The Sleeper Pitcher

We have two boys who play Little League baseball - two very different little boys.  One seems to have a lot of what appears to be natural talent.  He looks like a seasoned player in just his second year.

Our older boy has to work for everything he gets.  Very little seems to come naturally for him.  He is also in his second year, and is now playing with some highly skilled 11 and 12 year olds.

He has been coached in how to throw, how to catch, how to bat, and how to run bases.  While he has been very teachable in the areas of batting and base running, he has adopted his own style of throwing and catching.

Then, just the other day, I asked him to pitch to me.  His throwing form has been an issue from the beginning.  He tends to throw side armed, with his elbow tight against his body.  But as he pitched, I noticed less of that.  What I did notice was that he threw hard, without much forethought, and right down the middle.  My goodness, our son may be a natural pitcher.

While his form wasn't perfect, the way he addressed the pitch was.  He did not over-think the task.  He just heaved it, and it went straight.  But the greatest thing of all is that after every strike, I noticed a smirk on his face – something I haven’t seen since he started playing. 

I think that smirk said, “Daddy, did you see that?  That is the last thing you expected out of me, isn’t it?”  Or maybe it said, “I just threw a strike, and it had nothing to do with my perfect form.”

I have every intention of pointing out my son’s fastball to his coach.  I don’t expect his coach to allow him to pitch, but Elias has such a good rapport with him that it wouldn’t surprise me if he did.

What we have here, potentially, is a sleeper pitcher - a secret weapon.  The right fielder approaches the plate to pitch, the opposing team lets its guard down, and there you have it – strike outs - perhaps the greatest relief pitcher in the history of Little League.

One day our son may start thinking about his place in the Church.  Early on in his walk with The Lord, he will probably pick up the truth that we all have some place in that body of believers.  He will come to an understanding that believers have been set apart for God’s work. 

He may labor to figure out what that looks like, and nervously attempt to walk in that place.  He may look at the skills he has, and wonder how The Lord might use them.  He may be told that God may use those skills, or He may not use them at all.  He may walk a long time before he is confident that he has found that place, and that confidence may be shaky at times.

Or, he may not labor at all.  Instead, he may set his heart towards The Lord, and rest in the thought that He will live within him and use him as He sees fit.  If I could give a blessing to my son, it would be that he might walk with that attitude.

That blessing would free him of the temptation to worry about what he is supposed to be doing for God. Instead of a preoccupation with finding that, he will fall into place in The Body of Christ,  just as he fell into pitching.  One day he will be doing something, and boom, he will start throwing strikes out of the blue.  And he will get a smile on his face, and say to himself, “This is what I'm supposed to be doing”

Footnote: Elias pitched his first inning on 6/1/12.

This story first appeared in the May 2012 edition of the Manna. http://readthemanna.org.