New Manny Being New Manny? Manny Ramirez and New Focus

I saw a tweet yesterday from Tim Ellsworth, author & news director at my alma mater, Union University.  It said the following:  "Manny Ramirez becomes a Christian? Hope this is genuine."  I was like "Huh?"

To give a little background for those who many not know.  Manny Ramirez is a baseball player.  In his time, a really good baseball player.  He played for the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox & Tampa Bay Rays.  He had most of his success in Cleveland & Boston, including helping the Red Sox win 2 World Series in 2004 & 2007 with a little in L.A.  He was also known as a kinda eccentric player.  There was a phrase that followed him.  That phrase was "Manny being Manny".  When there was an off the wall news story, most sportscasters would say "Well it's Manny being Manny."  In time, that phrase seemed to overshadow his talent.

Something else that seemed to overshadow his talent was being busted by MLB for violating the drug policy.  The first time happened in 2009 and he lost 50 games.  After jumping around to the White Sox & the Rays in consecutive seasons with bad performances, Ramirez was busted again by MLB for violating the drug policy in 2011 just 5 games into the season for the Rays.  He faced a 100 game suspension if and when he returned to the big leagues.  Instead, Ramirez abruptly retired.  At that point, it seemed like a sad ending to a career of a player who had a lot of talent but his antics seemed to get in the way.

However, last fall, Ramirez went to MLB officials and wanted to be reinstated.  This reinstatement would come with the provision that he would serve a reduced suspension of 50 games (instead of 100) with whatever team signed him.  The Oakland A's ended up being that team.  He became eligible to join the A's yesterday.  Right now, he's at their AAA affiliate the Sacramento River Cats.

So I knew that he was in AAA & that at some point he could be called up if the A's felt like it.  But when I saw that tweet I had to find out about that story.  So I googled to see and came across a couple of articles.  One that was really interesting was one from the A's website, (there's a link to the article here).  Initially the article talks about Manny and his minor league stint.  But further down in the article, it talks about how he's changed as a person.  He cites his wife and his newfound faith in Christ as huge parts of that.

Several quotes that Ramirez said that stood out included:
"It's hard to be a Christian, because when God comes inside your heart, you don't do things that you used to.  Nobody can walk the perfect path, because nobody's perfect."
"I know a lot of people talk about the Hall of Fame, blah, blah, blah.  But you know something? The Bible says that it's better to be in the Book of Life. And that's where I want to be. If it [getting in the Baseball Hall of Fame] happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it's not a big deal.
"I'm going to give 100 percent.  If it [getting in the Baseball Hall of Fame] doesn't happen, I've got God, and I've got my family. That's all I want."

Personally, I have liked Manny Ramirez, especially when he was in Boston.  And I do hope that he's a follower of Jesus now.   Sometimes, people can be skeptical of people that say they've changed.  But the cool thing is that God can definitely do the changing.  Maybe now on Manny being Manny can instead be Manny being more like Jesus.

A Flair for the Dramatics: Third Royals Game of 2011...In Review

On Thursday night, I went to my third Royals game of the year.  This time I went with my girlfriend, who is in town for a few days visiting.  It wasn't the best weather for baseball.  It was cold, windy, and rainy (the not raining hard but light rain/mist).  There were only about 9,000+ at the ballpark that night.

It was the first time I had been to a game during the week at night where they really weren't any promotions (except for the all you can eat seats).  The seats that we got were super cheap and were essentially front row in the lower level, third base side near the foul pole.

The Royals were playing division rival Cleveland (alas no Trevor Crowe as he's on the DL).  It was the last game of the series.  It was the second time in as many games I saw Sean O'Sullivan start (he started the game last Saturday too).  It was a pretty uneventful game for the most part.  I think weather played a part in that.

It came down to the 9th inning, Royals down 2-1.  They hadn't led for the entire game.  But they came through on some clutch hitting and ended up with a walk off hit by Melky Cabrera.  They ended up winning 3-2.  It was an exciting ending to say the least.  Aaron Crow picked up his 2nd major league win.

The Royals are now 3-0 in games I've been to this year.  I don't know how many more games I'll be able to make but hopefully it'll be as exciting as the end of this one was.

Yes, God Does Love (fill in the blank city)

This post has been sitting in my head for a while but I finally feel like I've got the momentum to actually write it.  Bill Simmons, columnist for ESPN.com and nicknamed "The Sports Guy", in the past several months has talked about different cities who have suffered losing teams and championships by saying that "God hates" that city.  An example would be Cleveland.  In an September 9th article in essence previewing the NFL season he said "The Browns finished 2009 strong and reek of sleeper potential, but we're eliminating them because God hates Cleveland."  He has also mentioned this about Seattle, (a city near and dear to my heart).

Now granted I know he is a columnist and sometimes columnists say things for show or to get reactions from readers.  But it does get one to think.  Does God really hate a city?  Because a city hasn't won a championship in 20, 30 or 50 or more years, does that mean God doesn't care about that city?

People who know me know I love sports.  I love the competition and I love to win.  I root on teams and hope they win.  But I also understand it's not the end of the world if my team loses.  I understand in perspective that it is just a game and there are bigger things out there.

But back to the question at hand, does God hate Cleveland or does God hate Seattle?  My answer is no.  God does not hate Cleveland or Seattle or New York or any city.  In fact God loves those cities.  I lived in Seattle for three years and I can attest that God loves that city.  You can see God's creation as you travel around the city.  It is simply awe inspiring.  But more importantly, God loves the people in the city.  How do I know this?  Because he sent Jesus his son to die for the people of Cleveland, Seattle, Boston, Kansas City and around the world.

I'm reminded of the story in the book of Jonah.  God tells Jonah to travel to the city of Nineveh to warn the people.  Why?  Because God wanted the people to repent.  Even though they were not Israelites, God loved them and wanted them to turn to Him.  And guess what?  Jonah went (reluctantly) and they did repent.  God loved the city of Nineveh and the people in it.

So yes, God loves (fill in the blank city).  And what's more amazing?  He loves you and me.

T-Shirt Tuesday & The Race to the End of the Race: Eighth Royals Game of 2010 in Review

Yesterday I went to my eighth Royals game of the year.  My friend Lane and I took advantage of another deal on tickets and got some good seats cheap (Field Box, third base side).  It was another T-Shirt Tuesday which meant another free T-Shirt.  Aside from a fitted hat, all my Royals gear has been free (I got at games or during Royals chapel).  Can't go wrong with that at all.

The funny part about this game was this:  So Lane and I got to the stadium just as the gates opened.  We got our T-Shirts and went to our seats.  We sat down and were looking around.  We see this guy with a headset on and a Royals polo shirt walk over and ask us if we'd be interested in doing one of the games between innings.  We were like sure.  He said it was the Inflatable Slugggurrr race.  Basically it's these blow up suits that look like the mascot Slugggurrr and people are to run two laps out at the Little K (small ballpark for kids) in the suits.  He asked us to stand up to check our heights and he told Lane "Yeah you're great." and he looked at me "You'll be okay" because the preferred height for this was 5'5" to 5'10" (and I'm 6').  So he had us sign a waiver and said meet over by the Little K in the middle of the 2nd inning.

Middle of the 2nd inning we walk over and meet up with the guy.  He has us go onto the field of the Little K and look into a camera there and wave to the camera so they could tape us and the fans could see our faces since we'd be in the suits during the event.  At about the end of the 3rd, they strapped out feet into the suits put a thing on our backs like a backpack and started getting us into the suits and inflated them.  I was in the "Royal blue" Slugggurrr while Lane was in the "Powder blue" Slugggurrr (there usually is a 3rd suit but it's out of commission right now).  The middle of the 4th was when the race took place.  The real Slugggurrr was there along with Tim, the "host" and also several members of the K Crew (who help with giveaways and entertainment stuff).  He tells us beforehand to "run as hard as we can and have a great race".  When the time comes it's a countdown and then we're off.  I start slow the first lap mainly because I'm having to look down a little because the line of sight is lower than I am and I was still trying to get a feel for the suit.  I round the cone that I started from to complete the first lap and I started to pick up speed.  When I rounded the cone to start the home stretch I just ran as hard as I could in that suit.  When I got to the end I was a little tired but I found out I won the race.  I could look out and see Slugggurrr standing in front of me waiving the flag and then he bopped me in the head gently with it.  They then got us out of the suits and I was handed an envelope for winning and Lane for runner-up.  I got back to my seat and opened up the envelope.  It had a couple of coupons for KC Masterpiece products and a $25 dollar gift card from Hy-Vee.  Not bad at all. (The race to the end of the race in the title is a reference to Homestar Runner in case you didn't catch it)

The game itself was pretty good.  Zack Grienke pitching is always a good night and he got a quality start.  It was another low scoring game but two solo home runs made the difference.  Soria came in for the save and it was good times.  Royals end up winning the game 2-1.  The other highlight was they were playing Cleveland which meant Trevor Crowe was playing, our favorite Cleveland Indian player.  He did get a double in the game so that was cool.

Overall the Royals are now 4-4 in games I've been to (3-0 when I wear the powder blue jersey, last night wore the royal blue jersey so it's 1-0) and for teams I've rooted for the record is 6-2.  Good times abound!