Thursday, October 28, 2010

The Unwanted Hero


There are a lot of bad things that can happen in a sports arena. Most of the time they are forgotten and although may effect the outcome of the game have little impact past the game in which it happens. People get frustrated and angry, but it soon subsides. There are very few times that what happens on the playing field provokes hatred and contempt from both the visiting and home teams.

But that is exactly what happened one fall day almost a half century ago in a stadium less than half capacity. Only 23,154 fans in a stadium with seating for 56,866 were there on the last game of the season to witness what many people in the country both baseball fans and not would view as one of if not the most undesirable thing ever to be done on a baseball diamond. What happened that day, October 1, 1961 would eat at people for years to come. The commissioner of baseball did his best to dismiss it but the horror of it lingered in his mind to the point that he had to do something to diminish its impact on the sport.

To many it was Tracy Stallard's fault. He really could have prevented it and actually allowed it to happen. When it was all over the game ended with a 1-0 score. But it wasn't the score that burned people up. It was how the team won and fans from both sides wished it had never happened.

I remember it myself. It was the bottom of the fourth inning with Tracy Stallard on the mound. When it happened we held our breath and then gave out a deep groaning sigh. This couldn't happen could it? But it did. The count was 2-0 when Stallard threw a fastball. At that moment America's greatest baseball hero fell. At that moment Roger Maris parked the fastball over the outfield fence hitting his 61st home run and breaking the "Babe's" record. The great Bambino's record had fallen.

People thought it just wasn't right. If anyone was going to do it, it should have been Mantle. After all he was the true Yankee. But it wasn't his time. As Roger Maris put it "I always come across as being bitter. I'm not bitter. People were very reluctant to give me any credit. I thought hitting 60 home runs was something. But everyone shied off. Why, I don't know. Maybe I wasn't the chosen one, but I was the one who got the record."

"Maybe I wasn't the chosen one". Babe Ruth's home run record was sacred to a boy in the '50's and '60's. Roger Maris just didn't fit the type of player that everyone expected should break the record if it had to be broken. It was a sad day to many that would last for years to come. It was so "bad" for baseball that the record books showed his record as 61* since it was broken in more than the 154 games in which Ruth played. Ruth's record was intact along side Maris' due to a technicality.

It's similar to when Jesus came. Jesus is not what the world expected in a savior. He didn't come as a king. He didn't come as someone with the power to win great battles and defeat the emperor. He didn't come with "pomp and circumstance". He just wasn't what the Jewish people of the time expected. He was a disappointment. When the Messiah came he had to be a great king with a dynamic personality.

Too often we measure the greatness of a man's worth and accomplishments by what we see on the outside. God on the other hand is more concerned, not by what he can do on the outside but by who he is on the inside. That's the measuring stick that really counts. Are we men and women of God?

Roger Maris was a good guy. But he was not what America wanted. He was an unwanted hero. His accomplishments on the field are better than many of those in the Baseball Hall of Fame, though he himself is not in it as an accomplished player. The man who broke Ruth's record is left outside. The man who for 37 years sat atop the record books has been ignored.

Jesus, the son of God, who came to this earth and died on the cross too has been ignored. Whether he was who they wanted or not the fact was He's the one God sent. He was despised, rejected, spat upon and crucified. Yet "the stone that the builders rejected has become the capstone." (1 Peter 2:7) To many He was not the chosen one, but in the end He is the one who will carry us to victory.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The Ducks that Halted the Olympics

By 1926 Henry Robert "Bobby" Pearce was one of the worlds greatest scullers. At the age of 21 he had won the Australian Single Scull Championship with his eyes set on going to the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam.

Johnny Weissmuller, know later for his role as Tarzan won two gold medals in swimming. The standard 400 meter track would be used for setting the standard for Olympiads to come. For the first time the Olympic Torch would be lit at the stadium to begin the games.

Previous games had their heroes including Jim Thorpe in 1912 and Erick Liddell in 1924. Later games would be followed by legends such as Babe Didrikson in 1932 and Jesse Owens who stole the show in 1936. But in the 1928 Olympics the hero award would go to a most unlikely candidate, Bobby Pearce.

It happened in the quarter final race against Frenchman Victor Savrin. Pearce was favored to win the gold medal when a most unlikely event occurred. In his words as he recounted the event,

"I had beaten a German and a Dane in earlier heats and I was racing a Frenchman when I heard wild roars from the crowd along the bank of the canal. I could see some spectators vigorously pointing to something behind me, in my path. I peeked over one shoulder and saw something I didn't like, for a family of ducks in single file was swimming slowly from shore to shore. It's funny now, but it wasn't at the time for I had to lean on my oars and wait for a clear course, and all the while my opponent was pulling away to a five length lead."

After the ducks had safely passed Pearce did what by any standard was a feat few men could accomplish. From a standstill in the middle of the race he began to row and by the end of the race had not only caught up with Savrin but passed him by a considerable amount on his way to gold medal a few days later.

There are times in life when things bring us to a complete halt. Times when we have more important issues that jump in front of us and keep us from our goals. Many times we just give up and quit. Other times we keep going but without the enthusiasm we had in the beginning.

The easy thing is to give up. The easy thing is to develop the "loser's limp". You know, you've seen it. A runner is in a race and knowing he's going to get badly beaten, pulls up, grabs the back of his thigh and hobbles to the side. People feel sorry for him and applaud him as he limps to the infield and lies down in "pain". But he's not really hurt. It was all a show. He did it to save face, to keep from being embarrassed for not fulfilling his goal to win.

Jesus said, "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength." Paul wrote, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race..." That's the goal, to finish the race.

I heard the story of some people watching the Special Olympics 25 meter run. It was slow but the crowd watched as the competitors one by one crossed the finish line. Then far back there was one more. A young girl. A young woman on crutches slowly inching her way toward the finish. As the crowd watched she slowly made her way to her goal; to finish the race. She won, not because she came in first place, but simply because she accomplished what she set out to do; to cross the finish line.

One of these days we will all have to stop and wait for the ducks to cross. But we should never let that keep us from finishing with all our might the race that God has set before us.