep the whole spring clear so I can manage Chris’s baseball team one last time.

Good opportunity for a guilt trip. “We need you at the workshop.” “You know how important this one is going to be.”

But not from Terry. He affirmed the decision and the priorities and said, “Be sure to tell the kids to relax at the plate.”

That’s how you know someone really understands baseball. The inexperienced coach thinks that the most important rule has to do with where you hold your hands or how you twist your back foot (both important).

But the experienced coach knows that a kid has to try to relax. Someone his age or a year older is going to throw a hard object at him from 46 (until age 12) or 60 feet. If said object happens to hit you, it hurts. So you have to try to relax, convincing yourself that he’s probably NOT going to hit you and even if the pitch gets away from him you probably have time to bail out.

So how do you relax under such circumstances? Maybe we should be teaching Lamaze breathing at practices. I still remember the “hee-hee-hee” breathing pretty well. (I practiced it recently when, against my better judgment, I went on a helicopter ride.)

We all have those places where it would help to relax, don’t we? The dentist’s office. The doctor’s office. The post office. The office. Deep, cleansing breath.

And very often at home.

More Lamaze and yoga breathing. Less clinched teeth and tightened airways. More smiles and laughter. Less frowns and anger. Life would be so much sweeter. Just relax a bit.

The Boston Marathon

Published
by
Mike
on April 17, 2006
in General and sports
. 25 Comments

Twice I ran the Boston Marathon, and the last time was a decade ago today.

I wish I could try to qualify again, but as I’ve watched my father’s knee surgeries over the past couple years, I’ve decided maybe no more marathoning for me. (Dad ran the Boston Marathon five times in the 1980s.)

It’s hiking, biking, and health club for me now. That’s probably better for my joints over the long haul.

Sometimes when I hear people talking about training for a marathon I really miss it, though.

As the race begins in a few minutes, I can still remember the excitement of standing in the big crowd at Hopkinton.

Anyone Pick George Mason?

Published
by
Mike
on March 26, 2006
in General and sports
. 11 Comments

A #11 pick is in the final four. I don’t see George Mason in any of the picks from my earlier post!

I nearly struck out with my picks, getting only UCLA right. Missed on Duke, UConn, and Ohio State (live by the 3-point shot and die by the 3-point shot). I glanced back quickly and it looks like three people got two picks right with UCLA/Florida combination.