Grand Slam

The Yankee’s first baseman Mark Teixeira is a great fielder and a monster with a bat. Just before the season began, he was injured. He finally got back from rehab, and everybody, including Teixeira himself said he didn’t expect much as far as hitting for a while. Last night in the third inning with the bases loaded, he hit a home run. Grand Slam! It doesn’t get much better than that.



Grand slams are combinations of so many small circumstances. Three people have to get on base. And then the ball, thrown at ninety miles an hour, has to get slammed three or four hundred feet, inbounds. That’s just this side of a miracle.



There are so many times when we load ourselves with expectations, ‘We always did it that way before,’ or ‘We never did it that way before,’ or any combination of should’s and ought’s that demand that we be something or not be something else. The terrible burden of these unseen demands is that we give away the present to some other tense, some other place. It’s almost impossible to be effective on any level when we’re not living in the here and now with all its limitations and possibilities.



Humility is more than not blowing your own horn. Humility is a deep sense of honesty. It rests in strength, not in its denial. If you meet a humble person, you meet a capable person, because they’re living in the now, able to make something of what presents itself. It is a sign that there is wisdom there.



So, Teixeira’s a wise guy. He also hit another home run tonight; only two guys were on base this time. I’d say he’s catching up just fine.