A Life Lesson from Baseball

My prediction of a Cubs-Red Sox World Series was only half-correct. The Red Sox will face the National League champion Colorado Rockies rather the Chicago Cubs, who are indeed having a bad century, championship-wise.

The Boston Red Sox are a team full of characters and personalities like David "Big Papi" Ortiz, Curt Shilling, Manny Rodriguez and the only player I can think of who seems to be named after a children's cereal, Coco Crisp.

The Colorado Rockies, on the other hand, are an unknown commodity, at least to the world outside Colorado. Not many paid any attention to them during the regular season; I know I didn't. But there is something distinctive about these Rockies, something that sets them apart, not just from other sports teams, but many businesses in general.

A recent article in the New York Times focused on the Rockies organizational goal to choose players with "character", because, according to General Manager Dan O'Dowd, "character is an innate part of developing an organization, and to me, it is nothing more than doing the right thing at the right time when nobody's looking. Nothing more complicated than that."

It has also been implied by the media in the past that the Rockies are trying to construct a Christian based roster. O'Dowd admits his Christian faith affects his decision making but not in terms of choosing players based on their faith but rather on their integrity and moral values.

The team has a Sunday chapel service as well as a Bible study class and, while one player says this team has the highest concentration of devout Christians he has played with during his nine year, seven team career, all players on the Rockies seem comfortable with the emphasis on character, responsibility and accountability.

Now, certainly, there are a lot of people who may mock the idea of Christian values and sports intermingling. If the Colorado Rockies win the World Series will it because God was on their side and forsook the less righteous Red Sox? Personally, and this is a sad commentary on me or the world or both, I'm always a little suspicious of those who claim to have religious faith guiding their lives. Far too many times have I seen people, in all walks of life, allege themselves to be guided by Christ only to prove they have no idea what it means to be a Christian.

But if you think about it, genuine Christian based values, and I emphasize the word "genuine," are really not bad values to run an organization with, be it a baseball team or an insurance company. It would be a good way to run a country as well.

Rockies relief pitcher Jeremy Affeldt says the team is "humbled" to be where it is now and that when he looks around the clubhouse, "I don't see arrogance here, I see confidence."

I think there are a lot of Christians, especially a certain someone in the White House, who could learn a lot from the Colorado Rockies, especially when it comes to responsibility and accountability. It may even be more important for that special someone to be reminded of the Christian emphasis on humility and to understand that arrogance is vastly different from confidence.