I cannot believe I am about to post a blog about baseball...but yet here I am....
Chicago White Sox pitcher, Mark Buehrle, pitched what is called "a perfect game" this week. A perfect game is one in which 27 batters come up to home plate to have a bat and none of the 27 batters gets on base. Not a single one. They are all retired.
Chicago White Sox pitcher, Mark Buehrle, pitched what is called "a perfect game" this week. A perfect game is one in which 27 batters come up to home plate to have a bat and none of the 27 batters gets on base. Not a single one. They are all retired.
According to MLB.com this has only been accomplished 18 times. 18 times! That's astounding considering the caliber of pitchers that have graced the mounds of each MLB franchise over the years.
So much has been written about Mark Buehrle this week and rightly so. He takes his place in Baseball History. I thought about Mr Buehrle, I thought about what it must feel like to now be part of history, to be among this elite group of 18 pitchers. I also thought about Dewayne Wise....who is in his own sort of elite group I think.
Mr Wise is a reserve outfielder, not particularly well known, but talented at his position. The Sox manager put him in the game in the ninth inning to cover center field. The ninth inning. Gabe Kapler hit a long drive off Buehrle and Wise exploded off of his feet, making an amazing leap. It as a near bobble but Wise snagged the ball, preserving this perfect game for the moment. Buehrle had to retire two more batters before it was in the bag...and he did. Astounding!
Having watched all of this my thoughts went to perfection, perfect games and being perfect ourselves. Is there really such a thing as a perfect game? If not for Dewayne Wise this one would not have been perfect. His effort, his commitment to team and his desire to assist made that play perfect. Then it was up to Beuhrle to finish the job.
So on I thought...is there such a thing as a perfect life? If not for those that surround us, if not for those who love and care for us, no life would be perfect or anything near to perfect. If not for those willing to put forth effort for us, if not for those committed to us and if not for those who stand by and have that desire to see us do well....we would not have very much at all. So it is in that partner, that friend, that lover, it is in that person who has our interests at heart, that helps us succeed. It is in that other person that we find our perfection.
It was not merely pitches that made Beuhrle's game perfect. It was also the desire of a reserve outfielder to make a literal leap of faith and grab at perfection for a teammate...and hang onto it for him.
Oh that we all could have that reserve outfielder standing behind us when we need them.
Indeed.
So much has been written about Mark Buehrle this week and rightly so. He takes his place in Baseball History. I thought about Mr Buehrle, I thought about what it must feel like to now be part of history, to be among this elite group of 18 pitchers. I also thought about Dewayne Wise....who is in his own sort of elite group I think.
Mr Wise is a reserve outfielder, not particularly well known, but talented at his position. The Sox manager put him in the game in the ninth inning to cover center field. The ninth inning. Gabe Kapler hit a long drive off Buehrle and Wise exploded off of his feet, making an amazing leap. It as a near bobble but Wise snagged the ball, preserving this perfect game for the moment. Buehrle had to retire two more batters before it was in the bag...and he did. Astounding!
Having watched all of this my thoughts went to perfection, perfect games and being perfect ourselves. Is there really such a thing as a perfect game? If not for Dewayne Wise this one would not have been perfect. His effort, his commitment to team and his desire to assist made that play perfect. Then it was up to Beuhrle to finish the job.
So on I thought...is there such a thing as a perfect life? If not for those that surround us, if not for those who love and care for us, no life would be perfect or anything near to perfect. If not for those willing to put forth effort for us, if not for those committed to us and if not for those who stand by and have that desire to see us do well....we would not have very much at all. So it is in that partner, that friend, that lover, it is in that person who has our interests at heart, that helps us succeed. It is in that other person that we find our perfection.
It was not merely pitches that made Beuhrle's game perfect. It was also the desire of a reserve outfielder to make a literal leap of faith and grab at perfection for a teammate...and hang onto it for him.
Oh that we all could have that reserve outfielder standing behind us when we need them.
Indeed.
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