What you can learn at a baseball game

Last Friday night I was able to persuade my wonderful wife to attend the Texas Rangers game. It was last minute (thanks Barry for the tickets) and it was HOT. My wife HATES the Texas heat so for her to be willing to drop everything, sit in the 100 plus heat so that I could watch my Rangers play is a testimony of a GREAT wife. Now she did bring her tiny battery-operated fan but did a great job of not embarrassing me.

We couldn't have picked a better game. It was the first game of a 3 game home stand against the Red Sox. It went into the 11th inning with the Rangers winning with a Nellie Cruz home run making it 10-9. The Rangers were losing at one point in the game 8-2.

Couple of things that stood out to me:

1. Winning brings fans to the ballpark. The Rangers are at the top of their division and unless there is a complete meltdown, they will be in the playoffs for the first time since 1999. Also they are the only MLB team that has yet to win a postseason series; their three playoff appearances (1996, 1998, and 1999) all resulted in losses to the New York Yankees. It was a near sold out game and people love winners.

2. There were way too many Red Sox fans in the crowd. Where is this Texas pride everyone talks about? Just goes to show that when a team has that many losing seasons, fans tend to waiver in their allegiance. When they stood and cheered, it actually made me a bit tense. How dare they do that at a Rangers home game! Who let them in anyway? But then, when my team made a great play, I was standing, cheering and actually looking around to see the pitiful look on the Sox fan's face. I guess I deep down inside wanted them to suffer (at least for a few seconds).

3. Josh Hamilton is that good. He made a catch at the top of the center field fence that saved at least one run and, if not successful, probably would have set the Rangers back enough that they wouldn't be able to overcome. If you want to read more about Josh's great story of how he got to where he is today visit this link.

4. My wife is a hoot! Now don't tell her I am writing this but just as we sat down in our seats she was spying out the vendor for some water. She sees him, takes a $20 bill and comes back with what could have been perceived as a bottle of gold. Remember she gets hot easily and being in this summer heat is not her favorite thing. But she is a trooper for me and satisfied with her bottle of water. Now here is the fun part.

As she is drinking her water she sees another vendor who has a badge on his shirt saying water is $3.50. She looks at me and says "That can't be. I just paid the other guy $4.50 for my water." Several water vendors pass by and sure enough they are selling water for $3.50. She can't believe she was taken advantage of like that. As the evening goes on I start thinking about it and I get frustrated. "How dare he rip us off $1." I'm even conjuring up thoughts of mentioning this to management on the way out.

Then all of a sudden it hit me. I gave her a $20 bill, she kept 50 cents and gave me $16 in change. I pull it out of my pocket, count it in front of her and we both laugh and once again acknowledge that she is not and probably never will be good at math!

Influence..alive and well

What happens when a football coach goes beyond the "call of duty" and helps a young man turn his whole world around? Recently I heard the testimony of a young football coach in the Dallas area.

Up until his early teens he thought his life was pretty normal. His parents were his stability until they divorced and his world fell apart. With no spiritual guidance from either parent he stumbled, went after whatever made him feel good and was miserable inside no matter what he tried. He was on a self-destructive path. At one point his path led him to being stabbed at a local bar and even that didn't change his ways because that was all he knew.

He was pretty good at sports and made his way to a small college to play football. It was there that a coach decided to not only challenge him to be a better athlete but he made a point to share Christ with him. Even though he was not interested in "being preached to", the young man soon saw that his coach cared about him beyond the playing field. He was concerned about his spiritual condition. And this college age football player allowed God's word to change his life.

Now fast forward 15 or so years and this young athlete is now a coach himself. While volunteering with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes as a huddle coach, he is introduced to a young football player we'll call "Jacob".

Jacob had recently moved to the area from New Orleans. His childhood was nothing but normal. His father kicked him out on the streets when he was in middle school and he went to live with a cousin who was involved in drugs. Jacob also started selling drugs and eventually wound up in Dallas living with an aunt and uncle who pretty much made it clear they were providing room and board and that was it.

No love was given to Jacob who, over the span of a couple of years, lost his cousin and grandmother to drug gangs. Jacob grew up with no one showing him love and was hugely "messed up".

About a year or so ago, someone invited Jacob to the FCA huddle group that our young coach was a part of. There, Jacob heard about Jesus for the first time. He grew up with Buddhism and had no idea who Jesus was. Eventually, Jacob was drawn to the Bible and with limited knowlege asked Christ into his heart. However, his commitment level was immature and he wavered in his Christian walk.

Last year his coach invited him to an FCA sports camp where he made a serious commitment to Christ and the Christian lifestyle. He surrendered everything to Christ and asked God to use him however He saw fit. Jacob started a Bible study for his football team and is beginning to make a huge impact on campus.

I don't know what Jacob's demeanor or personality was like prior to hearing him share his testimony but, today, you can see life and peace radiating from him.

Here's my point to this long story. Years ago a coach decided to teach a young college football player more than just football. He shared the truth about God's love. That young player eventually accepted Christ and years later, as a coach himself, he influenced another young boy, someone who didn't know what love was, to turn to the God who IS love. on earth. Now this young high school player is passing that love on to his friends and who knows what will happen next.

Be encouraged that you can make a difference. Pass love along. It is worth it.

All for a way over priced cupcake!

Here is the visual for you. My wife loves cupcakes (and so do I but maybe not as much as she does) and she heard about

a place in Dallas called Sprinkles of Beverly Hills (now open in Dallas). We decided to drive from our home which is about 25 miles east of their location to see what all the commotion was about. It is a very hot Saturday and we decided to take her car which is a bit older and has no tinting on the windows. She doesn't drive it a lot so the gas tank is never full or half-full for that matter. Actually it usually has less than a quarter of a tank which helps make this story interesting.

When we arrive there is an unbelievable amount of people in line to get a "cupcake". Normally I would have taken one look at the line and said, "we are outta here". But we had made the journey, she wanted to try the precious cupcake (and I guess so did I) and here we stood. Now I don't know about you but I don't spend a lot of time researching the cost of a single cupcake. Here we stand and my wife turns to me and says the price of one cupcake. Once again, do I turn in run or be the sweet supporting husband and open my wallet? Yes, I am the sweet supporting husband (and yes I want a cupcake).

After scouring all the many options, we make our purchase and jump in the car to head back 25 miles to home with our two, yes I said two Sprinkles of Beverly Hills (now open in Dallas) cupcakes. Besides the fact that we only bought two cupcakes, now here is where the fun begins. Remember the above mentioned car? Picture it being very hot, my wife holding a precious box of two expensive cupcakes (yes this is the actual photo) and realizing after getting on the interstate with a slight log jam of vehicles, realizing the gas tank was on empty. This car takes a long time for the AC to cool so here we are burning up, on empty, on the freeway, no gas station in sight and my wife anxiously holding the two precious cupcakes (which we were saving for later after dinner) up to the air vent to keep them from melting. First of all she hates the Dallas heat, she loves her cupcakes and yes is very concerned they will melt because we are stranded on the hot asphalt of a Dallas freeway with no gas.

Well here is the end to our cupcake adventure. We find a gas station just in time, the AC finally cools, the log jam clears and we make it back to the house with cupcakes intact! Yes, I save the day!

Now what about the cupcakes you ask? Those cupcakes...............were okay. Were they the most incredulous, unbelievable tasting cupcakes I had ever eaten? No. But were they tasty? Yes. Here is my point. Were they as great as the hype? Not in my opinion. But someone, the media, the co-worker, the marketer said "you have to try a Sprinkles cupcake". We did and would I do it again? You know drive across town, in the heat, almost stuck on the interstate with no gas, pay twice the price for a cupcake than what they were really worth? Yes! And why you say? It was all worth it to see my wife sit down with her Sprinkles cupcake and coffee in my favorite chair and see the satisfaction on her face as she ate the long awaited "you've got to try the Sprinkles cupcake".

Besides, I wouldn't have this fun story to tell you about and after all, isn't it the fun, silly adventures in life that make it all worth while?