Take me out to the ballgame!

Okay, I’ve clued you in on 2 of my 3 non-church passions already. In previous blogs, I’ve talked about my love for USC football, and Golden Gopher basketball. Today it’s time to unveil my last love ... Minnesota Twins baseball.

So as you can guess, today’s an exciting day for me! This afternoon, the Twin’s new outdoor baseball park opens up, as Target Field sees its first regular season action.

I’ve been a Twins fan for as long as I can remember. As a youngster, I grew up watching the likes of Bert Blyleven and Rod Carew out at the old Met Stadium in the 70's. And then as a teenager and young adult, went to countless games under the Teflon roof of the Metrodome, waving homer hankies and cheering on the likes of Kirby Pucket and yes, Bert Blyleven -- again! (He came back late in his career.) And now, I have partial season tickets to the new ballpark, and can’t wait to go cheer on Joe Mauer and company under the lights.

Anyway ... When I think about baseball, often an old routine from George Carlin comes to mind. He used to do a bit that compared the game of baseball to that of football. I think overall, I’m more of a baseball guy! I won’t post them all, but check out some of these from Carlin’s routine ...

Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park. The baseball park!
Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium.

Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.
Football begins in the fall, when everything's dying.

In football you wear a helmet.
In baseball you wear a cap.

Football is concerned with downs - what down is it?
Baseball is concerned with ups - who's up?

In football you receive a penalty.
In baseball you make an error.

Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness.
Baseball has the sacrifice.

Baseball has the seventh inning stretch.
Football has the two minute warning.

Baseball has no time limit: we don't know when it's gonna end - might have extra innings.
Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we've got to go to sudden death.

And finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different:

In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.

In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! - I hope I'll be safe at home!


All this got me to thinking ... How do each of us go thru life? Is it with a war-like mentality, or a more easy going mentality that is just trying to get home safe???

For the Good News is, Jesus won the war over sin and death for us! All we have to do is skip happily home.

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Mark