Concerning Baseball and Church

I’m excited for the start of the Major League Baseball Division Series that begin today. And I have a couple of personal rooting interests. My good friend, Scott Franzke, is the play-by-play voice on the Philadelphia Phillies Radio Network and I’d really like to see them do well. Scott and I worked together at KRLD and TSN and the Rangers Radio Network for three years. And I appreciated so much his dedication to excellence and professionalism in the job he did for us there. When the Rangers canned Vince Cotroneo, another great guy, before the ’05 season, they passed on Scott for Victor Rojas. Bad call. Scott went on to the Phils where he and his wife Lori are doing great. Scott has an extremely laid back personality. He was also negative and cynical, in an understated hilarious sort of way. There was nobody who made me laugh harder at work than Scott. And nobody who worked harder at what he did. And he deserves every bit of the honor and prestige and excitement that’s coming his way as the Phillies begin the playoffs today at 2:00 agaisnt the Amazing Rockies.

My other personal rooting interest is with the Arizona Diamondbacks where Chad McDonald is the Assistant Director of Scouting. Chad’s wife, Julie, is the Children’s Minister at the North Davis Church of Christ in Arlington where Carrie-Anne and I were when we made the decision to go into the ministry. At the time, Chad was an area scout for the Angels. And when our small group got together at a park for a cookout, it seemed like Chad was always on the other side of the park working out some pro prospect from an area high school. He taught Whitney’s Sunday morning Bible School class at North Davis and was always giving her a hard time about her Rangers. But his sweet note to her on Angels stationery upon our departure for Marble Falls is still one of her prized possessions. Chad took the job with Arizona shortly after we left. And I’m rooting for the DBacks hard against the Cubs tonight.

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One quick thought on the Cowboys and their 4-0 start: do you realize that if they go 6-6 the rest of the way, they’ll wind up 10-6 and in the playoffs? If they go 7-5 in their last 12 games, they’ll be 11-5 and probably have home field advantage in the postseason. I’m blown away. Almost depressed.

There’s still hope for a monumental collapse. But I certainly can’t imagine any kind of 4-8 finish that would knock them out of the picture. I would also never openly wish for any kind of injury to occur to any of them. Although, I’m beginning to think that this team can overcome almost anything that could happen. I think Romo might be the only player that, were he to miss more than a couple of weeks, would adversely impact the Cowboys.

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With the bustle of activity around here that is Give Away Day, my mind is continually on our role, as individuals and as a church, in joining God in redeeming creation back to him. Some of our creation theology impacts this. And I want to write more about that tomorrow. In the meantime, check out this offering from Paul Hanson’s article, “The Identity and Purpose of the Church.”

“The Church is not some curious or pitiable relic of the past seeking to justify itself either by appeal to an archaic golden age or by attempts to appear more progressive and radical than the latest protest movement, but is an agent of reconciliation and healing basing its identity on its sense of being present where God is present in the world, and for the same purpose.”

Peace,

Allan

2 Comments

  1. Kipi

    Okay, I have to ask if you are watching the Indians/Yankees game…the one with all the bugs. Is it wrong of me to wish that all those tiny critters…which are hopefully biting ones hungry for Yankee flesh…would all surround Jeter and A-Rod and do their duty?

  2. Allan

    I was not watching that game. We’ve been at Texoma all w/end and we just got back to the house at about 9:30 Saturday night. I’ve lost touch with everything that’s happened in sports since Friday morning except for the final score of the Texas-OU game.

    As for your concern, it’s entirely appropriate to wish a plague of tiny bugs on A-Fraud. I have nothing personally against Derek Jeter. But that other guy, yes.

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