A couple of weeks ago, about 56 members of our church got together and went to a minor league baseball game -- the Carolina Mudcats. The Mudcats is a Low-A team that is a part of the Milwaukee Brewers system. They play a pretty good level of ball, and it's always fun to go watch them. The people there run a pretty nice operation and the stadium is clean and easy to get to.
So, our Men's group at the church organized this outing and opened it up to family members so we could get more participation. It was a beautiful afternoon, but all week the weather guys were predicting rain and thunderstorms for that day. All the tickets had been paid for and everyone was looking forward to it, so I said a little prayer on Monday that the weather would be good. After that, I never even looked at the "rain date" plans because it was in God's hands now! It started out at 90% chance of rain on the Monday before and each day saw a reduction in that percentage until game day when it was 0%!! Our seats were in the shade and there was a slight breeze -- what a day!!
This game was also a replica Mudcat game shirt giveaway game and the first 1,500 people through the gates would get one of these shirts. I cautioned our people to get there early if they wanted one.
But that wasn't the biggest draw for our people. I had made arrangements for one of our guys, Adam Neill, to throw out the first pitch. Adam had pitched in college as a relief specialist so this seemed like a no-brainer. We all had such a fun time with this, throwing challenges his way about what kind of pitch he should throw, and that he had better not air mail it.
Adam was the third person to throw out a pitch.
Adam and I are standing at the edge of the field and he is showing the pitch he is going to throw. I said he should just throw a fastball (or as close to a fastball as he could muster) but he said his curve was his money pitch. He ended up throwing a "12 to 6 curve" (as one of the Cincinnati Reds former pitchers calls it). It is called that because as the ball curves, it also dives for the ground. It is 60' 6'' from the pitcher's mound to home plate. Most "12 to 6 curves" only travel 55-60 feet before they hit the ground, with the batter swinging over the top of it. Works real good in a game, but looks real bad as a first pitch.
Oh well, we had a great time and got quite a few church members together for an afternoon. And as our Pastor, Eric, says -- it's all about building relationships.
Just a little side bar ...
While I was getting ready to write this post, I came across this funny little thing. And then, as I watched the Red's manager (David Bell) get thrown out of the Reds-Giants game today for complaining about the umpire calling pitches that were 5"-6" off the plate strikes, I saw the wisdom of this story.
"Life is a lot like a baseball game ... when you think a fastball is coming, you gotta be ready to hit the curve." (Jaja Q)
Hooah
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