The Texas Rangers have had a lot of success at the All-Star game. The mid-season classic, an exhibition between the "best players" in the American and National leagues, has been the scene for some of the more compelling drama for this mediocre franchise. However, game winning hits (of which the Rangers have had two) or All-Star MVPs (three) seem like distant memories after the display during the home run derby by Josh Hamilton.
The home run derby pits four sluggers from each league and boils down to glorified batting practice, in which fans "ooh" and "aah" over their favorite home run hitters passing out souvenirs beyond the outfield wall. ESPN covers the home run derby. This is bad for anyone who doesn't like the Yankees, Red Sox, or Cubs. The "four-letter" network has digressed into more of an entertainment(E) show than a sports(S) one. Too often are they mired in the pomp and fluff that has come to mark TV news, and they seem more interested in controversy than covering sports.
When the Josh Hamilton express came to town (NYC), there was no need for any fluff. He knocked the fluff where it belonged...the cheap seats. Sports transcends because it presents the opportunity for full human potential to be displayed. The poor sportsmanship, the money, the resentment among fan bases, indeed, show its potential for harm too, but once in a while those things are obscured by unadulterated greatness. That wonderful July night, the world got to see, many for the first time, what most of Ranger nation had been so excited about all year. The story lines did not need elaboration this time, because Hamilton's dreams were about to come true.
Josh Hamilton brings his own pitching machine
Clay Council has thrown thousands of rounds of batting practice to boys coming through his American Legion Youth baseball teams. Josh Hamilton came through his squad in high school, and as a token of appreciation, asked Coach Council to lob meatballs up to him in Yankees Stadium in front of 30000+ fans. I am not naive. Fame has changed Josh Hamilton. It would change any of us, but that he remembers the people who in, even seemingly insignificant ways, have helped him succeed, speaks volumes of his perspective.
Josh didn't even win the HR derby
In the final round Justin Morneau outslugged Josh to take home the trophy, but to everyone there and watching on TV, it didn't matter, because in his first round from the final position, Josh clubbed TWENTY-EIGHT home runs. To put that in perspective, he hit more home runs in the that round, which includes 10 outs (an out is any ball swung at that is not a home run), than the previous four competitors hit altogether in forty outs. Josh started out slow. After 8 outs, he only had 13 homers, but with the eulogy of Yankees stadium (good riddance) as the backdrop and the greatest ballplayers in the game seated on the grass in front of each of the dugouts, Josh heated up. He went from 13 homers, already sufficient to take the lead in the competition to 28 before recording his tenth out. He even hit a dozen out between his eighth and ninth out. Again, that is twelve home runs before hitting another ball that was not a home run. Incredible.
Welcome back, Josh
When he was drafted out of high school by the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays, he was proclaimed as a Ken Griffey Jr. starting kit. Predicted to have a Hall of Fame caliber career, people would not have been surprised to see the herculean center fielder dominate the home run derby. What is amazing is the path he has taken to get here. All of you know the story by now I hope, but suffice it to say, his journey back to baseball stands as the most compelling celebrity redemption epic I have ever heard. Others have come back to baseball from different struggles. Guys have survived huge injuries, even serious sickness, but not downplaying those in the least, I believe Hamilton's "There and Back Again" trumps them all. Josh's wife, Katie, stuck by him through the darkest moments of his addiction and remains his strongest supporter on his road to recovery. Her insight is compelling.
God told me he was going to give Josh baseball back, but it wasn't going to be for baseball. It was going to be for something much bigger. He was going to give Josh a platform to help others. He is the most beautiful choreographer. It's not by accident that all the things that have happened in our lives have happened.
Josh is a lucky guy...blessed, I mean, whatever.
"Why I'm here"
Josh claims when he was beginning his road back to sobriety and before he had seriously considered if returning to baseball was a possibility, he had a dream. In this dream, he claims he is standing with a female reporter in Yankee stadium after finishing a round at the home run derby. She asks him, "How did you get here? How did you do it?" Josh said he's been contemplating the answer to that question for the three years it took him to get to Yankees stadium at the Home Run Derby and have Erin Andrews ask him after the twenty eighth homer, "how did you do it?"
Josh's prowess as a ballplayer causes thousands of fans to gravitate toward him. His talent and accolades between the lines inspires awe and wonder like a god on Mt. Olympus. However, gods on far away mountains can be worshipped and lauded, but they cannot be related to. Josh's testimony of God's grace changing his life and giving him back his future, which he did everything to throw away, means that more than appreciating him for his physical gifts, thousands of people can be inspired to consider what God is capable of doing, because of what he has done already. God is a "wonderful choreographer," and he knew we could only understand and be changed by someone who became like us in every way. Joshua is an appropriate name for "The Super-Natural," because its shared by the one willingly humbled himself who came to die for sinners so we could know the transforming grace evident in Hamilton and all those who claim Jesus (Jeshua) as their Lord and Savior.
Josh says in the dream he doesn't know how many home runs he had hit before the reporter asks him the crucial question. If someone told him it was 28, I think he would have said it was physically impossible. Physically impossible? Yeah, I agree with that. Hmm, how wonderful.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Josh Hamilton: The Super-Natural
The Texas Rangers are an unsuccessful franchise. Though their infamy does not stretch to the proportions of the Chicago Cubs, who have not won the World Series in a hundred years, D/FW's boys of summer have trudged out more mediocrity than internet bloggers. (Note: The author includes himself in that category) For thirty plus years, the Rangers have won only two division championships and have never advanced to the World Series. In fact, they have yet to win a playoff series of any kind.
As a result of the perpetual procession of suck, it doesn't require much for Rangers fans to get excited. Josh Hamilton was an off season acquisition with a checkered past and boatload of unrealized talent. To call his story inspirational is equivalent to summarizing this franchises' last three decades of baseball as a slump. Redeemed from a frightening addiction to drugs and booze through a loving community and a recommitment to faith in Jesus, he has turned a life that was careening out of control into a testimony that could include one of the most impressive single seasons in Rangers history. If you're not familiar with his story, I can't encourage you too strongly to read a couple of articles which have surfaced in the last two years since his reinstatement to baseball.
A summary of Josh's story by Rangers beat writer, Evan Grant
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/012708dnspowebrangersz.218a1b6.html
A personal testimony by Josh of God's hand in his life
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2926447
Keep in mind that both of these stories were published before this season began. In which, Josh has made as compelling a story to be named "Sportsman of the Year" as anyone not named Michael Phelps. The baseball writers across the country award "Player of the Month" honors to the most valuable player in each league for a particular month.
Josh's torrid start in the first month of the season earned him the accolade for the American League as he topped virtually every statistical category in April. His fans, which seemed to increase with each new city he visited, enjoyed an offensive display that would have been the highlight of many Hall of Famers' career, let alone a second year player who was facing most of the league's pitchers for the first time. The problem is that most of his supporters, even die-hard Ranger fans, don't give that month its due praise. Because in May, he was BETTER! Not in the history of the "Player of the Month" award in the American League had someone won it in both April and May. The award was first presented in 1974.
Needless to say, "Josh-fever" has hit the metroplex in a big way. Homemade signs from the Ballpark in Arlington read "Hamilton is my homeboy" or ""Superman wears Josh Hamilton." In fact, with his 95 RBIs before the All-Star Break, Hamilton has established himself as the heart of a Rangers nine that statistically ranks among the best in the league offensively. Honestly, "Superman's" most difficult task this summer is how to stay humble while standing in an ever brightening spotlight.
Yet the reports from across baseball say he has handled the whole experience unbelievably well. Swarmed by autograph seekers, Josh is usually the last Ranger, sometimes the only one, signing outside the clubhouse before and after games. At every stop, people ask him the same questions and detractors hurl the same insults, but Hamilton's humble demeanor has remained as fixed as his message: without Jesus, he would probably be dead.
Josh Hamilton is my favorite baseball player ever, and I have only been following him for two years. This past winter, when I heard the announcement of his trade to the Rangers, I was excited and nervous for him and my team. The Rangers paid dearly for their MVP-caliber center fielder, as they sent one of their best young pitchers to the Cincinnati Reds in the exchange. The sports commentators, not known for their graciousness or their faith in humanity or God, voiced strong concern over the deal, and I knew that the trade's potential to blow up in the Rangers face was very strong. If Josh relapsed, he would be banned from baseball, maybe, permanently, and no one knew if the toil from the addiction was so much that he would not be able to hold up physically as the season wore on. However, I believed in Josh's testimony of redemption (the story he wrote for ESPN came out when he was with the Reds). Additionally, if it turned out he combined his great story with the talent he possesses in spades, he will go down as the most beloved Ranger in the history of the franchise, no matter how bleak that has been. I am an optimist when it comes to God working, and so disagreeing with the talking heads from the radio, I believed Hamilton would live up to the promise.
Understatement of the year: He met my expectations.
Next blog post: The night I felt most proud to be a Ranger this year.
As a result of the perpetual procession of suck, it doesn't require much for Rangers fans to get excited. Josh Hamilton was an off season acquisition with a checkered past and boatload of unrealized talent. To call his story inspirational is equivalent to summarizing this franchises' last three decades of baseball as a slump. Redeemed from a frightening addiction to drugs and booze through a loving community and a recommitment to faith in Jesus, he has turned a life that was careening out of control into a testimony that could include one of the most impressive single seasons in Rangers history. If you're not familiar with his story, I can't encourage you too strongly to read a couple of articles which have surfaced in the last two years since his reinstatement to baseball.
A summary of Josh's story by Rangers beat writer, Evan Grant
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/012708dnspowebrangersz.218a1b6.html
A personal testimony by Josh of God's hand in his life
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2926447
Keep in mind that both of these stories were published before this season began. In which, Josh has made as compelling a story to be named "Sportsman of the Year" as anyone not named Michael Phelps. The baseball writers across the country award "Player of the Month" honors to the most valuable player in each league for a particular month.
Josh's torrid start in the first month of the season earned him the accolade for the American League as he topped virtually every statistical category in April. His fans, which seemed to increase with each new city he visited, enjoyed an offensive display that would have been the highlight of many Hall of Famers' career, let alone a second year player who was facing most of the league's pitchers for the first time. The problem is that most of his supporters, even die-hard Ranger fans, don't give that month its due praise. Because in May, he was BETTER! Not in the history of the "Player of the Month" award in the American League had someone won it in both April and May. The award was first presented in 1974.
Needless to say, "Josh-fever" has hit the metroplex in a big way. Homemade signs from the Ballpark in Arlington read "Hamilton is my homeboy" or ""Superman wears Josh Hamilton." In fact, with his 95 RBIs before the All-Star Break, Hamilton has established himself as the heart of a Rangers nine that statistically ranks among the best in the league offensively. Honestly, "Superman's" most difficult task this summer is how to stay humble while standing in an ever brightening spotlight.
Yet the reports from across baseball say he has handled the whole experience unbelievably well. Swarmed by autograph seekers, Josh is usually the last Ranger, sometimes the only one, signing outside the clubhouse before and after games. At every stop, people ask him the same questions and detractors hurl the same insults, but Hamilton's humble demeanor has remained as fixed as his message: without Jesus, he would probably be dead.
Josh Hamilton is my favorite baseball player ever, and I have only been following him for two years. This past winter, when I heard the announcement of his trade to the Rangers, I was excited and nervous for him and my team. The Rangers paid dearly for their MVP-caliber center fielder, as they sent one of their best young pitchers to the Cincinnati Reds in the exchange. The sports commentators, not known for their graciousness or their faith in humanity or God, voiced strong concern over the deal, and I knew that the trade's potential to blow up in the Rangers face was very strong. If Josh relapsed, he would be banned from baseball, maybe, permanently, and no one knew if the toil from the addiction was so much that he would not be able to hold up physically as the season wore on. However, I believed in Josh's testimony of redemption (the story he wrote for ESPN came out when he was with the Reds). Additionally, if it turned out he combined his great story with the talent he possesses in spades, he will go down as the most beloved Ranger in the history of the franchise, no matter how bleak that has been. I am an optimist when it comes to God working, and so disagreeing with the talking heads from the radio, I believed Hamilton would live up to the promise.
Understatement of the year: He met my expectations.
Next blog post: The night I felt most proud to be a Ranger this year.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
New look, New year, same old?
In Fort Worth, the summer showers got backlogged and decided to atone for their two month long absence in a week. Everything's greener and fuller though. It almost has the feeling of the beginning of spring. What do Texans know about spring, you ask? Well, I did say "almost." Many things look like spring looking out the window of an air-conditioned study. Anyway, the new life springing up all around me has inspired me to regenerate this blog, and so with a new look, new attitude, and, hopefully, new resolution, I embark.
If you remember last year, the Texas summer was marked by uncharacteristic rainfall. The last week of almost constant precipitation takes me back. In '07, I was working with a high school friend to get a pecan orchard started. Behind my parents' house over about 3-5 acres lay an aged, peach orchard that had been abandoned by the previous owners. Building the fence, laying irrigation, and finally planting pecan saplings met with constant interruption from the incremental weather, and the proposed 2 month project swelled to a 6 month ordeal during which working more than 3 days out of 5 was rare. Deja vu during this last week has led me to some self-reflection about what in my life, if anything, is different now than then.
After that frustrating summer, any change seemed good, and a year's worth of working as a sales associate in a kitchenware/interiors retail store put that theory to a true test. I don't regret moving to D/FW from my childhood home, Fredericksburg. Rekindling old friendships, making a niche for myself, even if it had to be at Crate and Barrel, has been a huge boon for me. (And the best things resulting from it have not become apparent yet, I am confident). However, positing that its all happened according to plan...well, ugghh....no.
Ironically, life lived, similar to the weather, often puts a kink in our plans. What do they say? If you want to give God a good laugh, tell him your plans. Disappointments from work, home, in love, and withering prospects lead to some overcast and dreary days, regardless of the forecast. The cliche goes, "into everyone's life some rain must fall." I used to think that was said to give solace. "Everyone's life is tough from time to time. You just have to grin and bear it." I don't know any more. I think it should be understood expectantly instead.
Our cirucmstances can leave us drenched and soggy, desperate for a little blue sky, but as the thriving lawns in my neighborhood suggest. The rain's ultimate effect is life-giving, and when the sun breaks through, as its doing right now, the flowers' brilliance will make my future hope a reality. Like April's showers leading May's flowers, the blessings in life don't only make the sorrows worth bearing. They come as a result of the suffering having its full affect.
Question of the Day: What should the new name of my blog be?
If you remember last year, the Texas summer was marked by uncharacteristic rainfall. The last week of almost constant precipitation takes me back. In '07, I was working with a high school friend to get a pecan orchard started. Behind my parents' house over about 3-5 acres lay an aged, peach orchard that had been abandoned by the previous owners. Building the fence, laying irrigation, and finally planting pecan saplings met with constant interruption from the incremental weather, and the proposed 2 month project swelled to a 6 month ordeal during which working more than 3 days out of 5 was rare. Deja vu during this last week has led me to some self-reflection about what in my life, if anything, is different now than then.
After that frustrating summer, any change seemed good, and a year's worth of working as a sales associate in a kitchenware/interiors retail store put that theory to a true test. I don't regret moving to D/FW from my childhood home, Fredericksburg. Rekindling old friendships, making a niche for myself, even if it had to be at Crate and Barrel, has been a huge boon for me. (And the best things resulting from it have not become apparent yet, I am confident). However, positing that its all happened according to plan...well, ugghh....no.
Ironically, life lived, similar to the weather, often puts a kink in our plans. What do they say? If you want to give God a good laugh, tell him your plans. Disappointments from work, home, in love, and withering prospects lead to some overcast and dreary days, regardless of the forecast. The cliche goes, "into everyone's life some rain must fall." I used to think that was said to give solace. "Everyone's life is tough from time to time. You just have to grin and bear it." I don't know any more. I think it should be understood expectantly instead.
Our cirucmstances can leave us drenched and soggy, desperate for a little blue sky, but as the thriving lawns in my neighborhood suggest. The rain's ultimate effect is life-giving, and when the sun breaks through, as its doing right now, the flowers' brilliance will make my future hope a reality. Like April's showers leading May's flowers, the blessings in life don't only make the sorrows worth bearing. They come as a result of the suffering having its full affect.
Question of the Day: What should the new name of my blog be?
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