Last
Sunday afternoon, the Washington Nationals began their postseason with a 3-2
victory over the defending World Champion St. Louis Cardinals. It was a messy
win, with their ace pitcher, Gio Gonzalez, walking seven batters and their
highest-paid player, Jayson Werth, failing to get a hit with the bases loaded
-- twice!
"I don't really know how we won that game, to be honest," relief pitcher Craig Stammen told The Washington Post. "We pulled it out somehow, and that's kind of how the playoffs go."
In truth, that's kind of how baseball goes. It's a game of failure, with batters rarely getting hits more than 30% of the time. The last time a player hit more than 40% of the time over the course of a season was 1941, when Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox had a .406 average (406 hits divided by 1000 at-bats).
"In their 3-2 victory," observed sportswriter Adam Kilgore, "the Nationals could not have played worse at times, but in the end they could not have felt better about it." Baseball, like life, includes a lot of mistakes and disappointments, but failures do not necessarily prevent us from emerging victorious. For example, the fact that Gio Gonzalez walked seven batters made him look bad as a pitcher, but it prevented the Cardinals from getting hits. A walked batter is not a hitting batter!
A baseball blogger named Dave, also known as "Bleacher Boy," is very philosophical about this. "Baseball is a huge game of failure," he writes. "You are guaranteed to fail." But individual failures do not mean that the team experiences a loss. He offers this example: "If while at bat, you advance a runner and he gets into scoring position, but you get out, do you fail? Absolutely not. Your batting average will be lower, which looks bad on the surface. However, you are part of a team whose goal is to score runs." If we judge success and failure only on individual performances, we miss the significance of team victories, which often require that one person get "out" in order to bring another person "home."
Flawless performances by individuals and teams are simply impossible in the game of baseball. As of Wednesday morning in the playoffs, the Nationals had won 1 and the Cardinals had won 1. The other National League Division Series was Reds 2, Giants 1. In the American League, the Tigers were ahead of the A's by a count of 2-1. And the Yankees were tied with the Orioles, 1-1. Every team had experienced both victories and losses in their quest to win 3 of 5 games.
In a New Yorker profile of Joe Girardi, the manager of the Yankees, journalist Gay Talese writes, "Like religion, the game of baseball is founded on aspirations rarely met. It generates far more failure than fulfillment." Girardi is an athlete whose life is built around his faith, which has nothing to do with whether his team wins or not. But his faith certainly has something to do with the way he survives in the baseball world, especially in the New York maelstrom.
Girardi is a father of three and has told the press that being a good father is more important to him than professional baseball. He expects the Yankees to be a family-friendly ball club, with players who are courteous to young fans. As a young man, Girardi discovered that "I was playing [baseball] because God gave me a gift, and I would be able to share God's good news through my gift and talent."
Talese reports that when "Girardi is not preoccupied with the health and performance of his team, his mind is often on his father, Gerald, who is now eighty-one and suffers from Alzheimer's, and lives in a nursing home." When the Yankees are playing in Chicago, Girardi will rent a car and drive 170 miles to spend an hour with his father.
"My dad was always there for me," Girardi told the Northwestern University alumni magazine in 1998. "He's the one who played catch with me, he was the one who took me to Cubs games where I could see my favorite players."
Whether the Yankees win the World Series this year or not, baseball men like Joe Girardi are clearly winners in the game of life.
"I don't really know how we won that game, to be honest," relief pitcher Craig Stammen told The Washington Post. "We pulled it out somehow, and that's kind of how the playoffs go."
In truth, that's kind of how baseball goes. It's a game of failure, with batters rarely getting hits more than 30% of the time. The last time a player hit more than 40% of the time over the course of a season was 1941, when Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox had a .406 average (406 hits divided by 1000 at-bats).
"In their 3-2 victory," observed sportswriter Adam Kilgore, "the Nationals could not have played worse at times, but in the end they could not have felt better about it." Baseball, like life, includes a lot of mistakes and disappointments, but failures do not necessarily prevent us from emerging victorious. For example, the fact that Gio Gonzalez walked seven batters made him look bad as a pitcher, but it prevented the Cardinals from getting hits. A walked batter is not a hitting batter!
A baseball blogger named Dave, also known as "Bleacher Boy," is very philosophical about this. "Baseball is a huge game of failure," he writes. "You are guaranteed to fail." But individual failures do not mean that the team experiences a loss. He offers this example: "If while at bat, you advance a runner and he gets into scoring position, but you get out, do you fail? Absolutely not. Your batting average will be lower, which looks bad on the surface. However, you are part of a team whose goal is to score runs." If we judge success and failure only on individual performances, we miss the significance of team victories, which often require that one person get "out" in order to bring another person "home."
Flawless performances by individuals and teams are simply impossible in the game of baseball. As of Wednesday morning in the playoffs, the Nationals had won 1 and the Cardinals had won 1. The other National League Division Series was Reds 2, Giants 1. In the American League, the Tigers were ahead of the A's by a count of 2-1. And the Yankees were tied with the Orioles, 1-1. Every team had experienced both victories and losses in their quest to win 3 of 5 games.
In a New Yorker profile of Joe Girardi, the manager of the Yankees, journalist Gay Talese writes, "Like religion, the game of baseball is founded on aspirations rarely met. It generates far more failure than fulfillment." Girardi is an athlete whose life is built around his faith, which has nothing to do with whether his team wins or not. But his faith certainly has something to do with the way he survives in the baseball world, especially in the New York maelstrom.
Girardi is a father of three and has told the press that being a good father is more important to him than professional baseball. He expects the Yankees to be a family-friendly ball club, with players who are courteous to young fans. As a young man, Girardi discovered that "I was playing [baseball] because God gave me a gift, and I would be able to share God's good news through my gift and talent."
Talese reports that when "Girardi is not preoccupied with the health and performance of his team, his mind is often on his father, Gerald, who is now eighty-one and suffers from Alzheimer's, and lives in a nursing home." When the Yankees are playing in Chicago, Girardi will rent a car and drive 170 miles to spend an hour with his father.
"My dad was always there for me," Girardi told the Northwestern University alumni magazine in 1998. "He's the one who played catch with me, he was the one who took me to Cubs games where I could see my favorite players."
Whether the Yankees win the World Series this year or not, baseball men like Joe Girardi are clearly winners in the game of life.
More on this story can be
found at these links:
The Big Questions
1. Rugged individualism has
always been an American virtue. How does this affect our ability to handle
personal failures?
2. Some say that "the
perfect is the enemy of the good." Do you agree? How can perfectionism get
in the way of progress?
3. When can personal
disappointments actually contribute to overall success? Name some from your own
experience.
4. You know the old saying,
"It doesn't matter whether you win or lose, it's how you play the
game." Is this true? What is most important about "how you play the
game"?
5. When is it more important
to focus on the success of the group than the performance of the individual?
6. From a Christian point of
view, what is the significance of personal failure? How can it increase our
faith in God?
Confronting the News with Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:
Genesis 38:26
"Then Judah acknowledged them and said, 'She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.' And he did not lie with her again." (For context, read 38:1-30.)
Judah does not obey the law which requires him to give his son to his widowed daughter-in-law Tamar. Later when she deceives him into thinking she is a prostitute, he sleeps with her, and then when she is found to be pregnant, he is ready to have her executed, until she confronts him with evidence that he is the one in the wrong. Then he admits his guilt and leaves her alone.
Questions: When does one personal failure lead to another, and what
actions can stop this chain reaction? What kind of good can come out of evil?
2 Samuel 12:13
"David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the LORD.' Nathan said to David, 'Now the LORD has put away your sin; you shall not die.'" (For context, read 11:1--12:15.)
David commits adultery with Bathsheba, impregnating her, and has her husband Uriah killed. Then the prophet Nathan tells David the story of a rich man who takes advantage of a poor man. David becomes angry and says to Nathan, "The man who has done this deserves to die" (12:5). Nathan says to David, "You are the man!" (12:7).
Questions: Scripture, like baseball and life, is filled with success
and failure. What are the lessons that we learn only from personal failure? How
do we get back on the right track? What is God's role in this?
Luke 4:24
"And [Jesus] said, 'Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown." (For context, read 4:16-30.)
Jesus reads the scroll of the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue of his hometown of Nazareth, and then talks about the work of God in regions outside of Israel, which the people in the synagogue find insulting. They are filled with rage and attempt to throw Jesus off a cliff.
Questions: How is the
"debut" of Jesus in Nazareth a
personal failure? In what sense is it a success in the eyes of God? What
lessons are learned, and what good comes out of it?
Mark 15:34
"At three o'clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?' which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'" (For context, read 15:33-41.)
When Jesus is crucified, he is in agony on the cross and cries out to God with an expression indicating how abandoned he feels, even by God. Then he dies, and the curtain of the temple is torn in two from top to bottom. The Roman centurion who watches him die says, "Truly this man was God's Son!" (v. 39).
Questions: In what sense is the crucifixion of Jesus a human failure?
What do you think Jesus was feeling as he hung on the cross? What good came out
of his death, both then and now?
John 6:65-66
"And [Jesus] said, 'For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.' Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him." (For context, read 6:60-71.)
Many of the disciples of Jesus find that his teachings about eating his flesh are difficult. They find such words offensive. Jesus tells them that his words are "spirit and life" (v. 63), but some cannot believe. Peter affirms that Jesus has "the words of eternal life" (v. 68), but Jesus knows that one of them will betray him (v. 71).
Questions: Was it a disappointment that Jesus could
not convince everyone to follow him? Although Judas betrayed him, how did this
failure serve a larger purpose? When is it acceptable not to bat 1.000?
2 Corinthians 12:8-9
"Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.'" (For context, read 12:1-10.)
The apostle Paul says that he was given a thorn in the flesh to keep him from being too elated. He asks the Lord to remove it, but this request is declined. Paul learns that God's grace is sufficient, and discovers that "whenever I am weak, then I am strong" (v. 10).
Questions: How is God's grace sufficient for us? When have you found
that strength can come out of vulnerability and weakness? Give examples.
For Further Discussion
1. What is the value of
personal accomplishments compared to knowing Christ and living the life of a
disciple?
2. Thousands of people drive
by churches every Sunday morning and fail to come inside and hear the gospel
message. Whose failure is this, and why?
3. What is the proper balance
between personal success and group success? Are there dangers to valuing one
over the other?
4. Jesus sacrificed himself
for our salvation. What sacrifices are we asked to make for the good of others?
5. When have you seen a
weakness turn into a strength? How do Christians "lead with a limp"?
6. In an achievement-oriented
culture, how can we help children to see that there are things more important
than winning games and achieving personal success?
7. What are the situations in
your life when you have suffered deep disappointment? Did you move closer to
God, or farther away? What good, if any, came out of these personal failures?
Responding to the News
In the heat of a baseball playoff and a presidential campaign season, the focus is on winning. But such victory is not our call as Christians. Look at your family, your church and your community, and identify an area where you can sacrifice and serve.
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