The highlight of Wednesday at Detroit Tigers Fantasy Camp was playing a game under the lights at historic Henley Field. The ballpark was built in 1922 and baseball greats such as Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Hall of Famer Al Kaline have played there. I pitched the first three innings, and my scoreless streak reached 5 innings before I ran into some trouble and gave up a couple of runs. It was a lot of fun picturing Ty Cobb running around these same bases. We were only losing 4-2 going into the last inning but a couple of errors made it 8-2 and we lost to the 1st place team at camp. They are 5-0 and our only consolation was they had averaged 10 runs a game prior to facing us.
We have one game on Thursday morning and then the playoffs are on Friday. Its been a lot of fun to pitch again. I ended up skipping the team lunch on Wednesday so Kevin and I could drive about 60 miles west to Honeymoon Island State Park. It is a beautiful beach with a nature trail that is loaded with Osprey, Owls and other creatures. You’ll have to see Kevin’s pictures, they are spectacular! At one point an armadillo ran across our path and we were able to see a pair of bald eagles in their nest. It was a nice change of pace from all the baseball.
I drove to the ballpark with Jon Warden and Rick Leach, two of the Tiger coaches. We had a nice conversation about the Tigers signing Prince Fielder and what line-up combinations they would try. Jon talked about how he signed with the Tigers in 1966 for a $15,000 signing bonus which seemed like a pile of money then. It’s hard to imagine what it would be like to sign for $214 million.
I had two philosophical thoughts today. One happened during the morning game when one of my coaches Mike Heath asked me if I wanted to pitch the last inning to close out a 4 – 3 victory. I said sure, but if someone else wanted to pitch that was okay with me. Our other coach Steve Kemp wanted to keep a pitcher in that had been doing well and they kind of talked it over. Mike turned to me and said “You really need to tell us you want the ball. No hemming and hawing, just show confidence and tell us you want to be out there.” So many times in my life I want to please others; I want to show humility and make way for others. I don’t take a hard stand or be aggressive because I don’t want to appear to come on too strong. This experience reminded me that some circumstances in life call for confidence and being resolute. Let your yes be yes. Especially if other people are looking to you for action or direction.
The second thought that hit me today was this. I dressed in the same clubhouse as the best ballplayer in the world today, Justin Verlander. I played on the same field as Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, some of the greatest players of all time. I was wearing the same uniform that my favorite Tiger Bill Freehan wore. But I was still throwing the ball 50 miles and hour and it was still taking me 15 seconds to run to first base. I was still making fielding errors. Your surroundings don’t make you who you are. Your character makes you who you are. Your habits form your character. And this relates to every area of life. You could go to the greatest church in the world. You could hear the greatest preacher in the world. You could wear the right clothes and sing from the right hymnal. But if you don’t have a personal daily discipline to spend time with God; if you aren’t practicing the disciplines of prayer and time in His Word yourself – then nothing significant is going to change in your life. Sometimes we want to be in the presence of greatness. We want to see people’s lives changed and be around a growing congregation. But this is just a fantasy if our plan is to watch other people do it, or think that certain appearances will make it happen. That was where my mind was, as I was soaking up the Florida sun. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a lot of fun to be here, and the memories are great. But I had to remember that it is just a fantasy…
