Faith and Baseball

Last night the Texas Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Rays in game 5 of the American League Division Series to advance to the next round of Major League Baseball's playoffs. The Rangers have been through a lot this year. Prior to the season their coach, Ron Washington, failed a drug test and admitted to having used cocaine. He retained his job, but not without much public scrutiny. During the regular season the team's owner, Tom Hicks, had to file for bankruptcy because of a series of bad financial decisions. That led to a hearing to determine what would be done about the ownership. It was determined that an auction would be held in which the highest bidder would own the team. That set off a bidding war between team president and former Ranger great Nolan Ryan and Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban for the ownership rights. Nolan Ryan and business partner Chuck Greenberg eventually won but not before many lawsuit threats and much courtroom drama. The whole scene was prime for a cheesy made for TV movie. Amidst all this the Rangers kept playing baseball, and played well.

That brings us to today, the day after the Rangers become the last MLB team to win a postseason series despite being in existence for almost 50 years (they had previously won just one playoff game all-time). I was listening to a local sports radio show this morning and the hosts were fielding phone calls from fans about the Rangers' success. A lady called in and said that she had been close to the team, been around and talked to players and coaches on multiple occasions. She didn't say in what capacity she had this privilege, but her comments that followed caught my ear. She said something to the effect of, "you can talk about baseball all you want, but I want to talk about faith.....many players on this team have faith in God.....and God is with this team.....there is a higher power at work here.....He will get them to the World Series...." I admired her courage to bring that up on live broadcast radio and it made me wonder, "does God affect the outcome of baseball games?"

On one hand, baseball is just a game. It's a sport that was designed for recreational enjoyment and as my wife pointed out last night, the men that play it professionally seem like little boys out there. With all the significant events that are going on in the world and in people's lives, does God really care who wins a baseball game? On the other hand, this game is a profession to some people. It's their career, their livelihood, their identity, their life. Winning or losing can influence and sometimes determine the fate of players, coaches, managers, trainers, and many others involved in baseball. As believers, don't we believe that our own life path was given to us by God? So why wouldn't the life of someone who's involved in baseball, who is defined by the outcome of games, be influenced as much by God? Then again, there will always be a winner and loser at the end of a baseball game, how would God decide who it is?

I don't know that there is a clear cut answer for these questions, but as a believer I know that we're not defined by earthly victories and losses. Whether we are experiencing success or failure, prosperity or destitution, winning the game or losing the game, we need to praise God. And that whatever happens to us on this Earth, our real reward lies in being with Him in heaven.

Walt Williams

Not many are familiar with the name Walter Allen Williams today. He is a retired gentleman living in Brownwood, Texas, the place of his birth, who volunteers for the city recreation department. Each Saturday during basketball season he controls the scoreboard for youth basketball games. It was here that a met him about a year ago because I am a referee for these basketball games. He is a nice, fun guy who is easy to talk to and has plenty of wisdom. But there is much more to Walt Williams than he lets on. You may be more familiar with the name if you were a Major League Baseball fan in the 1960s and 70s.

Williams played in the MLB from 1964 to 1975. He played for the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, and New York Yankees. He was commonly referred to as "no neck" because he was short (5' 6") and had an incredibly muscular physique (over 30 years after his playing days he still has that muscular physique). He was known as being a very popular, fan-friendly kind of player with an infectious personality. Oh yeah, he was no slouch as a ballplayer either. Williams played outfield and committed just 19 errors in 565 games for an almost unheard of .981 fielding percentage. In 1969 he played for the Chicago White Sox and boasted a batting average of .304, sixth best in the American League. That season he had a strikeout rate of once every 14.3 at bats making him the 5th most difficult player to strike out. On May 31, 1970 he got five hits, two RBIs, and scored five runs in a 22-13 win over the Boston Red Sox. For his playing career Williams appeared in 842 games, got 640 hits, 33 home runs, 173 RBIs, 284 runs, and had a lifetime batting average of .270. In 1988 he was an assistant coach for the White Sox. Last year when I asked him about his baseball playing days he just kind of shrugged and said, "in college I was better at basketball."

Speaking of basketball, today Walt Williams told me a pretty interesting story. Nancy Lieberman is a basketball hall of famer and one of, if not the, best women's basketball player in history. In 1975 while playing with the New York Yankees, Williams said in an interview that he really liked playing one-on-one basketball and that he had never lost a game. Nancy Lieberman, who was living in Brooklyn, New York and had recently been named to the USA Women's Olympic Basketball Team, got word of this and challenged him to a game of one-on-one. Williams accepted and they ended playing in front of over 4,000 fans in New York City. I asked him who won and he looked up at me, paused, and said very matter-of-factly, "I've still never lost a game of one-on-one." I laughed. Later on, between games, we shot baskets together. He's still got a pretty good shot for a 65 year old former pro baseball player. Actually, Walt Williams has a pretty good shot for anyone.