Tuesday Morning Epistles

Welcome to "Tuesday Morning"—an inspirational read for Christians everywhere, no matter on which day of the week they read it! 

At least once a year I write on the topic of athletes and athletics. If you have no interest in sports, don't bother reading the message. But if you enjoy reading a story about how one professional athlete overcame the worst disappointment of his life and won back the hearts of the fans that once cursed him, read on.

 

B.C. Forbes once said, "History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats." Michael Jordan was one of the finest basketball players ever to lace up a pair of Nike shoes. When he played for the Chicago Bulls, he not only was the star of the team, but he made other players on his team play better because they were playing with Michael. In a commercial he did for Nike at the peak of his career, Jordan said that he had missed over 9,000 shots in his career, and that his teams had lost over 300 games. I can only faintly remember seeing about a dozen of those losses. Jordan admitted that on twenty-six occasions he took the potential game-winning shot and missed. I can't remember him doing that even once. The point is this: even the most skilled basketball player will have a down day, miss a key shot, or experience defeat. That's why it's called a sporting event. And here is an underlying truth: real "winners" eventually win; they can't stand to lose. 

The subject of this week's "Tuesday Morning" piece is "Winners Eventually Win." It is the story of how one very gifted baseball player overcame an error that caused him undeserved shame and led to his team losing the World Series. Read on whenever you are ready, and then prepare to think of yourself as a winner instead of a sinner—as a champion instead of a chump.

 
Tom Barnard
A Senior Encourager  

Note: The B.C. Forbes quote is from the Internet source, "Brainy Quote" (Winners). The reference to the Michael Jordan commercial is John C. Maxwell's The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Thomas Nelson Publisher, 1998, p. 159.

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Winners Eventually Win

Tom Barnard

I

love great sports stories, especially where an athlete survives an ugly situation and is honored for his or her life-time achievements. One of those celebrations occurred on baseball’s Opening Day this season. It happened to William Joseph “Bill” Buckner, a former major league baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, California Angels, Kansas City Royals, and the Boston Red Sox.

 Accompanied by a loud standing ovation prior to the start of the Red Sox home opener against the Detroit Tigers, the former first baseman threw out the ceremonial “first pitch” to his former teammate, Dwight Evans. The full-house of just under 38,000 fans celebrated as they enjoyed the 108th opener for the Sox.

 By anyone’s standards, Bill Buckner had an outstanding professional baseball career. In 2,517 games played over a period of 22 years, he accumulated 2,715 hits, averaged .289, and had only 453 strikeouts. By comparison, in 21 seasons, Babe Ruth played in 2,503 games and accumulated 2,873 hits, but suffered 1,330 strikeouts. Buckner led the National League in batting average in 1980 (.324) and was named an All-Star once (1981). Ruth enjoyed a career batting average of .342 and was voted an All-Star twice. In 1936 the Babe was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Buckner is hoping to be elected some day.

 With all of his successes, Bill Buckner is remembered most for one error he made while a member of the Red Sox. It happened during the World Series of 1986. Boston led the best-of-seven series against the New York Mets, 3 games to 2, and had a two-run lead with two outs in the bottom of the tenth inning. New York came back to tie the game with three straight singles off Calvin Schiraldi and a wild pitch by Bob Stanley. The next batter was Mookie Wilson, who fouled off several pitches before hitting a routine ground ball to Buckner at first base. The ball rolled under Buckner’s glove, through his legs, allowing the winning run to score and forcing a seventh game, which the Mets won, and along with it a World Series. In July, 1987, the Red Sox released Bill. He rejoined the team briefly in 1990 and retired after 22 games.

 In an April 9, 2008, Boston Globe article entitled “Buckner’s Appearance Marks the End of an Error,” writer Amalie Benjamin wrote, “This was not the first time Buckner had faced Fenway and the fans since his infamous 1986 moment…But since that time, there has been healing in the Red Sox Nation. His name might still evoke a picture of the ball heading between his legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, but with two championships in the meantime (2004 and 2007), the hurt has subsided.” While the Boston media remember the error that lost the team a possible World Series, the fans have put it behind them. And what management did to celebrate a player for what he had accomplished in life was a classy thing.

 There is no Holiness Hall of Fame, but if there were, it would include the names of women and men who “came back” from physical and spiritual setbacks and became Champions in their personal lives. I have my own hall of heroes, and you probably have yours. None on my list produced glittering “numbers” during their life-times. But they gave it all they had.

 The One keeping score hasn’t announced His final list yet, but it will include people from all walks of life and from world areas too numerous to count. Most are “poor” by the world’s standards, but not by God’s standards. A partial list will include names from Hebrews, Chapter 11. They were not looking for fame or fortune, but for something more valuable. The sacred writer said about them, “…they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them” (11:16). Think of that! A City prepared for them!

 My prayer is that you and I will make it to that City ourselves someday, accompanied by many whose lives have been influenced and changed by the power of the Holy Spirit they observed in us—children and youth and adults who saw a vision of what their lives could become, and God helped them make it happen. Winners, all of them! Let the celebration begin.

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