It’s my favorite time of year! March Madness is heating up. It’s Spring Training, which means Opening Day is right around the corner. And this year we’re getting an added bonus with the World Baseball Classic. How ’bout those Dutch!
Anyway, I’m way behind in my posting (I have a draft about the nature of “church” that’s three weeks old) but I can easily talk about baseball as a filler. Every season I find a baseball-related book to read during the season (ok, I’ve really only done that a couple of times, but I want it to become a tradition). Last season was Crazy ’08 by Cait Murphy about the 1908 season, arguably the best season in the history of baseball. I also posted last season a list of books I want to get to. But I just got my monthly Family Christian catalogue and saw this book about Josh Hamilton.
If you haven’t heard of him, he’s a phenom for the Texas Rangers who had an incredible season last year and lit up the Home Run Derby. What’s so special about that, you ask? Well I said he’s a phenom, but he’s not young. In fact he’s soon to be 28 (middle aged in baseball years). What took him so long to get to The Show was a complete derailment of his life by his addiction to drugs and his subsequent redemption through his faith in Jesus Christ. Given that background, as soon as I saw this it moved right to the top of my must read list. I love this kid and cheer hard for him. Sorry Free Byrd, but you’re going to have to wait until next season.