Foundation Stones

   This is Derek Jeter’s last year as a professional baseball player.  This is either of no interest to you or something you were already aware of.  He has played short stop (don’t worry about what that means) for the New York Yankees, won awards for his defensive play, set records for offense, been captain of the team, and in the process set an unusual example of what we would like a sportsman to be.

   Once in a while they show highlights from his career.  There’s one scene of him sprinting after a foul ball across the third base line.  He caught it, but had no chance to slow down.  He ended up diving head first into the stands, fans doing their best to catch him, coming up with a bloody nose and a shiner.  He got a standing ovation. 

   These guys are the elite.  They get paid big bucks to play a game.  They are entertainers, right?  Well, yes and no.  Their games are about working as a team, facing opponents together, backing up each other, putting themselves on the line, their talents, their energy, their commitment to the game, to their team to win together.  In baseball one of the strategies is even called a sacrifice fly.  So, cynical pronouncements aside, the games represent something about us, ideals that we use as foundations for our society. 

   Games are a lot more than amusements.  The games we play and how we play them say an awful lot about who we are and who we aspire to become.  And the people who are icons for us say an awful lot about what we celebrate.  Winning is important in whatever context it happens.  It speaks of excellence and power.  But when a winner also plays ‘the game,’ whatever that game happens to be with a sense of personal humility and integrity, they become more than entertainers.  Mariano Rivera, a pitcher for the same team just retired, a star in his own right said recently in an interview that he wanted everything he did to point to God, whether he won or lost, he wanted everything he did to demonstrate his faith.  Sounds like more than an entertainer to me, more like a stone for a foundation.

   Go team.