Baseball: I love this sport so much! There is something about it that makes me always feel like a little kid when I am watching or playing. Baseball has shaped my life in many ways, from a little kid learning how to play with my dad to playing in high school and to playing in college. Baseball even played a huge role in how I proposed to my wife, Courtney. It’s something that, no matter how I feel, always seems to calm me down and to put me in a better mood. I think I love it so much because my father loved it so much. It was the thing that bound us together. It was what I wanted to do so bad to make my dad proud of me.
Early on, I was not that great at it. In fact, at the age of five I was so bad they put me in RIGHT FIELD! No one wants to play right field as a kid. I remember our coach telling my dad that I just wasn’t very good. That infuriated my dad so much that I can’t remember a night from that point on when I was not practicing baseball with my dad. Pitching. Hitting. Fielding. By the time I was six years old, everyone wanted me on their team. I even set the record for homeruns in little league. By the time I was 12, I was throwing so hard, that at times, people didn’t want to bat against me. My dad would rub his mustache and yell at me when I did poorly, and he would stick his chest out proudly when I did well. But, he always loved me unconditionally.
My dad loved baseball so much that he built me a half baseball field in our front yard that we used for pitching and ground balls. My mom and sister even had to help shag balls, pick up my foul balls, and stay out all night until I got it right. My dad even went on to build my sister and me a full baseball field in our backyard: “THE FIELD OF DREAMS”. Yes, it was awesome, and yes, it was so cool to have. He spent hours and hours playing baseball with me. As a kid, it was hard sometimes because it was basically all I ever did, but truly in my heart I knew I was meant to play.
By the time I got to high school, I made the Oklahoma All-state team and had colleges and professional teams looking at me. My father wanted me to go to college and play in order to get an education. I went to Seminole State, got hurt, and realized during rehab that God had called me to the ministry. So, I turned down my scholarship, transferred to OBU after a brief stop at St. Gregory’s University. I will never forget sitting on the bed beside my dad and telling him that I wanted to move on from baseball to pursue the Ministry. I was so scared because I felt like I was letting him down. I began to tell him what I believed God was doing in my heart and said I needed to move on from baseball. He looked me dead in my eyes and said, “Jeremy, I love you! I am so proud of you. I want you to choose God over everything else in this life. I only played baseball with you because I wanted to spend time with you. I wanted to teach you want it meant to be a man.” That conversation was monumental because just about two years later my father, my best friend, passed away from cancer.
That was the hardest thing I have ever gone through. To watch your hero shrivel away, a giant of a man reduced to a wheel chair to get around. It will cut you to the core of who you are, but during his sickness we fell in love with Chicago Cubs Baseball. It was the year of the homerun chase! Slammmin Sammy Sosa, the Cubs right fielder!!!! We would talk on the phone every night about who had more homeruns, Sammy or Mark McGuire. Even with cancer eating at his body, baseball tied us together. It gave my dad something to look forward to between all of the doctor visits. It gave him something to think about and something for us to talk about. That year was a precious and hard year.
I love baseball so much because it’s something that represents my Dad. I see him in the way the ball moves, the sound of the bat as it crashes against the ball, the smell of the hotdogs, the taste of sunflower seeds. It is almost as if when I am at a game he is there watching it with me. I know He would never want to come back here again. I know he is in Heaven with Christ and loving every minute of it, but I think he left me baseball to remember Him by.
My dad and I were planning a trip to Wrigley Field as well as ballparks in Arizona, Minnesota and Boston so that we could watch baseball and so that we could celebrate him beating cancer. That trip never happened, but he told me I had to go to Wrigley! He made me promise him! “Go see that place where Sammy Sosa hit so many homeruns. Where the crowd yelled when he ran on the field!” Well, 10 years later, on his birthday, I walked into Wrigley and cried like a little baby! A friend of mine invited me to join him for a few games, and it just so happened that it was on September 6, what would have been my father’s 58th birthday. As I walked into that stadium, it was like he was there with me! All the things we had seen on TV or read in the papers were all true, and it was more amazing than I ever dreamt it would be! That day will stick with me forever!
Baseball is more than just a ball and bat to me! It’s what shaped me and what reminds me of my father and our relationship, one that most kids only wish they had with their dad! Now I have had the opportunity to take my wife and my daughters to Wrigley. To top it all off, I have been blessed with the privilege to serve the Lord in Chicago every summer by taking groups of students to serve at a church in a southwest suburb of Chicago! I can’t help but think my Dad has had a hand in that!
I am sitting in a restaurant in Chicago typing this! I got the opportunity to come up for two days to visit with the church we are helping this summer and finalize our plans. Today, I finished up our meetings around 12pm, and wouldn’t you know that the Cubs are in town playing baseball at 3:00pm! So I found me a ticket and went! I sat 12 rows away from home plate! The place was super packed, every seat seemed full because the Royals were in town, and the place was electric! I had an aisle seat! The chair next to me was empty! Guess what? It stayed empty the entire day! I sat in my chair watching and thinking the whole time how I wish my Dad was sitting right here with me to talk about the game! During the game, my mom sent me a text that said, “He is there with you!” I began to think about the empty seat next to me! Maybe He was there! Maybe that seat was meant for Him! At the bottom of the 8th it started raining a little. Most people gave up and went home. I thought about it but decided to stay in my seat. In the bottom of the 9th a huge rainbow showed up in RIGHT FIELD!!! Nothing ever happens in right field!!! Today, a HUGE RAINBOW!!! I just laughed and said, “Thanks God for reminding me that I am never alone and for reminding me that I am loved. Also, thanks for reminding that right field will always hold a special place in my heart!”
Baseball is more than just a sport to me. It’s reminds me of the love of my father! I love baseball because it holds a deeper meaning. Baseball shaped me into the man I am today! Thanks dad for using baseball to show me how to be a man and to love Jesus, baseball, and right field!
Love ya,
Worm
Life with a worm 