When we moved to our current city, oh say 20+ years ago, I had never lived in a "baseball town" or the Midwest. Oh.my. I had plenty to learn about how a city loves their team and we as a country love this All-American sport. Even more to learn, though never really understand, about the rivalry between the Cards and the Cubs. This Southern gal knew she had finally settled into the Midwest when she would willingly switch on KMOX to listen while Jack Buck and Mike Shannon called the games. I knew part of my heart was here when my husband woke me early one morning to tell me of Jack's passing and the tears flowed for a man I had never met, but to whom I was grateful for helping me to feel at home in this baseball town.
Baseball has taken some hits in the last few years, some deservedly so, and as with everything else in life, baseball has and has had the personalities that sometimes threaten to eclipse the sport itself; then you have guys like this
one.
The linked article describes Pujols' work on the field, in the Dominican Republic and illustrates how Pujols calms a frightened young boy facing a dentist by scooping the young fellow up, holding him while he cried, and as the dentist says, “His confidence became the child’s.”
Admittedly though he is not perfect, and wouldn't claim it, his desire to do the good work in the places, both on and off the field, God has called him to do should encourage us all. And those of us who call ourselves Christians could use the reminder to live in the grace the One who
has lived a perfect life gives us and in doing so rest and do the work in the places He has called us to live.
