First World Problem: Should I Go to the Game or Not?

As Hall of Fame baseball player Yoga Bera once said, “it was déjà vu all over again.” AT&T Park, Sunday late afternoon game, Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner on the mound,  Giants lose. 

When I left the yard last week, I truly believed I would not be back in 2012. I was angry about the money, time and emotional energy I had invested in a baseball game (yes, a first world problem).  However, this story took an unexpected turn as something magical happened in Cincinnati. The Giants captured the National League Division Series title and with the St. Louis Cardinals beating the Washington Nationals, I was suddenly confronted with the question of whether or not to return to AT&T Park for another game. Why should I? It’s expensive, time consuming, and frankly it was a risk.  I thought: Who wants to see another loss? What if it’s another 8-0 shut out? Unfortunately, the outcome was no different…and yet it was. 

I was reminded of why going to something in person is worth it.Dr. Tino captures my sentiment in his article “March Madness.”  He writes, 

“I, too, believe in the Church of Baseball. From the precise diamond patterns mown into the outfield grass to the lukewarm hot dogs, there is something magical about being present for a baseball game. Of course, I also believe in the Congregation of Hockey, the Fellowships of the Winter and Summer Olympics, and, of course, the Religious Society of Basketball, whose most holy shrine (as far as I’m concerned) is one Cameron Indoor Stadium, home to the Duke Blue Devils. Your opinion might vary. So today I thought we’d take a look at spirituality and sports.” 

Now, some might argue that sports are a distraction from more meaningful forms of interaction. Others say that the emphasis on competition—to the point where athletes seek unfair advantages to get ahead—is spiritually harmful.[1] I can’t say I disagree entirely with these things. It does seem sometimes that in a world with so many problems, taking time to play sports is frivolous—and that goes even more so for watching them (after all, those who play are at least getting some exercise). And yet, there has to be room in our lives for things that are not so serious, right?  For me, one of those things is sports." 

He includes five examples of how sports are spiritual.  And the one that spoke to me as evidenced by my time at AT&T park is that one of the spiritual gifts of sports is its ability to bring people together.  

I have said it once and I’ll say it many times. We are incarnational beings. Jesus, The Incarnation, became one of us because the experience of the flesh, our very presence—our spirit and our person is what it is all about. 

In a day and age when many sports provide better viewing options on television than in person, it cannot be taken for granted that sports can or will bring people together. Yet I believe the reason they do is because a critical component of going to a game is for the experience it provides. The fans set an important tone. TV cannot capture the energy or “spirit” of a venue. The intensity that fans and athletes bring to postseason baseball is incredible; truly it is worth experiencing—in the flesh. And I say that as a fan who has experienced the spectrum of that so called “spirit.” From NLDS game two (2012) where fans had little to nothing to cheer about to NLDS game one (2010) where Tim Lincecum threw a complete-game shutout, striking out fourteen (one of the top five sporting events I have attended).

But one need not attend a ballgame to understand how sports bring people together.  NLDS Game 3 began at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time.  This was tortuous to a number of students and teachers, many who bleed orange and black.  However, the latest in technology, such as the school iPad 1:1 program (an iPad for every student) dramatically changed this nightmare.  Those students who had purchased the MLB app were able to watch the game and still others could follow it via Gametracker.  Still others were able to stream audio through the ESPN sports app.  So many individualized ways to follow the Giants.  In determining how I would follow this game, I realized I was a witness to a new era.  Technology had provided so many options.

But leadership in the school decided to take advantage of this technology and broadcast the game from a projector onto a huge screen in the gym for students to watch from the bleachers (during their lunch or resource periods).   Nearly 300 of us sat and watched Sergio Romo’s showdown against the heart of Cincy’s lineup.  In the middle of his epic battle against Jay Bruce, the principal entered the gym wearing a wild orange and black wig, a spirited contrast to his shirt and tie.  The crowd went wild, but not a wild as we saw the final out and realized the Giants did the unthinkable.  They came back to win three straight on the road.  In doing so they were crowned NLDS champions.  We hugged, jumped up and down, gave high fives and for the rest of the day felt the joy of victory.  Sharing it in this way made it that much sweeter.

My students were graced with the opportunity to learn great things in a variety of subjects in school last Thursday (and everyday).  But, I have no doubt many of them will remember coming together to watch a great game.  Amidst the hundreds of pitches thrown and balls fouled out, we shared stories, cracked jokes, I know I had to do breathing exercises to lower my heart rate and more. It’s important to come together for life’s great moments—graduation, birthdays, baptisms and for the challenging ones too—a death, in illness, tragedy and beyond. And yet some of those great and challenging moments need not be separate from something like sports. Sports teams captures our hearts and affection, our hopes and our dreams. If that’s not spiritual, I don’t know what is…

NB: Let me be very clear, when I raise the question "Why go to a game?" I am ever mindful of how lucky I am to even raise it.  I am grateful I can!  But I go because I never know what I will witness, what I will experience, who I might sit beside or run into.  I go because I can't leave the ballpark without being a witness to something spiritual--full of aching pain and delicious hope....

---

[1] Lawrence, Ian, “The Emergencey of Sport and Spirituality in Popular Culture’, http://www.thesportjournal.org/article/emergence-sport-and spirituality-popular-culture)

Photo Credits
Bumgarner takes the loss
Giants Fan
Lincecum Complete Game Shutout

My Favorite Sight at AT&T Park: Will Clark #22

Hustling toward AT&T ballpark, my peripheral vision caught something I never see. It’s a San Francisco Giants jersey with the number 21 on the back and the name “Kent” above it. Jeff Kent was skilled second baseball with the Giants (1997-2002) before completing his hall of fame career with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Traitor. I felt the need to capture this image only to immediately upload it on Facebook with the caption “things that should not be seen before NLDS Game 2.” I wish I hadn’t; that’s not a very spirited pregame message. 

Accentuate the positive; eliminate the negative—right?  Rather than posting what should not be seen or what I never see, I should have commented on what I love to see and often do at Giants games.  Go to any Giants game be it at home or on the road on any day of the year and I guarantee you will see the baseball jersey of my favorite ball player of all time Will “The Thrill” Clark. 

This past summer Giants productions created “Inside the Clubhouse: Will The Thrill” This hour long program featured video highlights, interviews with Giants in the late ‘80s and ‘90s and those veteran Giants today and the Thrill himself—at work as a hitting coach, with his family, in his office, fishing in Louisiana and in his role with the Giants today.

It was an hour of pure joy? bliss? enhanced engagement?  “The Machine” could have walked by and I would not have noticed.  I was reminded of why I, like so many San Francisco Giants fan hold this lefty near and dear to our hearts.  I could wax poetic about the 1989 NLCS MVP and the 1991 Rawlings Gold Glove winner, but I think those that worked or played with him say it best.

Former Giants GM, Al Rosen said, “If you had 25 Will Clarks, you would never have to worry about winning.”  No one would deny that Clark loves to win.  He said, “I didn’t walk out there to lose.  I walked out there to kick your ass everyday. I didn’t want to beat you a little.  I wanted to beat you a lot.  I wanted to stomp on ya!  And I wanted my teammates to want the same thing.”

It would be downright impossible for me not to be fired up by a teammate with that intensity and love for the game. His tenacity and passion made him a natural leader in the clubhouse.  Bud Black claimed, “A lot of his success came from his confidence as a player.” When asked if this was true, Bob Brenley replied,  “Confident? Off the charts! It was obvious to everyone that saw him he belonged in the big leagues.  He was arrogant but not in a negative way.  The kid knew he could play.” 

He made an impression from the start.  Most fans know that in his first major league at bat, he hit a high fastball from Nolan Ryan 400 feet over the fence in Centerfield at the Astrodome.  What I didn’t know is what Clark told his teammates in the dugout after he rounded the bases.   In his shrill, high-pitched voice he yelled “all right, let’s get some more!” loud enough for all of Houston to hear. That’s Will!

The program reveals that Clark wanted to “stay a Giant for all my life.” Unfortunately, he played at a time of no revenue sharing—Barry Bonds, Matt Williams were on the top of their games and Clark became the third man out.  He went to Texas, to Baltimore and retired at age 36 as a St. Louis Cardinal. 

Will said “If I’m going to go out, I’m going to go out on top.”  In his final season in MLB he helped the Cardinals make it to NLCS only to lose to the Mets.  It’s worth reporting that he batted in that series and completed his career with a lifetime batting average of near 500 in post-season play.

The Giants could have used a player like Will Clark in their line-up during the 2012 season and especially during Games 1-2 of the 2012 NLDS series.  Reflecting back on his 1989 post season performance against the Chicago Cubs he said “Believe it or not, there’s a lot of guys who when the bright lights come on, they don’t want the bat in their hands, or they don’t want the ball on the mound.  I was quite the opposite.  If there was a crucial or clutch moment—I wanted the bat.”  As Roger Craig said, “He was a manager’s dream.”

Players like Will Clark don’t come around all that often, but when they do, hold on and savor it.  As I sat in my seat on Sunday night, I started to wonder what jersey Giants fans would wear years from now.  The MVP hopeful, #28 Buster Posey came to mind. 

Seeing the "Clark 22" jersey isn’t something I take for granted.   In a strange way, I feel connected to the people that wear one.  Being a fan of "Clark 22" means you love the game of baseball because you love one of its all time greats. 

Giants announcer and Clark’s former teammate Mike Krukow said,  “He is the best pure baseball player I’ve ever played with—instinctively, on the base paths, in the batter’s box. He had a sixth sense.  Truly, he was born to play baseball.”  

San Francisco, the Thrill ain't gone... Let's Go Giants!  

Next to Jesus, Mike Trout IS the Most Interesting Man in the World...

I walked into Edison Field only to encounter hundreds of grown men and women wearing red foam fish on their heads.  These fans took to their feet with complete sincerity of purpose and total focus every time a certain ballplayer came to bat. This athlete, #27 for the Los Angeles Angels is however, not just any athlete. This centerfielder is the first rookie in MLB history to hit 30 home runs and steal 40 bases (he is currently at 35 bombs and 48 bags). He is being considered for not only Rookie of the Year, but American League Most Valuable Player of the Year. Move over Jonathan Goldsmith, Mike Trout is the most interesting man in the world…err baseball.

In the spirit of the Dos Equis advertising campaign, please imagine the Frontline narrator Will Lynam informing you of why this claim is true for Mike Trout in baseball.  And for what it’s worth, Goldsmith’s teaching "a German shepherd to bark in Russian," has nothing on this 21 year old from Millville, NJ.

• Words are remiss. MLB scout, Greg Morhardt's scouting report said "Best athlete. Best player in the world--period. Best player on the planet."
  
• He never swings at the first pitch. Ever. 
• High School phone calls to his mother at 2:00 a.m. were made to report he bowled 300.
  
• His childhood bat was the solid metal spoke to the steering wheel of a yacht.  Should America’s Cup reconsider its course?
• He was once walked intentionally, with the bases loaded.
• According to Major League Baseball, its’ goal is “to change the game without the game changing Mike Trout.”
  
• This information is from the Sports Illustrated article, The Supernatural  

Time will only tell how the game changes this great player and in return how he will change the game. That’s what the world’s most interesting men and women do.

It’s a fun way to think of people in this way. If I taught Christology, I might have my students complete this assignment for Jesus the Christ. He changed water into wine, He rose from the dead, He was born of a virgin, gave sight to the blind and cured the lame. It’s quite a resume, no? It’s a “lower” view of how to think about Jesus….but when I really think about all that He did and stood for, I suppose there is no debate—He is the most interesting man in the world: yesterday, today and forever.

Photo Credits
Foam Trout

Jonathan Goldsmith-Former Most Interesting Man in the World 
SI Cover shot

XC Coach Jim Tracy Lifts the Fog

The Greeks never admired the virtue of humility; Jesus certainly did.  He performed miracles, healed the sick, cast out demons while instructing His disciples to "tell no one."  Humility comes from the word “of the earth.”  People who are “down to earth” are often humble people (ah ha connection/moment).  Humility counters pride.  Humanity is limited; we are fragile and we fail.  Humility can often come at a cost. It is one I am willing to bear.

On the final day of the month of September, it seems that summer has finally arrived in San Francisco.  Every year, we bear the burden of the coldest winter Mark Twain ever spent—July and August for the glory of September and October.  This year however, my status report for the first of those two months is: sunny and clear for all of four days.  A friend quipped, "I didn’t know we lived in Russia." 

My misery reached new heights at the Ram Invitational in Daly City on Saturday September 29.  The weather was supposed to improve; my hopes were high.  Instead, I stood in a fog bank for seven hours.  At one point it was so thick, I couldn’t see my runners during their race.  All day, I hoped the fog would break before it broke me.  It would have, had I not seen the head coach of the University High School cross country team.

As I was walking to get results, I saw a man in a fully motorized wheelchair, dressed in coaching regalia sitting under a red tent that read “University High School.” I realized it was Jim Tracy. Two years ago, in my blog posting University High School XC: Proving that Sports are a Real School of True Human Virtue I wrote, “Despite his diagnosis of Lou Gehrig’s disease, Tracy mustered the strength to lead and oversee practice, as he has always done since 1994."

Many people know the fate of those who have ALS. According to the ALS Association website, “it is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed."

I wasn’t expecting to see Coach Tracy still involved with cross country.  I was trying to imagine how different coaching would be when your mobility is so limited. I thought of the effort he and his colleagues make to get on a course that covers hills, trails and crowds of hundreds of people.  I was humbled by his dedication and his love for the sport.

Jim Tracy’s presence and commitment to his runners is inspiring.  I hope and pray his battle against ALS is pain free and filled with God’s grace.  I want him to know he lifted the metaphorical fog for me.  He kick started my Indian Summer, taught me a gentle lesson in humility and made me appreciate this great sport that much more.

Photo Credits

ALS Logo

My First Love....Tennis

The prayer by Pedro Arrupe, SJ featured in My First Love Letter to the 2012 San Francisco Giants is one I see everyday at work. It serves as the cover image on the textbook / reader for the course that I teach, Foundations of Ethics: Morality and Justice. I never gave a whole lot of thought to what students might think of it until I overheard an exchange between two of them.  I was completing my faculty obligation of working in the bookstore when an unsuspecting junior yelled out to his friend, “Hey did you get the Religion book?  Yeah, it’s has that “Falling in Love” image on the front. Ha!” I was of course unappreciative of his smug attitude, eye roll and flip remark. But I took a step back and realized this exchange was about to serve as a poignant example.

I’m sure to a 16-year-old male, that image and prayer is overly "touchy/feely." At first glance it’s hard to take a course seriously that features flowers and a calligraphy message “Fall in Love.” But this prayer is on the cover for a reason. 

The theme questions of the course are Who Am I?  Who Am I Becoming?  What Does it Mean to Be Fully Human? The heart of the message speaks to the nature of God and of humanity.  It gave me great insight into what it means to be human and into God--who is love.   

I now ask my students: What person doesn’t want to fall in love? I believe we all want to fall in love.  It could be with someone or something—a place in the world, a sports team, an artist, etc. The experience of “Falling in Love” isn’t limited to those lucky in romance.  No, it’s something that we find and that finds us--in the gym or the garden, upon giving birth or breaking a world record.  It can and does change us forever. 

Running with that analogy, I started to think about all that I had fallen in love with in my life.  For most of us, our “first love” has a special significance; it stays with you. I thought about my first love in sports. That was an easy question to answer.  

Mine was tennis. At 12 years of age, my father told me that he was signing me up for a tennis day camp near our home. He remembered and admired the instructor, a former pro.  My dad played tennis in college and loved the game.  He learned on the public courts in Washington State by family friends. He wanted me to have the wonderful experience he did.

Prior to playing tennis, I had been on a swim team for six years and I played CYO basketball. I had a lot of fun with both sports, but tennis was different. And I fell in love with it pretty quickly and quite hard.  I babysat to pay my way to attend as many summer camps as I could.  I would ride by bike to the tennis club every evening to play with my hitting partner, Joy. I subscribed to not one, but two tennis magazines. I ordered tennis jewelry and had a tennis ball key chain.  I wrote to the NCTA to be a ball girl at professional tournaments in the area.  I had my favorite and least favorite players. Wimbledon was a treasure to watch.

I stopped playing tennis in my early 20s.  My serve frustrated me and I never improved in the way I wanted.  I know now that I had a "fixed mindset".  Yes, a part of me wishes I had never walked away.  First loves are often like that. 

But when I watch tennis matches today, I am taken back to a time and place when my days and dreams were colored by the desire to be on the court.  To this day, I give thanks for the fact that I know some of my closest friends because of tennis.  I still love to watch the game and when I do, I know that my vision and understanding of it is far different than when I watch a sport that I never played or loved—like football.  Falling in love really does change and determine everything.

When God created humanity, God endowed us with many gifts, abilities and experiences.  Falling in love might be the greatest.  Think about all the people, places and even sports you have ever fallen in love with and give thanks to God.

Photo Credits
US Open It Must Be Love

Fan's Love Sharipova

Falling in Love Art is by Holly Campbell