Bunt

I really don’t want to drag the baseball metaphors out too long, but right now I live in a town that is absolutely out of control with Phillies phever. I know other towns have gotten excited about their wins, but I suspect that this town is a little over the top in general – so winning has made our city almost a caricature of itself.

One thing about the final game that I found intriguing was Jimmy Rollins’ bunt. I know that bunting is a regular part of baseball – a strategy to move a runner along the bases – and I also know that a good player does whatever the manager asks him to. That said, I kept thinking to myself, after watching Jimmy lay down a perfect bunt that moved Jenkins to third, that it must be CRAZY difficult in the middle of the World Series to give up your shot at heroism. There is a World Series MVP award, after all, and I cannot remember a time it was given to the best bunter. Home run hitters, on the other hand, have often won the coveted prize. Rollins knows he can do it, having hit clutch homeruns in other games, and the desire to just SWING BIG must have been burning inside him as he stood at the plate with 50,000 people chanting his name.

But he didn’t. Swing big, that is. He did sacrifice his turn at bat, his potential stardom, to advance the runner as the world watched.

Now, I am not martyring dear Jimmy. He’s a baseball player who wanted to win the World Series and so he did what was best for the team, the game and the city. But, man, I would have longed to swing.

I have been doing a lot of big swinging lately (though I’m not necessarily making contact). If you have never met me (those that have can agree or disagree here), I am, well, verbal. By that I mean, I freely express my perspective and I can be difficult to argue with because my mouth works on hyper-drive. I do not always think I’m right, but I think it's fun to test the limits to see if I am, which can be confusing (and a real pain in the butt) for someone trying to relate to me. Perhaps I am an acquired taste.

Lately, though, as people are trying to navigate a complicated election, I am trying to learn to bunt. Believe me, I’m no martyr, but continually trying to hit my argument out of the park may not be the right thing. As a matter of fact, leaders and communicators, far more influential than I, may want to consider some bunting too. God does not need any more MVPs.