Our boys have loved baseball for
as long as I can remember. One was an
Orioles fan, one was a Braves fan. (I
thought we were really smart encouraging that, so that they’d each have
different interests, and their teams would never compete against each other-----THEN
inter-league play began…..). They played
Little League. They played whiffle ball in the back yard, and
hit tennis balls out in the street, practiced pitching with a pitch-back in the
back-yard. We went to college games, minor-league
games, MLB games. We toured
stadiums. We waited after games until
the wee hours, hoping to get autographs---sometimes we did, sometimes we didn’t. We went to baseball card shows, they collected
baseball cards, sorted baseball cards, categorized baseball cards, counted
baseball cards. We spent one whole
summer with Aaron putting his cards into binders, and dictating the player, the
year, the card brand, and the book, page and position number where he was
filing the card, and I typed them into a spreadsheet. (Am I a good mom or what?). Cameron even sang the National Anthem at an
Orioles game with our church youth choir.
Our vacations ALWAYS included something related to baseball-----one trip
was planned around the Louisville Slugger Bat Factory and a Cincinnati Reds
game, where it was 107 degrees at game time; one trip involved going to Toronto
to see the Blue Jays play (they just happened to be playing the Orioles) and
then to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
We went to BankOne ballpark in Phoenix (they have a pool in the
outfield!---more importantly in Phoenix in the summer, they have a roof and
air-conditioning!) We went to Oriole
Park, we went to Turner Field. We toured
Fenway during a blackout on one of the hottest days Boston had ever experienced. While every trip included baseball, it was
not totally about baseball-----we saw Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, Pleasant
Hill Shaker Plantation in Kentucky, Stone Mountain, Mount Washington, NH----we
had great trips.
One of my very favorite baseball memories
is of Cameron at about age 7----he had a game, and I took him to the field, but
we arrived before anyone else was there.
He decided to “warm up”, and started pretending he was batting, and then
running the bases. I cannot describe to
you how funny it was to watch him get caught in a run down between second and
third-----he eventually managed to get to 3rd safely, but those
imaginary fielders gave him quite a challenge, back and forth, back and
forth----there were some very close calls!
Both boys went to baseball camp
at UR. It’s a week-long camp, where they
work on basic skills every morning and then play games all afternoon----in June
or July----in Richmond. It was always
dreadfully hot. There are all sorts of
competitions between the campers, and it all ends with a big awards ceremony on
Friday afternoon. Three trophies are
awarded-----Best hitter in the camp, Most Improved Player (over the course of
the week), and Mr. Hustle, for the player who gave everything he had all week
long.
Before Cameron was old enough to
go, we would be there on Aaron’s last day of camp, and Cameron eyed those
trophies. The first year Cameron went as
a camper, he eyed those trophies some more.
For the next year, he talked about them.
He wanted one BAD. He was only
about 9 or 10, so he didn’t think he could win Best Hitter, since there were 17
year-olds competing as well. He talked
about Most Improved, and joked that if he acted on Monday as if he didn’t
understand the game at all, and then by Friday was showing what he could do, he
could win that one (I’ve told you Cameron has a sense of humor!). But Mr. Hustle----he really thought he had a
chance at that one.
It was hot that week. Really hot.
Miserably hot. Humid-hot like
Richmond in the summer. And they spent
about 6 hours in the heat every day. After
the morning session, they’d go to the dining hall for lunch, (don’t you know it
smelled ripe in there with 300 sweaty boys?!?!), then head back out into the
heat to spend the next 3 hours playing.
Every afternoon on the way home, Cameron talked about that trophy. By Thursday, most of our neighbors had heard
about it, and everyone knew that he was confident he was going to win it. We were ALL worried----what would we say to
him when he wasn’t named Mr. Hustle?
On Friday afternoon, I went to
the closing ceremony. When I got there,
Cameron came over and gave me an autographed baseball card that his coach for the week had
given him, because the coach told him that he was Mr. Hustle for their
team. I thought that was really nice,
that at least coach had noticed that Cameron had really worked hard all week.
So, they went thru all the
awards. A coach got up and made a speech
about the competitions involving hitting, and awarded the Best Hitter trophy to
a camper on his team. Another coach got
up and named one of his players as the Most Improved player of the whole
camp. And then, much to my
surprise----Cameron’s coach walked to the table, picked up the Mr. Hustle
trophy, and began talking about a player who gave everything he had all week
long, who never complained, never needed a break, was always ready to help, ran
to the next event when others were walking-----and then he called Cameron’s
name. And Cameron, who had set his
sights on that trophy long before the week ever started, confidently walked up and claimed it, just like he had known
he would.
We all felt like we owed him an
apology----we hadn’t believed that he could do it, that he could stand out
among 300 campers. And then Cameron
said, “You know, Mom, it was really hard sometimes, but I just kept going.”
What if we all approached life
that way? What if we set our sights on a
goal, and gave it everything we had until we achieved that goal? What if, when it got really hard, we kept
going? What is your goal? Are you planning on reaching it? Are you counting on it? Telling everyone about it? Confidently?
Are you giving it everything you have?
All the time? Even when it’s
hard, when it’s hot, when it’s not fun?
What is your ultimate goal?
Matthew
6:
19 “Do not store up
for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where
thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures
in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not
break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also.
Colossians 3
1 Since, then,
you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ
is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things
above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now
hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your[a] life, appears, then you
also will appear with him in glory.
