Wayne Weekly “Rounding the Bases and Coming Home”

It’s baseball season. The summer “laid back excitement” pastime for many. I am not much of a sports enthusiast I’ll admit that. I may watch a few basketball games (SU) during basketball season. I usually watch the Superbowl. This past number of months my wife Evie and I kind of “got into” NASCAR racing…until the weather got nice. I do watch the World Series, follow baseball a tinge. But during the summer months I have been known to hop in the car, usually dragging my daughter along, and head out for Auburn’s Falcon Park to watch the Auburn Doubledays play baseball.

There’s something about going to the park and rooting for the hometown team. Auburn baseball dates back to 1958 as the Auburn Yankees affiliated with the NY Yankees.  After a few years they became affiliated with the Mets, the Twins, the Phillies, and have been co-opted by several professional ball clubs. Since 1996 Auburn has been known as the Doubledays (after civil war general who was credited for inventing baseball).

Part of the fun of watching baseball at the park is eating. Nothing like a hotdog and a Coca Cola. Peanuts are a must, but I do get worried about my salt consumption. The lazy-hazy days of summer nights wouldn’t be complete without the 7^th inning stretch and singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”!

Games can be either exciting or can actually be pretty boring. It’s not the action that keeps me visiting the park, it’s tradition, it’s just being there with others who like the game and like summer nights. It’s visiting with your family member or friend that goes with you. It’s even agreeing that “the ump is blind”, or the “batter can’t hit” with a stranger. It’s baseball, pure and simple.

I love it when your team player rounds the bases and heads for home. I guess I could say that we’re all as Christians doing that in a way. Our team member Dan Dunn crossed home plate and scored a few weeks ago. Dan’s passing into eternity was unexpected. Even though Dan had to run the bases, sometimes waiting for the prompting of a coach to urge him on to “run” (like the rest of us), nevertheless Dan hit a home run with Jesus running the bases with him all the way.

Dan scored big. He stepped onto home plate. It was a grand slam for Dan. It took a moment for the crowd to cheer, I mean everyone was stunned in the dugout and in the bleachers…but soon the fans “got it” and joined in the roar with the angels and the others who had crossed home plate into Heaven’s hall of fame already.

We won.

…“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
    and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
    for those who love him.”                       1 Corinthians 2:9