Each spring in Southern
Illinois arrives with soaking rain, blooming flowers, greening grass, and
baseball. For the last seven springs the blossoms of April have brought me a
new season of opportunity to serve the players, coaches, support staff, and management
of the Southern Illinois Miners of the Frontier League of professional
baseball. This is a rare privilege.
The Miners arrive in Marion,
Illinois in late April having been signed during the winter, returning from
last season’s team, or having been recruited during the recent combine for
independent teams. They arrive with hearts full of promise, bodies full of
talent, minds full of questions, and souls full of anxiety. We tend to get
players either on their way up or on their way down in baseball. Some have
completed their college baseball careers, but were not selected in the draft by
a team affiliated with a major league team. They still believe they can play
and hope playing in this league will give them the chance to play their way
onto an affiliated team’s roster. Some come to us after years of playing with
affiliated team of minor league baseball. For any number of reasons, they have
been released and have found their way to Southern Illinois. They intend to
retool one part of their game and to return to their climb toward the big
leagues. Others have been released from minor league clubs and simply don’t
want to get a regular job and be grownups. In any case, they are desperate to
play baseball or they would not be here.
All these factors leave their
hearts in a rather vulnerable place. At a glance one would not perceive this,
but understanding their station in baseball makes it readily apparent. Like
most gifted athletes, these young men have the poise, swagger, bravado, and air
of confidence that some find off putting. They wear these traits like body
armor, guarding their hearts from the doubts and insecurities that stalk their
preseason workouts and the sleepless nights of late April and early May.
My role of service in this
situation is simple, but has many facets. I aim to serve, each and all, as they
are with the club. Whether they are here for a week, a season, or for years, I
seek their best interests and the Lord’s purposes in their lives. This level of
baseball affords me a unique opportunity and an immense responsibility. These
young men are not burdened with enormous salaries or plush amenities that
harden hearts and inflate egos. Their hearts are much closer to the surface and
are quicker to hear the words of an older man who cares for them and wants the
best for them, with no strings attached.
Here’s what that looks like
on a typical day of the preseason:
·
I download and print out the team roster so
that I can memorize names, uniform numbers, and faces of each player and coach.
·
I drive the 16 miles to the ballpark
anticipating conversations, remembering relationships from past seasons, and
preparing my heart in prayer.
·
I arrive at the ballpark, pass through the
player’s entrance, walk by the clubhouse, and exit to the hitting cage.
·
At some point in the preseason, Mike Pinto, the
COO and field manager of the club, invites me to introduce myself and my role
with the team. For this I am very grateful.
·
I will come to as many workouts as possible,
and on game days I’ll arrive in time for batting practice.
·
I will greet players at the hitting cage, group
by group as they hit, or I’ll join them on the field as they stretch, throw,
and take batting practice.
·
I make it a point to meet each player, to ask
about his home town, and about his path to this place in baseball. To hear
their stories helps us to connect and for me to understand more of who they
are. I also get a sense of how they perceive this point along their journey
through professional baseball.
·
Once introduced, some players will seek me out
and others will begin to avoid me. I am, however, hard to avoid. I just keep
showing up.
·
During the preseason I will identify a player
to be the player representative for Baseball Chapel. He will be the one I rely
on to inform his teammates of Bible study and game day chapel times and
locations during the season. He is also the player who helps gather players for
chapels held on the road, led by the home team’s chapel leader.
·
During these days of preseason, we will discuss
the process for Sunday home game Baseball Chapels and the best day and time for
a Bible study during each home stand.
·
Occasionally I will have the opportunity to
meet with a player or coach individually, over breakfast or coffee.
·
Occasionally I will have the privilege to walk
with a player or a coach through a crisis. We have walked with players as they
lost family members, with support staff through cancer treatments, through
relationship difficulties, injuries, surgeries, death, and other matters
confidentiality forbids me to discuss.
·
As preseason progresses, the roster is trimmed
down until the opening day team is selected. That means many players will be
traded or released, thus ending their stay in Marion. This is always painful
and always strains relationships. Hearts once full of hope and expectation are
suddenly crushed by feelings of rejection, failure, and even despair. For some,
this is the end of their lives in baseball. For others, they will seek new
opportunities elsewhere. In any case, I feel the grief of relationships lost.
Many people have said that professional
baseball is a great game, but a terrible business. I have a sense of that each
preseason. We start with a large group of hopeful, excited young men, and day
by day a couple are released, a few are traded, some new ones arrive, and by
opening day, the business is complete. Suddenly the roster is set, the games
begin, and everything seems bright, new, and exciting.
Baseball, like spring in Southern Illinois, is
full of new life, thunderstorms, sunshine, fear, joy, fulfillment,
disappointment, runs, hits, errors, wins, and losses. This is why I’m here, to
walk along with the players, coaches, management, and support staff through all
of it. To do so is one of my life’s greatest joys.
