Baseball is a grace of God. Not because it’s perfect, or that everything about it is holy, but because it brings enjoyment. And since enjoyment is a gift from God (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25), it must be a grace. This is especially true when your team is winning, but even when they’re not.
In baseball, like all sports, there are always those athletes who have something special. That is to say somehow they have talent that separates them from the many other incredible athletes out there on the field. For my Los Angeles Dodgers, that someone for the past 18 seasons has been left-handed pitcher, Clayton Kershaw. Watching him pitch has been one of the joys of being a baseball fan, especially of the Dodgers–the only team Kershaw has ever played for. And on Sunday afternoon, my son Titus and I got to watch him throw the ball one more time. It was special, or dare I say romantic? Something only Billy Beane and baseball fans truly grasp.
I remember the first time I went to a Dodgers game. I was young. Maybe 7 or 8. My dad was given tickets and we drove to Dodgers Stadium for a night game. I don’t remember the baseball, just the stadium. It was huge, the grass was an otherworldly green, and the lights stood as tall as the skyscrapers my dad worked at in downtown L.A. I don’t know why, but after the game we got to walk on the field. Standing there, looking at the huge stadium that surrounded me was unforgettable. It was a grace of God, even just for a moment. From then on, I was a Dodgers fan.
Following the Dodgers didn’t really kick in until after Bethany and I got married. That was 2005. We would watch a few games on the local KCAL 9 station and listen in as Vin Scully explained baseball and life to us. We only lived about 45 minutes from the stadium and tickets were often gifted from my work, so getting to games became more frequent even as we began to start a family. Sometimes I would even call my dad who had since moved to Kentucky and talk to him about the Dodgers (and Vin). Even after many years he hadn’t forgiven them for the 1994 players strike, but somehow he knew about the most recent game. “I see your Dodgers won again,” he’d say. Maybe they weren’t just my Dodgers?
The more we watched and went to games, the more we got to know the young pitcher, Clayton Kershaw. With his signature slow curve ball that Vin Scully famously called “Public Enemy #1,” and his incredible ability to paint the edges of the strike zone, it was like watching a master craftsman at work. Season after season, with minimal injuries, no matter how the team was doing, we could count on Kershaw for a least a few beautiful strikeouts. Now he has 3,052 of them, and today we got to watch him get 7 of those. In a stadium filled with 45,000 other people, we all enjoyed the sweet grace of watching an artist work his magic. In the end he would walk off the mound to a roaring applause, everyone on their feet cheering for the amazing career of the southpaw from Texas and the beauty of this great game.
In Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 we get a glimpse of God’s heart for us. In it, the “Preacher,” as the writer calls himself, says this:
Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.
Just a few days ago Kershaw announced his retirement effective at the end of the season. As the Dodgers move on to the post season we don’t know if he’ll pitch again or not. Maybe he’ll get another start, maybe he’ll come in as a reliever, or maybe he’ll just be in the dugout showing the young guys how to hold his slider. All of us Dodgers fans hope he’ll also be holding another ring at the end of October! But whether he slings that baseball again or not, I can say that I’m thankful to have been alive while he did. It has been a gift from God to find enjoyment in baseball, especially ones thrown by number 22. Thanks, Kershaw. And thanks be to God who gave our family the enjoyment of a few incredible years watching one of the greatest pitchers of his generation. It’s all grace.