In honor of "The October Classic", baseball's post season series, I want to share a bit of baseball lore:
The Bible says that
nobody’s perfect (Romans 3:23) but I know of twenty-four men that have been
perfect … well, at least for the period of one baseball game. According to
major league baseball records there have been only twenty-three men who have
pitched a perfect baseball game in the entire 140+ years in the sport of
baseball. Plus there is one that
accomplished this rare feat, but due to an umpire’s bad call, will always be an
asterisk on this list.
I feel Armando
Galarraga’s ‘perfect game that isn’t’ needs special recognition. On June 2,
2010 on what should have been the 27th out, umpire Jim Joyce
erroneously called the batter safe at first, thus preventing Galarraga from
being added to this prestigious list.
This was before the age of video reviews so when Joyce watched the
replay after the game was complete he realized that he had made the wrong
call. To his credit, he admitted his
mistake. The next day, in a very classy
move, Galarraga met Joyce at home plate before the start of the day’s game. Joyce tearfully expressed his deepest
apologies and Galarraga graciously accepted it with a handshake and a hug.
What made these 24 men
perfect? They pitched a game where no
player on the opposing team got a hit or even reached base on the pitcher
during the entire nine inning game. In other words, he faced the minimum number
of players that you can in a nine inning game – 27 – and they all either struck
out, flied out, or grounded out – and he receives credit for the victory. To give a little perspective on this
accomplishment – there have been more men who have circled the moon than have
pitched a perfect game!
I won’t bore you
with the details of each game here (but if you’re a baseball fan, email me and
I’ll share them), but there is some interesting trivia that swirls around this
group of men that were perfect for a short period of time:
Other than the
commonality of having pitched a perfect game, these men were widely different. They came from different parts of the country
and the world. Some were city kids while
others were country boys. Many had checkered pasts and were burdened with
addictions while some were very religious.
Some spent their lives in baseball while a few have vowed to stay away from
the game after their careers were over.
Even their within
their perfect game there were degrees of perfection, in terms of pitches
pitched and plays made behind them. Career
wise, some enjoyed playing many years in major league baseball while others
spent less than five years in ‘the bigs’. Five of the players went on to have
Hall of Fame careers while seven players ended their professional careers with
an overall losing record. One ‘perfect
pitcher’ never had a winning record in any of his years of pitching
professionally.
One thing that is in
common with each of these 24 pitchers – their lives were forever changed by the
event. Here’s an example:
 |
| Don Larsen & Yogi Berra celebrating the perfect game |
Don Larsen’s perfect
game masterpiece (the only one pitched in a World Series) came three days after
he had been bombed for four runs in less than two innings in Game 2. He was pretty sure that he would not be given
another chance when, on the morning of Game 5, he found a baseball in one of
his shoes at his locker. This was manager Casey Stengel’s way of informing him
that he was scheduled to start that day. That day changed his life forever
though he had an otherwise unremarkable career (81-91 over 14 seasons).
I’m sure you’re
wondering if there is a spiritual point to this baseball trivia history lesson. Yes there is, in fact, there are five points
I want to make:
FACT #1: No one is really
perfect, except Jesus, who lived a sinless life
Even more unique
than these 24 men throwing perfect games in the short history of the game of
baseball is the living of a entire life without any mistakes – a life of
perfection. In fact, throughout recorded
history of mankind it has happened only once – that being the life of Jesus of
Nazareth. As recorded in the Bible, he was born into this world without sin and
lived a sinless life. There was a purpose
for this and that brings us to …
As for the rest of
us, Romans 3:23 describes us this way, “for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
So nobody’s perfect. We all fall short of perfection in the eyes
of God. We all have lived through different
backgrounds and experiences. Some of us have had to battle, fight, scrape, and
overcome obstacles all our lives while others have had the proverbial silver
spoon in their mouth. Most of you reading this blog have been involved in
church all of your lives but there are others that we know that don’t know a
hymn book from the Bible. As different as we all are, each of us do things each
and every day that fails to measures up to God’s standard of perfection, so none
of us can join that exclusive club of achieving perfection, even for the short span
of time it takes to pitch a perfect game.
FACT #3: Despite our failings,
we are not beyond God’s love
Despite failing miserably at
being perfect, we all can know and rejoice in the fact that God loves us. In
fact, though all of us have sinned and none are perfect, we can find comfort
and assurance in understanding the fact that nothing can separate us from God’s
love. No matter what we’ve done or how many times we’ve turned our back on God
or even thumbed our noses in His face, Romans 8:38-39 tells us that …
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor
demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If we can allow
ourselves to embrace this fact and be embraced by His love our lives would be
filled with extreme joy. Sadly, many
people have convinced themselves that they are unlovable – by God and by
others.
FACT #4: God loves us so much that He has made a way for us to be
perfect
Although we may feel
defeated and beat up, and we feel inadequate in being loved by God, we need to
KNOW that because God still loves us, He desires and longs for us to walk in
victory every day of our lives.
In fact God loves us so much,
in spite of recognizing we could not be perfect, and because He wants to be in
relationship with us so badly that He sent Jesus, who, as 2 Corinthians 5:21
describes him, who knew no sin and God made him to be sin and to die a sinner’s
death so his sacrifice can make us righteous or perfect in God’s eyes.
“we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all.
14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
So when you hear
about the exclusiveness of the “Perfect Game” club in baseball, of those 24 men
who were perfect for a span of about two hours in a game of baseball remember
the exclusiveness of the “Becoming Perfect” club and how, through Jesus Christ,
you are now included as a member of it.
And because of the
love extended to you, through no achievement of your own, I strongly encourage
you to extend that love on further to those around you.
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