Dear anonymous person who gave me a seat from the former Yankee Stadium…
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
What an unbelievably generous gift! I’m blown away. As a baseball fan and as a New York Yankees fan, this is a wonderful gift. If I knew who you were, I would give you a massive bear hug.
Again, thank you.
Well…it’s official…again.
After 20 seasons, 41-year old Brett Favre is retiring from professional football. Assuming this is the end (he has retired two other times, only to come back the next season), Favre departs as the National Football League career leader in victories (186), yards passing (71,838), touchdown passes (508), attempts (10,169), completions (6,300) and interceptions (336).
While those records are undoubtedly impressive, I am most impressed with Favre’s NFL-best streak of 297 straight starts. From September 1992 to December 2010, he never missed a start. He showed up to play quarterback every week for 18+ years.
That got me to thinking…
Who has the more impressive streak? Brett Favre or Cal Ripken Jr?
Cal Ripken Jr has the Major League Baseball record for most consecutive games played. From from May 30, 1982 to September 20, 1998, Ripken played in 2,632 consecutive games. Everyday for 17+ seasons, he played shortstop or third base for the Baltimore Orioles.
Both streaks are extremely impressive. Both took guts. Both required a ton of toughness. Both took consistently showing up.
If I had to choose, I would go have to go with Cal Ripken Jr’s streak.
I understand how violent NFL football can be. Anybody who ever turns on their TV on a Sunday can see that. I know how Favre played through multiple injuries and personal tragedies. In no way am I disrespecting or downplaying his amazing streak.
Personally, it all comes down to the incredible daily grind of baseball. MLB teams play a 162 game schedule. NFL teams play a 16 game schedule. MLB teams also play much more often. For example, in May 2011 the New York Yankees are scheduled to play 29 games in 31 days with only 2 off days. NFL teams play once a week often having 7 days between games. There have been many times where Brett Favre has missed a full week of practice due to injury only to play in that week’s game. Cal Ripken Jr never had that luxury.
That’s me.
What about you? What do you think?
What is the more impressive streak – Brett Favre’s 297 straight NFL starts or Cal Ripken Jr’s 2,632 MLB consecutive games played?
The New York Yankees today (March 18, 2008) are playing another March spring training game. However, this is not the typical Grapefruit League spring training game. The Yankees have traveled to Blacksburg, Virginia to play an exhibition game against the Virginia Tech Hokies.
It is hard to believe that it has almost been a full year since tragedy hit that campus. In April 2007 a graduate student murdered 32 people while wounding 23 others. I know that it is easy to let numbers and news like that fly in one ear and out the other without thinking too much about it. We have become all too comfortable with tragedy like this. Unless we are personally affected, we often are not driven to heartbreak (me being the first to admit that). 32 families were destroyed that day. 32 moms and dads lost their son or daughter that day.
For today’s seven inning exhibition game, the New York Yankees are dressing a full squad. They have sent 28 players, the entire coaching staff, General Manager Brian Cashman, and Team President Randy Levine. Out of those 28 players, all the Yankees star players will be there, including Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon, Jorge Posada, among others. They didn’t send all the scrubs and bench players. They sent their stars. Their varsity. Their “A” team.
The New York Yankees are helping affirm something that God has been teaching me lately. They are a perfect example of the ministry of presence. The ministry of presence is simply being there for somebody who is experiencing tragedy. It isn’t fixing the tragedy or taking away the pain. The Steinbrenners and other executives at the Yankees could have simply thrown some money at the campus or worn a Virginia Tech hat in one of their games as a tribute. They could have had a special moment of silence at their other games. While all of those honor VT and are good expressions of support, it is not as comforting as being on campus, shaking hands with students, and hanging out with the players.
In the book of Job, Job goes through tragedy. He loses his family, his possessions, his wealth, his status, his health, and well, pretty much everything. Job is right in the middle of his tragedy when we meet three of his friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Now these three often get ripped for how they react to Job’s situation, but they also did something right that we can apply to our lives today.
Job 2:11-13 (NIV) says, “When Job’s three friends heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.”
What an amazing picture of the ministry of presence! They simply sat with him for seven days and nights without saying a word. They knew that in the middle of Job’s storm their words would not resinate like they normally would. Their actions of simply being there spoke loud enough. They cried with him, sat with him, grieved with him, and gave a very precious gift to him…their presence.
Whether you are a Yankees fan or not, you have to like and respect what they are doing simply because they didn’t have to do it. Will their presence at Virginia Tech fix their situation? No. But does their presence mean a lot? Absolutely.
Next time somebody you know is in the middle of a tragedy, remember the ministry of presence.
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***This blog post was originally written on March 18, 2008. After reading through Job lately, it was time to bring this back up.
Longtime Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell passed away yesterday. Harwell revealed in September that he had been diagnosed with inoperable cancer of the bile duct. He was 92 years old.
In what can only be described as “news of the weird” or “only in baseball”, Harwell was once acquired by the Brooklyn Dodgers for a catcher in 1948.
On August 2, 1981, Ernie Harwell was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Here is this legendary announcer’s description of the game that he loved and covered for 55 years…
Baseball is the President tossing out the first ball of the season and a scrubby schoolboy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm. A tall, thin old man waving a scorecard from the corner of his dugout. That’s baseball. And so is the big, fat guy with a bulbous nose running home one of his (Babe Ruth’s) 714 home runs.
There’s a man in Mobile who remembers that Honus Wagner hit a triple in Pittsburgh forty-six years ago. That’s baseball. So is the scout reporting that a sixteen year old pitcher in Cheyenne is a coming Walter Johnson. Baseball is a spirited race of man against man, reflex against reflex. A game of inches. Every skill is measured. Every heroic, every failing is seen and cheered, or booed. And then becomes a statistic.
In baseball democracy shines its clearest. The only race that matters is the race to the bag. The creed is the rulebook. Color merely something to distinguish one team’s uniform from another.
Baseball is a rookie. His experience no bigger than the lump in his throat as he begins fulfillment of his dream. It’s a veteran too, a tired old man of thirty-five hoping that those aching muscles can pull him through another sweltering August and September. Nicknames are baseball, names like Zeke and Pie and Kiki and Home Run and Cracker and Dizzy and Dazzy.
Baseball is the cool, clear eyes of Rogers Hornsby. The flashing spikes of Ty Cobb, an over aged pixie named Rabbit Maranville.
Baseball just a came as simple as a ball and bat. Yet, as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. A sport, a business and sometimes almost even a religion.
Why the fairy tale of Willie Mays making a brilliant World’s Series catch. And then dashing off to play stick ball in the street with his teenage pals. That’s baseball. So is the husky voice of a doomed Lou Gehrig saying., “I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.”
Baseball is cigar smoke, hot roasted peanuts, The Sporting News, ladies day, “Down in Front”, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and the Star Spangled Banner.
Baseball is a tongue tied kid from Georgia growing up to be an announcer and praising the Lord for showing him the way to Cooperstown. This is a game for America. Still a game for America, this baseball! Thank you.
I am a big New York Yankees fan. But I am a bigger fan of the game of the baseball. And the game of baseball lost a great personality and a great man. My thoughts and prayers goes out to the entire Harwell family.
After hearing the cancer diagnosis, Harwell told The Associated Press on September 4, 2009, “Whatever happens, I’m ready to face it. I have a great faith in God and Jesus.”
I can’t wait to meet Ernie Harwell and talk baseball in Heaven.
Today I woke up refreshed and something was different.
Food tasted better. Air was fresher. Traffic seemed lighter. The sun was brighter.
And then I realized…
The New York Yankees won the World Series last night, clinching their 27th championship in team history.
Things are again right in the world…
Go Yankees!!!
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On another note, I asked on the October 27, 2009 World Series Prediction blog post for you to make predictions on three World Series topics (who would win, how many games would it take, and who would be MVP).
This is from great friend, coworker at NORTHchurch, and REVOLUTION youth leader Patty Rankin, “1. yankees. purely because they have cool colors and are from new york. 2. Win in 6 games. cause it sounds cool. 3. Hideki Matsui, because his name sounds cool.“
I am officially blown away that she got all three questions right. This is the World Series prediction equivalent of the girl who fills out a NCAA Basketball Tournament bracket according to the cuteness of the mascots and team colors AND gets them all right. Crazy!
Congrats, Patty! You are an official baseball prophet.
vs 
It’s time for your 2009 World Series predictions…
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MY PREDICTIONS…
The Major League Baseball playoffs start today.
In the American League, the New York Yankees face the Minnesota Twins and the Boston Red Sox face the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim). In the National League, the St Louis Cardinals face the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies face the Colorado Rockies.
The Rockies are going for their 1st championship. The Angels are going for their 2nd championship. The Phillies are going for their 3rd championship. The Twins are going for their 4th championship. The Dodgers are going for their 7th championship. The Red Sox are going for their 8th championship. The Cardinals are going for their 11th championship. The New York Yankees are going for championship number…
The season starts today. Go Yankees.
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Predictions?
Who do you think will win the World Series this year?
At this stage of my life, being a parent still seems a long way away. Right now Heather and I are simply not too interested in having a kid. However, there is something that I am really looking forward to as a parent.
I cannot wait to see when the unconditional love, mercy, and grace of God and the redeeming, life-changing story of Jesus clicks with my child.
Clint Smith (a great friend, executive pastor at NORTHchurch, and huge baseball fan) was telling me how he has been trying to get his two sons to become baseball fans. Even though he was putting them in situations to learn and love baseball, they had not made the conscious decision to become fans. That all changed after a recent family outing to a Oklahoma City Redhawks game (AAA affiliate of the Texas Rangers).
After getting there early in hopes of getting some autographs, Clint and his two boys had an encounter with a player who talked to them and signed autographs for them. Something in that moment triggered something inside of Clint’s two boys.
Since that encounter, they have been talking about baseball, watching baseball, playing baseball video games, and collecting baseball cards. It finally clicked.
As a father and passionate baseball fan, Clint was very ecstatic about the decision his boys made. He always wanted them to make that decision. He encouraged them to make that decision. He put them in situations to make that decision. But ultimately, THEY had to make that decision.
As Clint was joyfully telling me this story of how baseball finally clicked with his boys, I could not help but imagine the pure joy Clint is going to experience when his two boys make the decision to follow Jesus. That moment may be a service, a retreat, a mission trip, a camp, a crisis, a conversation, or a number of other things when it clicks.
Though I am not a parent, I cannot imagine a better moment then when a parent gets to see when the unconditional love, mercy, and grace of God and the redeeming, life-changing story of Jesus clicks with their child.
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Parents, what is like to see the goodness of God click with your child? Do you have any specific and/or cool stories about the time it clicked with your child?
