Sorry is a Sacrament

One of the year’s pleasant surprises for New England baseball fans everywhere was the Boston Red Sox winning of the 2021 American League East Division Series. It was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the home team and none of the baseball experts predicted them to be in a position to compete for a playoff spot this season.

The 2021 Red Sox team was a scrappy and likable bunch of players, fighting until the last out and often coming from behind to win games. They were underdogs all year but managed to squeak into a wildcard playoff position; where they then proceeded to defeat their arch-rival New York Yankees, and odds-on favorites Tampa Bay Rays – before finally losing in the championship series to the Houston Astros.

A lot of the credit for the team’s successful season was given to their young manager, Alex Cora. Alex had previously coached the Red Sox and was praised for leading the team to the World Series Championship in 2018. He was suspended by Major League Baseball for the entire 2020 season, however, when it was discovered that he participated in a scheme to steal the opposing team’s pitching signals back in 2017 when he was working as a bench coach for the Houston Astros.

Trying to steal your opponents signs is a tradition as old as baseball because it can give batters a significant advantage when they know which type of pitch is coming (Fastball, Curveball, Sinker, Breaking Ball, Splitter, etc.). Stealing signs is not against the rules as long as the players manage to decipher the signals using personnel that are on the field.

The most common way teams try to steal signs is for a runner on base to peek in and study the hand signals the catcher sends to his pitcher prior to every pitch and then relay the sign to his teammate standing in the batting box. If a team does not disguise their signals effectively or change them up occasionally, then the opposing team is usually able to decode them.

What made the sign-stealing scheme devised by the Houston Astros and Alex Cora against the rules is that their efforts made use of on-field technology. They used a dedicated camera in the center field stands of their home stadium that was focused directly on the opposing team’s catcher. The video was sent to a monitor near the Houston dugout where Houston players could examine it and quickly decode the signs being sent to the pitcher. Various methods were then used to communicate the decoded pitch signs to the batter, including hand signals, whistling and banging on a trash can. Alex Cora even received the stolen sign information on the smartwatch he was wearing.

Condemnation was swift when the scheme was first revealed to the public in 2019 by a traded Houston pitcher. The whole Houston Astros team was immediately branded as cheaters and the World Series championship Houston won in 2017 came to be seen as illegitimate, tarnished forever by the cheating scandal. Major League Baseball conducted a retroactive investigation in 2019 and punished all the managers it found participated in the scheme with a one year suspension.

This included Alex Cora, who had moved on to manager of the Boston Red Sox and led them to the 2018 World Series Championship. Cora paid a high price for his decision to participate in the cheating scheme. The once proud man lost his job, his sterling reputation, his dignity, and the respect of his friends, family and colleagues. He spent a year exiled away from the game he loved while he watched the media attack his character and his young children suffer because of his sullied reputation.

Despite the harsh judgement, Cora never complained. He sincerely apologized for his actions, admitted his fault in the sign stealing scheme, acknowledged that what he did was unfair to the teams they played against and accepted his punishment as well deserved. It was clear he truly felt remorse for his role in the whole affair.

I found myself becoming emotional while watching Alex Cora lovingly embrace his young 14 year old daughter Camilla in the immediate aftermath of the Red Sox victory over the Rays in the Division Series. A postgame reporter asked Alex what that moment meant to him after serving a year of suspension. Here is the video clip of that special moment courtesy of the MLB Network (along with a transcript of his remarks about his family):

“I’m happy for my family. I put them in such a tough spot last year and for them to be able to enjoy it is very gratifying, I’m very very happy for them. She [Camilla] suffered a lot and it was my fault, and sometimes we make bad decisions, and I made a horrible decision in baseball and I paid the price. But what really hurt me was for them to suffer because of my mistakes. And for her to enjoy this is very gratifying.

Alex Cora, Postgame interview, 2021 ALDS

So many people today are afraid to say they are sorry or admit they have done something wrong. They view apologizing as a sign of weakness and surrender; therefore their egos prevent them from owning up to their mistakes or attempting to repair and heal the hurt they have caused.

Still other people never develop the moral compass or sense of compassion and empathy that is necessary to understand how their actions negatively affect others. They feel entitled, believing that the world revolves around them – and they are so used to thinking about themselves that they have no capacity to think about anyone else.

That is why it was so refreshing to watch how Alex Cora handled the fall out from the cheating scandal. Here was a rare example of an authentic apology, one where Alex confessed remorse for his mistake, admitted that it was wrong, fully cooperated with the investigators, accepted his punishment and attempted to make amends with those who were most hurt.

I can’t help but contrast Alex Cora’s apology with one recently made by the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Rodgers. Aaron was widely criticized when it was discovered that he lied to reporters at a press conference when he told them he had been fully “immunized” against the COVID-19 virus. The truth that he had never received a vaccination was only revealed after he became infected with COVID and was forced to go into NFL quarantine protocols.

Rather than apologizing for lying to reporters and his failure to follow mandated COVID-19 safety protocols, Rodgers first tried to explain that when he said he was immunized he meant he had taken some (ineffective) home treatment and he didn’t actually say that he was vaccinated. He inferred that the reporters were to blame because they assumed immunized meant vaccinated.

When that explanation was roundly ridiculed, Rogers tried again by issuing a statement saying that some people might have felt misled by his comments and that he takes full responsibility for the misleading comments.

Notice in this example of a fake apology Rogers never says he is sorry for putting people at risk and he never says he regrets what he did. He apologizes only to those who “felt misled,” as if it was just their feeling, and not his own actions, that were to blame. The reality is that people felt misled because Rodgers misled them.

Rodgers elaborated further, explaining that he believed strongly in body autonomy and that he wasn’t up-front with people because he didn’t want to acquiesce to a “woke culture” or a “crazed group of individuals” who harass those who choose not to get vaccinated. With this explanation, Rodgers again shifts the blame for his wrongdoing. It is not his fault that he lied and exposed others to potential risk, – it is the fault of a group of crazy people and the toxic culture.

After this explanation was also criticized, Aaron Rodgers just refused to talk anymore about the subject. This was probably his wisest decision since bad apologies that blame the victims usually make things worse than saying nothing at all.

Looking in someone’s eyes and offering a sincere apology is not easy. Many people, like Aaron Rodgers, attempt to get by with with fake apologies which seek to avoid responsibility by making excuses, shifting blame, downplaying what was done, invalidating the hurt person, or trying to move on prematurely.

By contrast, Psychologists say that authentic apologies have most or all of the following elements:

• It is freely offered without conditions or minimizing of what was done
• It conveys that the person apologizing understands and cares about the hurt person’s experience and feelings
• It conveys remorse
• It offers a commitment to avoid repeating the hurtful behavior
• It offers to make amends or provide restitution if appropriate

During my lifetime I have given more than my share of ineffective apologies, but it is a life skill that I’m still working to improve because it is impossible for any of us to go through life without hurting someone. As Bob Dylan once sang: “I hurt easy, I just don’t show it; you can hurt someone and not even know it“. We are all human and in the daily course of our existence, no matter how hard we try, there are going to be moments ahead when we are guilty of hurting people. During those moments of our life, we should try, like Alex Cora, to put aside our egos and summon the humility and dignity that is required to repair the damaged relationship and make it stronger.

A good apology is like an offering or a gift that has a supernatural power to heal. The Catholic faith believes that admitting to our faults and seeking reconciliation with God and our neighbors is so important that they have established it as one of the Church’s seven sacred sacraments. The practice of Confession and forgiveness are referred to as a healing sacrament, one in which a spiritual power is believed to be transmitted through channels of divine grace.

During this season of thanks giving and gift giving, may you too come to experience the holy and redemptive power of the Sacrament of Sorry that is just waiting for all of us who seek it out sincerely.

To err is human; to forgive Divine

In keeping with the spirit of the Holiday Season, at this time of year I look to post uplifting topics about hope and redemption. This year I would like to write a few words in praise of Bill Buckner.

For those of you unfamiliar with Bill Buckner, he was an All-Star Major League Baseball player and one of the game’s great underrated hitters. He finished seven seasons of a 22 year career with better than a .300 average, compiled 2715 hits (more than either Joe DiMaggio or Ted Williams) and won the 1980 American League batting title.

I happened to be at a Red Sox baseball game this summer with my wife when the Public Address announcer informed the crowd that Bill Buckner had passed away. The fans respectfully cheered while the team played a montage video of Bill on the center field scoreboard, but I was thinking how unfortunate it was that Bill would probably not be remembered for his career of excellent play, but instead for the one notable error he was unlucky enough to make on the world’s biggest stage.

The stage was Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, the Boston Red Sox against the New York Mets. The Red Sox were 1 out away from clinching the title when the Mets rallied from a two run deficit.

The 36 year old Buckner – hobbled by bum ankles and knees – was playing first base for Boston when Mookie Wilson hit a weak ground ball to him – a ball he would normally field successfully 99 times out of a 100. But in this instance the ball somehow eluded Buckner’s glove and bounced past him into the outfield. The Mets scored the winning run completing a stunning come from behind victory.

The Fateful Error

The deflated Red Sox went on to lose game 7 and frustrated Sox fans everywhere – who had been suffering from a championship drought since 1918 – made Buckner the scapegoat for the team’s failure. They focused on the error; forgetting all about Buckner’s key contributions to the team during Boston’s crucial September playoff run when he carried the team, batting a stellar .340 and hitting eight home runs.

Buckner’s error became one of the most infamous plays in baseball history. Replays of the error with announcer Vin Scully shouting “It gets through Buckner!” were played constantly on the television. The headlines in the Boston newspaper screamed “Buckner Boots Big Grounder“. He was the scourge of Boston sports for a lengthy period of time.

Buckner’s career and life changed in an instant. The fans and media piled on – branding him as the guy who missed the ground ball. Buckner received death threats and one reporter allegedly called Buckner’s wife to ask her if he was contemplating suicide. In the immediate aftermath of the heartbreaking error and painful loss, I too became part of the mob cursing the name of Bill Buckner.

The taunting reminders of that muffed grounder battered Buckner so relentlessly that he eventually chose to relocate away from the rage in New England to an isolated ranch in Idaho where he could find some peace. His family, he said, “didn’t like to see how people were treating me.“

The magazine editor William Falk met Buckner ten years after the 1986 series and he remembers Buckner stiffening when he introduced himself as a reporter from New York. He could still glimpse the old hurt in Buckner’s eyes which quickly became hard and challenging. He was glad to see the reporter go.

Why was Buckner alone assigned the blame when so many others contributed as much or more to the Red Sox defeat? Buckner’s miscue marked the unkindest bounce of fate, a most improbable error sustained by a good and admired man at the worst possible moment.

As a man of faith Bill must have wondered what God had wrought – to have to live out his life being defined by the worst five seconds he ever experienced. His wife said a lesser man would have crumbled under the things that he had to endure.

Gradually Buckner learned to live with his mistake and even come to laugh at it. He wondered if it was part of some mysterious plan that could somehow be used as a life lesson for others experiencing misfortune in their life. Buckner said, “I was a little bitter over it for a long time, because I didn’t think I deserved it, … but then I’ve had a lot of people call me and thank me for giving them directions to make it through — and that’s a good thing.”

I read recently that there are at least three things it is good to forget. First is past accomplishments because out of success too often comes complacency and contentment that lull the mind. Second, it is good to forget our hurts because if we just dwell on our bitterness we will accomplish little. Finally, it is good to forget our failures because all of us make mistakes and sometimes we do not succeed even when we’ve worked hard and given something our best shot.

With time comes wisdom, compassion and perspective. Many Red Sox fans eventually came to realize how unfairly they had treated Bill Buckner. In recent years sportswriters began publishing articles about how the Boston fans had finally come to forgive him – especially after the team finally broke the 86 year championship drought by capturing World Series titles in 2004 and 2007.

In my opinion Bill Buckner never needed to seek forgiveness. He didn’t do anything wrong. He didn’t purposely miss the ball. He was trying his very best. Errors like that happen every day in baseball… and in life. It is those of us who treated Bill so uncharitably for so many years who should ask for forgiveness.

In 2008, 22 years after the fateful error, the Red Sox invited Bill Buckner back to Fenway Park for the celebration of the 2007 Championship. When he walked out to the mound to throw out the game’s ceremonial first pitch, the players and fans gave him a moving two minute standing ovation. Buckner’s eyes grew wet with tears. I remember watching the scene with tears in my eyes too – hoping that Bill had found it in his heart to forgive us.

Red Sox Fans Cheer Buckner’s Return, 2008

“Glad I came“, said Buckner after the game, “I really had to forgive, not the fans of Boston, per se, but I would have to say in my heart I had to forgive the media. For what they put me and my family through. So, you know, I’ve done that and I’m over that.”

Terry Francona, former Red Sox manager who was visiting the park that day said “I thought it was kind of a healing moment, it seemed, for a lot of people and for him, I hope”.

Bill Buckner died at the age of 69 after a long battle with Lewy body dementia – another cruel twist of fate that crippled the once great athlete with cognitive and movement problems. But he accepted it with grace.

On learning the news of Bill Buckner’s death Red Sox principal owner John Henry said: “We are proud that Bill Buckner wore a Red Sox jersey during the course of a terrific career that spanned more than two decades. His life was defined by perseverance, resilience, and an insatiable will to win. Those are the traits for which he will be most remembered.”

Mookie Wilson, the Mets baseball player who hit the fateful ground ball back in 1986, wrote: “I was saddened to hear about Bill’s death. He was a good teammate and a solid family man. We had developed a friendship that lasted well over 30 years. I felt badly for some of the things he went through. Bill was a great great baseball player whose legacy should not be defined by one play.”

Here’s wishing you all the generosity and goodwill of the Christmas season – may we all have the strength, resilience and perseverence of Bill Buckner when things in life don’t go our way and may we never forget that heavenly maxim “To err is human; to forgive, Divine“.

House of Broken Dreams…

One day while surfing through the Bob Dylan web site I came across a letter that was sent to Bob by one of his musician friends, Roland Janes. Roland was a regular sessions guitarist who worked at the legendary Sun Records in the 50’s and 60’s – helping to fuel the energy behind the early Rockabilly hits of Jerry Lee Lewis, Billy Riley, Barbara Pittman, Charlie Rich and many others.

Roland left Sun Records in 1963 but continued to work in the music industry as a producer, engineer and teacher of recording techniques. He died of a heart attack in 2013 at the age of 80 and was elected to the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.

During one of Bob Dylan’s Memphis recording sessions, Bob struck up a friendship with Roland and stayed in touch with him throughout the years. Bob was especially moved when Roland sent him a story he wrote titled “House of Broken Dreams“.

In the spirit of the Christmas season, I have replicated Roland’s beautiful story below.  I am glad to share it with all my readers – hoping that we will all follow in the footsteps of Mr Oscar and find a way to be kind, forgiving, generous and compassionate to the people who cross our path in life who need it most. I wish you all a merry and blessed Christmas.

“HOUSE OF BROKEN DREAM’S”
By: Roland Janes
Christmas 2011

In my younger day’s I fancied myself to be a fine guitar player and singer. In fact I finally caught hold of the brass ring and had a pretty good career as an all around musician, singer, and songwriter. Although I never made it to the top, I enjoyed limited fame and fortune. I rubbed shoulders, and performed on the same stage with some of the greatest.

Of all the great memories of back in the day, my most treasured is the memory of my very first professional experiences. Along with another aspiring talented young steel guitar player, we rented a sleeping room upstairs over a pawnshop called “THE HOUSE OF BROKEN DREAMS”.

The pawnshop owner was a kindly old gentleman named Mr. Oscar. Mr. Oscar catered to people of all descriptions who were down on their luck. Some were self medicating drug addicts, some were musician’s while others were simply having a run of bad luck due to various reasons, such as unemployment, under employment, broken relationships etc.

My friend and I were barely surviving by performing in a run down bar for five dollars a night, plus tips and as an extra bonus, four drinks free. Fortunately neither of us took advantage of the free drinks so we were able to garner a fairly good amount of tips.

The real story and what created such a vivid and long lasting memory for me was the sadness I felt for the folk’s who were forced to swallow their pride and come to “THE HOUSE OF BROKEN DREAMS” for some much needed relief.

I was amazed to learn from Mr. Oscar the number and description of the enormous quantity of valuable items he had in stock. A great many were musical instruments, plus televisions, typewriters, tools, jewelry including wedding rings, engagement rings and class rings. One unfortunate soul had even pawned his family bible which had been passed down from generation to generation and included his family history from many years back.

Being the wonderful man he was, Mr. Oscar held each pawned item well beyond the expiration date allowing each person every opportunity to reclaim their prized possession. Some did, while many did not. As time passed my friend and I moved on in separate directions while Mr. Oscar and his thousands of pawned items remained.

As you might imagine, kindly old Mr. Oscar was well known and respected in the music community and had at one time or another been benefactor to many who had later attained stardom. His name came up quite often during conversation among his many music friends. It seemed that Mr. Oscar had no living relatives as most of his family had been victims of the Holocaust of the 1930’s and beyond.

The many customers who patronized his “HOUSE OF BROKEN DREAMS” were his adopted family. Therefore when he passed from this life on a snowy Christmas Eve, it came as no surprise to anyone when it was discovered that on each pawn ticket he had handwritten these words, “paid in full, to be returned to their rightful owner’s“.

To no ones surprise the funeral procession stretched for miles as friends came from far and wide to pay their final respects to this gentle man. On his tombstone were written these words;

DEAR MR. OSCAR HAS VACATED HIS “HOUSE OF BROKEN DREAMS” FOR HIS BEAUTIFUL MANSION IN THE SKY

What a wonderful gesture from this kindly old gentleman. Wouldn’t it be nice if each of us could follow his lead and grant a kind deed, or forgive and forget a past wrong done to us, or ask for forgiveness for something we said or did to someone? I know that I’m going to do this, so won’t you join me and from this day forward let’s all do our best to follow this great man’s lead and practice the teachings of the good book by doing unto others as we would have them do unto us.

In closing, let me wish a Merry Christmas to one and all and to all, A GREAT LIFE.

With much love and respect;

Roland Janes

“If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan”

While attending mass on Father’s Day at our Catholic parish I noticed frenzied activity occurring in one of the pews near the front of the church. An elderly woman had passed out during the service and it wasn’t long before a crew of veteran EMT professionals arrived at the church to care for the poor woman.

The attending priest temporarily stopped the service and asked the community to pray in silence while the EMTs tended to her. I was struck while praying for the woman that she was stricken on the church’s feast day of Corpus Christi – a day where the Gospel reading for the mass includes these comforting words:

“I am the resurrection and the life. The person who believes in me, even though he dies, will live. Indeed, everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” John 11:25-26

As they wheeled the gurney holding the unconscious woman away, I wondered to myself who would take her place in the pew next Sunday if she did not recover. It is something I increasingly ask myself as I witness the gradual decline in attendance at church and the disproportionately higher numbers of older worshipers attending mass relative to the number of young families.

A 2014 Pew Forum survey on church attendance confirms what I have been witnessing with my own eyes over the last 30 years.

• One-third (31%) of Americans report being raised in a Catholic household, but only about one in five (21%) Americans currently identify as Catholic (and only 15% of  young adults aged 18-29)
• For every new Catholic convert, more than six Catholics leave the church (nearly 13 percent of all Americans now describe themselves as “former Catholics.”)
• The median age of Catholics attending mass has increased to 49 years old
• The fastest growing religious segment is the unaffiliated – those who do not claim to belong to any religion. They now comprise about 23 percent of the total population, and an even larger 39% of young adults

A small segment of the unaffiliated were labeled “rejectionists” by the survey; these are people who do not practice religion and who agree with the statement “religion is not personally important in my life and as a whole religion does more harm than good in society.”

A larger portion of the unaffiliated portray themselves instead as “seekers“; people who acknowledge the virtue of religion yet claim they are “spiritual but not religious“. The survey concluded that “The bulk of the unaffiliated are not carrying on faith traditions or seeking different types of spiritual activity. Most don’t give a lot of thought to religion and God in general”.

It is not surprising that many young people are not attracted to the Catholic religion given the patriarchal and hierarchical organization of the church, the publicity surrounding the clergy sexual abuse scandal and the negative religious treatment of gay and lesbian people.

To be honest, there have been periods of time in my own life when disillusionment with Church policies and the pressing concerns and desires that comprise daily living resulted in me drifting away from the church and becoming a non-practicing Catholic.

After these brief times away, however, I always found myself returning back to the church when I realized that the other things I was pursuing in my life did not bring me the spiritual satisfaction that my soul was seeking and that it received from belonging to a Church community. In my experience, religious faith benefits the soul as education benefits the mind.

Albert Schweitzer, the famed theologian,  philosopher, physician and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize once wrote; “If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan“. I understand the sentiment he was expressing because I did not feel right when I stopped practicing my Catholic faith. I felt like something was missing, like an orphan without a home.

With the general decline in Church attendance, how will future generations learn the moral lessons that the church instilled in me from an early age? Lessons like those below that have guided my steps and provided me with a strong foundation for my journey.

• God loves us and the purpose of our existence is to know, love, and serve Him
• All people have dignity and worth
• We are called to be compassionate to society’s  poorest and most vulnerable
• God is merciful and forgiving – we should be too
• Look for the best in people and do not judge them
• Marriage is not just a legal agreement, it is a holy sacrament
• The virtues of humility, generosity, self-restraint, patience, kindness and diligence can overcome the sins of pride, greed, immorality, envy, over-indulgence, anger, and laziness
• Great value can come from adversity and suffering
• Death is not the end

These to me are the important lessons that I learned from being raised in the Catholic faith tradition and it is the people who live according to these teachings that are the true treasures of the Catholic church.

There are other ways to learn these life lessons outside of the church. I know this is true because some of the finest people I know did not grow up in a religious household and do not belong to a religious community – yet they are still a beacon of light and goodness.

I do not know how these remarkable people came to be the way they are, but it makes me hopeful to think that basic moral values are an integral part of the human spirit and that our hearts will be restless until we seek them out and find a way to give them a home either inside or outside an established religious community.

 

So, regardless of whether you are religious, non-religious, spiritual, or skeptic; my prayer for all of you is that you find what your soul is seeking – a good home.

“I value my religion, because like a batting average, it sets a standard by which I can measure myself”

When most people think of Babe Ruth they picture a man with a larger-than-life reputation – a great baseball player with a reckless appetite for drinking and womanizing. While that reputation is well-deserved it does not accurately portray the complexities of the man and his lifelong struggles to live up to his Christian ideals.

Babe Ruth Portrait – 1920

Ruth was a born into a rough section of Baltimore in 1895; his mother died when he was a twelve and his father, who operated a saloon, didn’t have much time for the son who quickly became a tobacco-chewing, beer-drinking, swearing delinquent. Too much for his father to handle, Ruth was sent to the St Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, a reformatory and orphanage that was run by the Xaverian Christian Brothers.

It was there that Ruth received his formal education and learned the basics of the carpentry and shirt-making trades. The school’s Prefect of Discipline, Brother Matthias, who was greatly respected by the boys for his strength and fairness, tutored Ruth on the mechanics of throwing and hitting a baseball.

Ruth still got into trouble often while at the school, but he benefited from the strict discipline and moral teachings of the Catholic tradition as he remarked in later years that the biggest life lesson he took away from his time at the school was that “God was Boss“.

Ruth went on to have a legendary career and is regarded by many as the greatest baseball player of all time, setting numerous records that stood for many years. During the height of his fame, Ruth was treated as a hero and he used his money and fame to live a life of excess food, drink, and women.

He admitted to straying often during his life, but he was grateful for the religious tradition he learned as a boy which he felt always brought him back to the right path. He would attend Sunday Mass after being out carousing all night; he was an active member of the Knights of Columbus; he would visit schools, orphanages, and hospitals throughout his life; he would donate generously at fundraisers; he refused to divorce his wife and looked after her even when they were separated; and he often returned to St Mary’s to help the school and Brother Matthias.

There are some important principles that I find admirable about the way Babe Ruth approached life that can be instructive for us as we try to be our best – one day at a time.

1. Ruth never abandoned his Catholic faith and throughout his life he used the foundation of his faith as the “standard” by which he measured himself. Although he was idolized as a baseball god, he never forgot that God was the true boss. Likewise, I think that we all need a standard by which to measure ourselves. Those of us who have been raised within a religious tradition should be grateful for the moral virtues instilled in us that help direct our path and protect us from becoming selfish, self-absorbed people.
2. Ruth was not a perfect man. His faults were many – but he was not blind to them because of the moral standards that were ingrained in him. Like Ruth I think it is healthy for us to make an honest inventory of our own faults and weaknesses and acknowledge them so that we can work on correcting them.
3. Great baseball players in general, and Babe Ruth in particular, do not let past failures prevent future success. Even the greatest baseball players fail 2 out of every 3 times they step into the batter box. Elite batters have the gift of forgetting the last unsuccessful at-bat because they know that dwelling on it will rob them of the full mental concentration they need to make the most of their present opportunity. That is a lesson for all of us to be easy on ourselves during those times that we fail. Dwelling on past failures can perpetuate self-defeating behaviors and prevent us from living fully in the moment. It is good to desire perfection, but we should keep in mind that Christian tradition teaches us that God forgives us when we fail and that many of the greatest Biblical characters were reformed sinners.
4. Who knows what would have become of Babe Ruth if Brother Matthias had never taken the time to instruct him on the art of playing baseball. Small acts we do can have great consequences, both good and bad, in the lives of those we interact with each day. Ruth never forgot Brother Mathias for all that he did for him and he went out of his way throughout his life to be a positive role model to all the kids he encountered. We can each make a difference in someone’s life who is more unfortunate than us. We would do well to ask ourselves often ‘Who are you feeding with your life today?’.

So, a tip of my cap to the Babe for all the life lessons. I wish you had remained with the Red Sox throughout your career, but I am not going to dwell on that past failure…