My son has learned a lot about the game, and so have I. He has learned that bad calls by the umpires are a part of the game, but the game must go on. He has learned that just looking good gets you nowhere in this game, but experience and hard work can make a huge difference. And he has learned that some things that others consider hard, or impossible to accomplish, he can achieve, because he has seen others just like him do so. Not with ease, and not without effort, but with confidence that the seemingly impossible is achievable because the proof is in his memories or in the history books.
All of these experiences of my son have also helped me give him encouraging words. I too have seen the seemingly impossible achieved, with effort, hard work and determination. I experienced the requirement to achieve what others consider impossible when I was a Marine. Suffice it to say that a Marine's expectation of what is "normal performance" is often far out along the bell curve, near the tail-ends.
These thoughts that follow were crystallized when I saw the following video clip of a miraculous catch by the center fielder on a Japanese professional baseball team. The team is from Hiroshima, Japan (yes the same Hiroshima you know from the history books), a town 45 minutes by train from a base I was stationed at several times during my military career. This took place on August 03, 2010. This catch was so good, that the fellas at ESPN picked it up and were blown away by it. Take a look,
Wow, right? Unbelievable, but there it is. Oh, you don't think it counts as amazing because this is the Japanese league? Please, that is an amazing catch no matter where it happened. Besides, as you may remember from a post I wrote a few days ago, it doesn't matter where you come from. Everybody can play baseball. But not everyone can make a catch like that. Or can they?
Because below is an example of what I am writing about above. If you have seen something, that you thought was impossible, get accomplished, it opens your eyes a little. Or maybe it opens your eyes, and your mind, a lot. You start thinking to yourself, "Well, if that guy can do it, so can I." And that is exactly what you will see here,
Uh-huh. Same pitcher, same two teams playing, just a few weeks later. And now with a different outfielder, making a similar play and another great catch. How? Because his teammate had done it too, and by doing so had shown his peers what is possible. Think outside the box, have confidence, go the extra mile, leap up on to the fence, and make the catch.
When I viewed these two videos, which my wife sent me during lunch today, the first thought that went through my head was "that is what Lou Tseng-Tsiang did when he became a Catholic." Then I watched the second video and I thought "and that is what his friend John C. H. Wu did. He saw that his friend Lou could do it, and then he went and did it too."
All of the saints have boldly gone down a path that many see as impossible. But is it really? Aren't they showing us that it is possible? And aren't the saints our friends? Don't they pray for us if we ask them to? I believe so with a firm conviction.
And I also believe this: that they are the pathfinders,the trailblazers. They are the ones who have kept the flame alive; who show us, their teammates in the Church Militant, how we need to be to make it to the Show, which is the Church Triumphant.
Where they have lead, I intend to follow. Let's go play some baseball.
