Twenty years ago I was earning my living as a public accountant. And every year around this time, many of us were requesting time off to observe our religious holiday. Tax time is a difficult time of year for a public accountant to get time off, but most of the guys didn’t have too tough of a time getting Good Friday off. On the other hand, my request always prompted an argument. “Ores Dies” was not a holiday widely accepted in our firm as a reason to take a day off that close to April 15th. You see, the literal translation of Ores Dies is Opening Day.
Opening Day is still special to me. It signifies to me that winter is truly over, and there are wonderful summer nights ahead. In the last 20 years or so I’ve found that the demands on my time have put football & hockey in the backseat, and removed basketball all together. But baseball is different.
It’s not just that it’s my favorite sport; it’s so much more. It’s exciting, yet it has enough down time to relax, to talk, and to argue. One day it can be an edge of the seat, nail-biting pitcher’s duel. The next day the same two teams can slug out a 16 – 14 run-a-thon. One minute the team star is being booed mercilessly after striking out with bases loaded, an inning later the cheers sound like the stadium will collapse when that same bum crushes a hanging curve for a three run homer.
It’s history, it’s the future. It’s sport, it’s art. It’s childhood, it’s fatherhood. It’s non-definable, yet driven by statistics. Ask any true baseball fan what the following numbers mean: 3000, 500 and 300. They’ll tell you: lifetime hits, home runs and wins. Give me any three numbers from another sport that can say so much. I’ve given up trying to explain first downs to my wife, but ask her who the greatest baseball player of all time is and she’ll immediately respond, "Ted Williams."
And if all of that isn’t enough for you, than ask yourself why baseball is so important to God. After all, the first four words of the bible are, “In the big inning…”
Say a prayer for somebody today.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
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