The Dreaded Curveball

Although I’ve lost my boyhood love affair with baseball (these days I much prefer football and basketball, especially the college variety), I’m still aware this time of year is when Major League baseball teams are busily at work in Florida and Arizona – getting in shape, working on fundamentals, and preparing for another 162-game season.

This is when pundits predict the year’s “phenoms”, young players soon to be compared with the all-time greats in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Many of those “can’t miss” standouts will indeed miss. The reason, especially for hitters, will be a culprit known as “the dreaded late-breaking curveball.”

A friend, James, who has played some baseball in his time, has observedt:

“It curves right about the time it gets to home plate. Most hitters’ eyes are focused on where they think they are going to hit the ball – and not on the ball itself.”

Personally, I never advanced in baseball beyond the Little League level, and didn’t do very well even there. But over a span of more than six decades of living, life has thrown lots of curveballs my way. Too many times, especially when I was younger, I had an annoying habit of swinging and missing. As James noted, I was more concerned about where I would hit the “ball” than paying attention to where the “ball” was going.

So how do we deal with life’s curveballs, especially when we don’t know they’re coming – a major surprise at work, a sudden family crisis, a financial hardship that materializes out of the blue, a dire health diagnosis?

My friend offered this suggestion: “The key to dealing with the late-breaking curves life throws at us is to keep our eyes not on the problem or on what we think the solution is, but on the One who can knock the problem out of the park – on our Lord.”

That’s why I find passages like this one from my biblical friend Isaiah so comforting: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).

And Isaiah’s old buddy, Jeremiah, presents this divine promise: “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Even if you’ve never played an inning of baseball in your life, be assured the “curveballs” will come. So put on your batting helmet, crouch in the batter’s box, wait for the pitch – and try to keep your eye on the ball. But when you swing and miss, as we all sometimes do, be assured God is standing there with you. He won’t let you strike out.

Has the 'American Pastime’ Passed Its Time?

Baseball season has started, in case you haven’t noticed. Still called the “American pastime,” I wonder if it’s primary function these days is to serve as a space-filler between the end of “March Madness” and the beginning of college football season.

Has the American pastime become past tense?

Yankee Stadium, the original.

As a boy, baseball was my favorite sport. Growing up in New Jersey, I became an ardent Yankee fan. I idolized Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra and anyone else that wore the fabled pinstripes. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio all came long before my time, but I revered them as well.

But that was a different time. Days of summer were still lazy, hazy, and crazy, idyllic times when friends played stickball in neighborhood streets from dawn well into dusk. TV had only a handful of channels. There were no cable TV, DVDs, computers, Internet or video games. No cell phones or texting to distract or alert us of something more urgent.

Then came the surge of football – college and pro – along with basketball and other faster-paced sports. Baseball became the tortoise to football’s hare, the slug to basketball’s water bug. As attention spans shortened, the fascination with ball cracking off bat dimmed, monotony replacing magnetism.

Recently, while celebrating the 65^th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s debut as a member of the then-Brooklyn Dodgers, civic leaders and sports commentators debated why black athletes have declined in pro baseball. As if MLB powers-that-be had decreed the sport should discourage African-American involvement.

How silly. A major reason black participation has waned is the same reason young people of all colors and ethnic backgrounds show less interest in baseball. It’s basically a 19^th and early 20^th century sport trying to succeed in the 21^st century. Let me offer some “for instances”:

The official "time clock" of baseball.

·      1) Unlike all other major sports – football, basketball, hockey and soccer – baseball is the only one without a time clock. (Actually, I think it has one. Only it’s called a sundial.)

        2) Football and basketball, college and pro, make ample use of video replay. Baseball traditionalists have dug in their heels, resisting video reviews in most cases, afraid umpires will get their feelings hurt if proved wrong by technology.

        3) After a game, players in other sports show sportsmanship by shaking the hands of their opponents. Winning baseball teams also shake hands on the field – with their teammates.

        4) Unlike other major sports, when players are removed from a baseball game, they can’t be put back in.

        5) In pro football and basketball, aspiring stars can envision arriving at “the next level” almost immediately. In baseball, players typically toil a year or two, often longer, in minor leagues before even getting a sniff of a Major League ballpark. In an age ruled by instant gratification, baseball can’t compete.

Perhaps you can think of some other similar contrasts, but baseball’s fashion has grown old-fashioned in our era of low attentiveness, high activity levels and rapid-fire TV and video programming.

In 1 Chronicles 12:32, the Bible speaks of “the men of Issachar who understood the times and knew what they should do.” Maybe what baseball needs today is to find some men of Issachar, and then listen to them.

It’s Football Time in the U.S.A.

Tonight marks the official start of a new football season! Like it or not football, not baseball, has become our national pastime.

Ironically, unlike the international game of soccer (“futbol” in Latin American nations), our football has relatively little to do with feet – except when players run. In fact, there are consequences for using the foot too much. A punt means you have failed to advance the ball. Kicking a field goal counts for three points, less than half what a touchdown is worth (with a kicked extra point). And rules prohibit players from kicking the ball while it’s in play. Lastly, the field is not measured by the foot, but by the yard. Yardball, anyone?

Nevertheless, football has captured our national fascination. “Why?” is open to debate. I personally believe it’s partly of the extremely physical nature of the game. Seeing a rival player pummeled by a vicious tackle has wondrous cathartic benefits for spectators. And seeing your team’s star runner or receiver zoom past defenders for a long touchdown sets all worries and fears to rest, at least momentarily.

But I think it’s also because games are played only once a week, rather than daily like baseball, or several times a week like basketball. We have an entire week to rehash and dissect the last game, revel in the high points and second-guess the coach. A full week also to anticipate the next game, speculating on how our team will fare, what it must do to win, and what tricks the opponent might present.

Sadly, the Bible says nothing specific about football. The apostle Paul did write, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize…” (Philippians 3:14), but I doubt he had the goal line in mind.

Nevertheless, settle in, grab your remote – and have fun!