Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Amazing...don't judge a book by its cover!!!
This guy amazed me! Almost as much as the first time I heard Brit Norman sing in Church back in 2004. She made me tear up and cry. These two examples show us to not judge a book by its cover.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Ezra Taft Benson, “Beware of Pride,” Ensign, May 1989, 4
My beloved brethren and sisters, I rejoice to be with you in another glorious general conference of the Church. How grateful I am for the love, prayers, and service of the devoted members of the Church throughout the world.
May I commend you faithful Saints who are striving to flood the earth and your lives with the Book of Mormon. Not only must we move forward in a monumental manner more copies of the Book of Mormon, but we must move boldly forward into our own lives and throughout the earth more of its marvelous messages.
This sacred volume was written for us—for our day. Its scriptures are to be likened unto ourselves. (See 1 Ne. 19:23.)
The Doctrine and Covenants tells us that the Book of Mormon is the “record of a fallen people.” (D&C 20:9.) Why did they fall? This is one of the major messages of the Book of Mormon. Mormon gives the answer in the closing chapters of the book in these words: “Behold, the pride of this nation, or the people of the Nephites, hath proven their destruction.” (Moro. 8:27.) And then, lest we miss that momentous Book of Mormon message from that fallen people, the Lord warns us in the Doctrine and Covenants, “Beware of pride, lest ye become as the Nephites of old.” (D&C 38:39.)
I earnestly seek an interest in your faith and prayers as I strive to bring forth light on this Book of Mormon message—the sin of pride. This message has been weighing heavily on my soul for some time. I know the Lord wants this message delivered now.
In the premortal council, it was pride that felled Lucifer, “a son of the morning.” (2 Ne. 24:12–15; see also D&C 76:25–27; Moses 4:3.) At the end of this world, when God cleanses the earth by fire, the proud will be burned as stubble and the meek shall inherit the earth. (See 3 Ne. 12:5, 3 Ne. 25:1; D&C 29:9; JS—H 1:37; Mal. 4:1.)
Three times in the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord uses the phrase “beware of pride,” including a warning to the second elder of the Church, Oliver Cowdery, and to Emma Smith, the wife of the Prophet. (D&C 23:1; see also D&C 25:14; D&C 38:39.)
Pride is a very misunderstood sin, and many are sinning in ignorance. (See Mosiah 3:11; 3 Ne. 6:18.) In the scriptures there is no such thing as righteous pride—it is always considered a sin. Therefore, no matter how the world uses the term, we must understand how God uses the term so we can understand the language of holy writ and profit thereby. (See 2 Ne. 4:15; Mosiah 1:3–7; Alma 5:61.)
Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing.
The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means “hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.” It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us.
Pride is essentially competitive in nature. We pit our will against God’s. When we direct our pride toward God, it is in the spirit of “my will and not thine be done.” As Paul said, they “seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.” (Philip. 2:21.)
Our will in competition to God’s will allows desires, appetites, and passions to go unbridled. (See Alma 38:12; 3 Ne. 12:30.)
The proud cannot accept the authority of God giving direction to their lives. (See Hel. 12:6.) They pit their perceptions of truth against God’s great knowledge, their abilities versus God’s priesthood power, their accomplishments against His mighty works.
Our enmity toward God takes on many labels, such as rebellion, hard-heartedness, stiff-neckedness, unrepentant, puffed up, easily offended, and sign seekers. The proud wish God would agree with them. They aren’t interested in changing their opinions to agree with God’s.
Another major portion of this very prevalent sin of pride is enmity toward our fellowmen. We are tempted daily to elevate ourselves above others and diminish them. (See Hel. 6:17; D&C 58:41.)
The proud make every man their adversary by pitting their intellects, opinions, works, wealth, talents, or any other worldly measuring device against others. In the words of C. S. Lewis: “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. … It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.” (Mere Christianity, New York: Macmillan, 1952, pp. 109–10.)
In the pre-earthly council, Lucifer placed his proposal in competition with the Father’s plan as advocated by Jesus Christ. (See Moses 4:1–3.) He wished to be honored above all others. (See 2 Ne. 24:13.) In short, his prideful desire was to dethrone God. (See D&C 29:36; D&C 76:28.)
The scriptures abound with evidences of the severe consequences of the sin of pride to individuals, groups, cities, and nations. “Pride goeth before destruction.” (Prov. 16:18.) It destroyed the Nephite nation and the city of Sodom. (See Moro. 8:27; Ezek. 16:49–50.)
It was through pride that Christ was crucified. The Pharisees were wroth because Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, which was a threat to their position, and so they plotted His death. (See John 11:53.)
Saul became an enemy to David through pride. He was jealous because the crowds of Israelite women were singing that “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” (1 Sam. 18:6–8.)
The proud stand more in fear of men’s judgment than of God’s judgment. (See D&C 3:6–7; D&C 30:1–2; D&C 60:2.) “What will men think of me?” weighs heavier than “What will God think of me?”
King Noah was about to free the prophet Abinadi, but an appeal to his pride by his wicked priests sent Abinadi to the flames. (See Mosiah 17:11–12.) Herod sorrowed at the request of his wife to behead John the Baptist. But his prideful desire to look good to “them which sat with him at meat” caused him to kill John. (Matt. 14:9; see also Mark 6:26.)
Fear of men’s judgment manifests itself in competition for men’s approval. The proud love “the praise of men more than the praise of God.” (John 12:42–43.) Our motives for the things we do are where the sin is manifest. Jesus said He did “always those things” that pleased God. (John 8:29.) Would we not do well to have the pleasing of God as our motive rather than to try to elevate ourselves above our brother and outdo another?
Some prideful people are not so concerned as to whether their wages meet their needs as they are that their wages are more than someone else’s. Their reward is being a cut above the rest. This is the enmity of pride.
When pride has a hold on our hearts, we lose our independence of the world and deliver our freedoms to the bondage of men’s judgment. The world shouts louder than the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. The reasoning of men overrides the revelations of God, and the proud let go of the iron rod. (See 1 Ne. 8:19–28; 1 Ne. 11:25; 1 Ne. 15:23–24.)
Pride is a sin that can readily be seen in others but is rarely admitted in ourselves. Most of us consider pride to be a sin of those on the top, such as the rich and the learned, looking down at the rest of us. (See 2 Ne. 9:42.) There is, however, a far more common ailment among us—and that is pride from the bottom looking up. It is manifest in so many ways, such as faultfinding, gossiping, backbiting, murmuring, living beyond our means, envying, coveting, withholding gratitude and praise that might lift another, and being unforgiving and jealous.
Disobedience is essentially a prideful power struggle against someone in authority over us. It can be a parent, a priesthood leader, a teacher, or ultimately God. A proud person hates the fact that someone is above him. He thinks this lowers his position.
Selfishness is one of the more common faces of pride. “How everything affects me” is the center of all that matters—self-conceit, self-pity, worldly self-fulfillment, self-gratification, and self-seeking.
Pride results in secret combinations which are built up to get power, gain, and glory of the world. (See Hel. 7:5; Ether 8:9, 16, 22–23; Moses 5:31.) This fruit of the sin of pride, namely secret combinations, brought down both the Jaredite and the Nephite civilizations and has been and will yet be the cause of the fall of many nations. (See Ether 8:18–25.)
Another face of pride is contention. Arguments, fights, unrighteous dominion, generation gaps, divorces, spouse abuse, riots, and disturbances all fall into this category of pride.
Contention in our families drives the Spirit of the Lord away. It also drives many of our family members away. Contention ranges from a hostile spoken word to worldwide conflicts. The scriptures tell us that “only by pride cometh contention.” (Prov. 13:10; see also Prov. 28:25.)
The scriptures testify that the proud are easily offended and hold grudges. (See 1 Ne. 16:1–3.) They withhold forgiveness to keep another in their debt and to justify their injured feelings.
The proud do not receive counsel or correction easily. (See Prov. 15:10; Amos 5:10.) Defensiveness is used by them to justify and rationalize their frailties and failures. (See Matt. 3:9; John 6:30–59.)
The proud depend upon the world to tell them whether they have value or not. Their self-esteem is determined by where they are judged to be on the ladders of worldly success. They feel worthwhile as individuals if the numbers beneath them in achievement, talent, beauty, or intellect are large enough. Pride is ugly. It says, “If you succeed, I am a failure.”
If we love God, do His will, and fear His judgment more than men’s, we will have self-esteem.
Pride is a damning sin in the true sense of that word. It limits or stops progression. (See Alma 12:10–11.) The proud are not easily taught. (See 1 Ne. 15:3, 7–11.) They won’t change their minds to accept truths, because to do so implies they have been wrong.
Pride adversely affects all our relationships—our relationship with God and His servants, between husband and wife, parent and child, employer and employee, teacher and student, and all mankind. Our degree of pride determines how we treat our God and our brothers and sisters. Christ wants to lift us to where He is. Do we desire to do the same for others?
Pride fades our feelings of sonship to God and brotherhood to man. It separates and divides us by “ranks,” according to our “riches” and our “chances for learning.” (3 Ne. 6:12.) Unity is impossible for a proud people, and unless we are one we are not the Lord’s. (See Mosiah 18:21; D&C 38:27; D&C 105:2–4; Moses 7:18.)
Think of what pride has cost us in the past and what it is now costing us in our own lives, our families, and the Church.
Think of the repentance that could take place with lives changed, marriages preserved, and homes strengthened, if pride did not keep us from confessing our sins and forsaking them. (See D&C 58:43.)
Think of the many who are less active members of the Church because they were offended and their pride will not allow them to forgive or fully sup at the Lord’s table.
Think of the tens of thousands of additional young men and couples who could be on missions except for the pride that keeps them from yielding their hearts unto God. (See Alma 10:6; Hel. 3:34–35.)
Think how temple work would increase if the time spent in this godly service were more important than the many prideful pursuits that compete for our time.
Pride affects all of us at various times and in various degrees. Now you can see why the building in Lehi’s dream that represents the pride of the world was large and spacious and great was the multitude that did enter into it. (See 1 Ne. 8:26, 33; 1 Ne. 11:35–36.)
Pride is the universal sin, the great vice. Yes, pride is the universal sin, the great vice.
The antidote for pride is humility—meekness, submissiveness. (See Alma 7:23.) It is the broken heart and contrite spirit. (See 3 Ne. 9:20; 3 Ne. 12:19; D&C 20:37; D&C 59:8; Ps. 34:18; Isa. 57:15; Isa. 66:2.) As Rudyard Kipling put it so well:
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The captains and the kings depart.
Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget.
(Hymns, 1985, no. 80.)
God will have a humble people. Either we can choose to be humble or we can be compelled to be humble. Alma said, “Blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble.” (Alma 32:16.)
Let us choose to be humble.
We can choose to humble ourselves by conquering enmity toward our brothers and sisters, esteeming them as ourselves, and lifting them as high or higher than we are. (See D&C 38:24; D&C 81:5; D&C 84:106.)
We can choose to humble ourselves by receiving counsel and chastisement. (See Jacob 4:10; Hel. 15:3; D&C 63:55; D&C 101:4–5; D&C 108:1; D&C 124:61, 84; D&C 136:31; Prov. 9:8.)
We can choose to humble ourselves by forgiving those who have offended us. (See 3 Ne. 13:11, 14; D&C 64:10.)
We can choose to humble ourselves by rendering selfless service. (See Mosiah 2:16–17.)
We can choose to humble ourselves by going on missions and preaching the word that can humble others. (See Alma 4:19; Alma 31:5; Alma 48:20.)
We can choose to humble ourselves by getting to the temple more frequently.
We can choose to humble ourselves by confessing and forsaking our sins and being born of God. (See D&C 58:43; Mosiah 27:25–26; Alma 5:7–14, 49.)
We can choose to humble ourselves by loving God, submitting our will to His, and putting Him first in our lives. (See 3 Ne. 11:11; 3 Ne. 13:33; Moro. 10:32.)
Let us choose to be humble. We can do it. I know we can.
My dear brethren and sisters, we must prepare to redeem Zion. It was essentially the sin of pride that kept us from establishing Zion in the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith. It was the same sin of pride that brought consecration to an end among the Nephites. (See 4 Ne. 1:24–25.)
Pride is the great stumbling block to Zion. I repeat: Pride is the great stumbling block to Zion.
We must cleanse the inner vessel by conquering pride. (See Alma 6:2–4; Matt. 23:25–26.)
We must yield “to the enticings of the Holy Spirit,” put off the prideful “natural man,” become “a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord,” and become “as a child, submissive, meek, humble.” (Mosiah 3:19; see also Alma 13:28.)
That we may do so and go on to fulfill our divine destiny is my fervent prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
My greatest Sports Moment Gibbies HR 1988
I remember this moment like it was yesterday. I was jumping up and down in my grandmother's home in Ensenada thinking that it was the best day of my life. A ten years old's prayer was answered and I learned the magic of sports.
He could barely walk. Actually, he could barely stand without his leg wobbling and shaking. When no one was looking, back when he was in the batting cage outside the Los Angeles Dodgers' locker room during Game 1 of the 1988 World Series against the Oakland A's, he actually used a bat a few times as a walking cane, to balance himself.
His knee, his hamstring, his ankle, his whole damn leg, for goodness sakes, ached. But he was still in uniform and on the bench for the start of the World Series -- no way Kirk Gibson was going to miss this. This was his team, after all. He had signed as a free agent over the winter and declared that the Dodgers were going to win it all, that he was going to guide them to a championship, just as he did for the Detroit Tigers in 1984, when he led them to a World Series victory -- and capped it all over with a towering eighth-inning, three-run jack off Goose Gossage to turn a tense Game 5 into a rout and deliver the Tigers' first world championship since 1968.
Gibson had transformed the Dodgers into workmanlike, lunch pail-carrying winners with his leadership, grit, hustle, aggressiveness and attitude, leading them to the National League West Division title and then the N.L. pennant with a seven-game victory over the New York Mets. He was later named the N.L.'s Most Valuable Player.
It was during the N.L. Championship Series against the Mets that Gibson's MVP season came to a screeching halt, when a season's worth of poundings took their toll and knocked him from the lineup. His leg was so badly damaged that when the Dodgers won Game 7 of the NLCS, manager Tom Lasorda refused to let Gibson run to the mound for the celebration after the final out, fearing he'd injury his leg further.
As the World Series began in L.A. a few days later, the prospect of Gibson playing at all in the Series against the American League champion Oakland A's, was doubtful, let alone Game 1. When Gibson awoke that morning, he attempted to walk on his gimpy leg. He could barely stand up straight. The pain was unbearable, even for an athlete with a pain threshold as high as Gibson's. He knew he couldn't walk, let alone run, but perhaps he could swing a bat, at least giving himself the option of being able to pinch hit in a tight, late-inning spot. He took some swings in his living room. Realizing he couldn't even do that, he tossed his bat aside angrily.
THE MOMENT
Oct. 15, 1988, Game 1 of the World Series, Dodger Stadium.
Gibson is one of the first players to arrive at the stadium. He is transported from the player's parking lot to the dugout in a cart. He limps into the dugout and toward the trainer's room, where he is given injections of cortisone and xylocaine for the sprained ligament in his right knee. His leg is so bad that during the pregame festivities and player introductions, he can't even make it out to the field.
As the game begins, Gibson cannot bear not to be a part of it, so he drags himself down the dugout runway and begins swinging a bat. Adrenaline starts rushing through his body. He walks into the batting cage and hits a ball off a tee, then another, then another. His leg aches, but his adrenaline, his competitive spirit, his unflagging desire, offsets the pain.
Gibson's replacement, Mickey Hatcher, slams a home run in the bottom of the first inning, only his second homer of the entire season, and he sprints around the bases as if he is leading a Lakers' fastbreak. Elated that his replacement is the one to deliver a home run, Gibson smiles.
As the game progresses, Gibson walks back and forth, from the trainer's room to the runway to the dugout, then back to the trainer's room and clubhouse. As the Dodgers take the field in the top of the ninth inning, trailing 4-3, Gibson slips back into the trainer's room and onto the trainer's table.
"Well, the man who's been there for the Dodgers all season, Kirk Gibson, is not in the dugout and will not be here for them tonight," broadcaster Vin Scully tells a worldwide audience. Angry, Gibson slides off the trainer's table and shouts back at the speaker from which he heard Scully's voice, "Bull, I'll be there." He grabs an ice bag and straps it to his right knee in order to numb it. Then he pulls on his spikes and limps down the runway.
He tells clubhouse man Mitch Pool to inform hitting coach Ben Hines and Lasorda that he's going to get himself ready to pinch hit in the bottom of the ninth. Gibson knows the exact lineup situation: if anyone gets on base, pitcher Alejandro Pena is due up fourth. That's exactly where Gibson intends to hit.
To test his knee, Gibson hits some balls off a tee, slamming one after another into the net. His knee is numb. He feels good, confident, strong. He feels he can give the Dodgers one good swing. He hobbles back down the runway. When he gets to the dugout, Hines nudges Lasorda, who turns to see Gibson at the end of the dugout. Gibson motions to Lasorda, who walks toward Gibson. "If you want to hit [Mike] Davis for [Alfredo] Griffin, I'll be next in line," Gibson says.
The A's are retired in the top of the ninth, and as the Dodgers race off the field, out of the A's bullpen emerges Dennis Eckerlsey, baseball's best closer, who led the majors with 45 saves. This save looks like it'll be one of his easiest of the season since he is scheduled to face the bottom of the Dodgers order -- catcher Mike Scioscia, third baseman Jeff Hamilton and shortstop Alfredo Griffin.
As Gibson stands at the end of the dugout, his helmet pulled down over his eyes, up steps Scioscia. Eckersley gets him easily on an infield pop-up for the first out. As Eckersley strikes out Hamilton for the second out, Gibson angrily removes his helmet and turns his back to the field.
Down to the last out, Lasorda calls on Davis to bat for Griffin. Davis had played most of his career with the A's. After a stellar 1987 season, he became a free agent and was one of the Dodgers' key free-agent signings, along with Gibson. But Davis fell into an early-season slump and was never able to climb out of it. He was a horrendous bust, hitting just .196 during the season and .166 as a pinch hitter.
But if Davis is able to find his way on base, Gibson will hit next. As a decoy, Lasorda sends light-hitting shortstop Dave Anderson into the on-deck circle instead of Gibson. "I figured Eckersley would pitch more carefully to Davis with the right-hander on deck," Lasorda would reveal later. "If he'd seen Gibson on deck, he would have pitched Davis differently."
There is nothing in the world Davis wants to do more than to hit a game-tying homer off Eckersley, a hit that would salvage his atrocious season. But Davis does exactly what Lasorda tells him -- disrupt Eckersley's timing by stepping out of the box.
Davis immediately gets ahead in the count, prompting Hatcher to say to teammate Tracy Woodson, "Watch what happens if Davis gets on . . . Gibby's going to bat."
When Davis steps back out of the box again, Eckersley is seething. "The guy's hitting a buck ninety -- what the hell's he doing calling time?" Eckersley would say later.
Davis accomplishes his purpose: infuriating Eck and coaxing a walk from a pitcher who had allowed only nine unintentional walks all season. "That was terrible," Eckersley would say later to the media, referring to falling behind Davis 3 and 1 and then walking him on a 3-2 pitch. "A two-out walk to any hitter is inexcusable, and I don't do it very often. I tried to go right at him, but everything sailed outside. He was stepping in and out of the box a lot, disrupting my rhythm."
As Davis heads to first base, Anderson quickly turns around, slips back into the dugout and out steps Gibson. The stadium of over 56,000 people explodes in delirious joy as Scully announces, "And here comes Gibson!"
Dodger players stand agape in the dugout as Gibson hobbles to the plate. The enormous, deafening ovation takes Gibson's mind off his pain and immobility. "The fans really pumped me up," he would tell the media afterwards. "I didn't even think about the pain. I was just trying to visualize hitting."
With his adrenaline flowing, the left-handed hitting Gibson digs in. The right-handed Eckersley, with his funky, side-winding delivery, plans his approach. "I'll feed him fastballs, away," he says to himself.
The hamstring strain in Gibson's left leg and the sprained ligament in his right knee prevent him from being able to plant his legs and turn quickly enough. Even if he finds a way to get his bat on the ball, it would likely be an off-balance, awkward swing that would likely result in a weak, opposite-field fly ball.
With the crowd on its feet, Eckersley fires a fastball. Gibson takes a strong cut and fouls it off. Eckersley fires another fastball and Gibson fouls that one off too. Gibson steps out of the box, slams his right hand on helmet and gets back into the box, determined to keep the inning alive. The next offering is a hard sinker. Taking an ugly off-balance cut, Gibson hits a little slow roller up the first base line that barely rolls foul. Running down the line, Gibson looks like he has two wooden legs.
Eckersley comes back with a sweeping slider that usually comes back and catches the outside corner for strike three on lefties. But this one tails away, slightly, for ball one. "That was the key pitch because I was able to stay back and lay off it," Gibson would tell the media after on. "And it just missed the strike zone."
Gibson fouls back the next pitch in this amazing duel between two of baseball's marquee players. "The ultimate competitors," Lasorda would say. Gibson steps out of the box again and takes a deep breath as the crowd roars around him. He feels good, confident, excited. "I live for these moments," he would tell the media afterwards. "I'm an impact player, and I love the added pressure of admitting it."
The next pitch is another fastball, and Gibson lets it go as it sails in wide of the plate for ball two. It's now 2-2. As Eckersley throws his next offering, Davis takes off for second base. The pitch, a backdoor slider, just misses the outside corner for ball three. A's catcher Ron Hassey doesn't bother to throw the ball down to second base in an attempt to nail Davis for the potential final out of the game.
"Mike's stolen base was huge because all I had to think about was shortening my swing and trying to get a hit to score him," Gibson would say.
With first base open, A's manager Tony La Russa doesn't consider walking Gibson. Never put the winning run on base, he says to himself. And why even consider it with his ace closer on the mound, one pitch away from closing out a 4-3 victory?
Gibson steps out of the box again. The drama is thick. As he taps his helmet, he thinks back to what Dodgers scout Mel Didier said in his scouting report on Eckersley before the Series: At 3-and-2 against Eckersley, "look for the backdoor slider."
Gibson limps back into the box. Dodger Stadium is tense. All the fans are up on their feet. Players and coaches in both dugouts stand. Hassey crouches. He gives Eckersley the sign: backdoor slider.
"We had been throwing him all those fastballs, and I felt we could freeze him with the breaking ball," Hassey would tell the media afterwards. Hassey admits afterwards that he didn't consider altering his pitch selection because of Gibson's battered physical condition. But the fact is, Gibson is unable to catch up with Eckersley's fastball. Eckersley doesn't shake off Hassey's call for the backdoor slider. "I figured I'd just throw the nastiest slider I had," Eckersley would say.
The stadium is frozen as Eckersley wheels around and throws. As the pitch travels toward the plate, Gibson readies himself. The pitch hangs out over the outside of the plate. Using nothing but his wrists, Gibson reaches out over the plate, takes a quick cut and connects.
The ball explodes off his bat and sails through the night sky. As right fielder Jose Canseco races back, the ball keeps carrying . . . it sails over the fence and into the bleachers. As the ball disappears, the stadium explodes in celebration over the miraculous 5-4 victory, and Gibson begins his slow march around the bases. As he heads toward first base, he raises his arm and holds it aloft. He hobbles around the bases, limping heavily.
The freeze-frame moment is etched in everyone's mind forever. There are many dramatic moments in World Series history -- Bill Mazeroski's World Series winning homer in 1960, Carlton Fisk willing a ball inside the Fenway Park foul pole in 1975, Reggie Jackson's three homers on three swings in 1978, Joe Carter's Series winning homer in 1993. But this one by Gibson is . . .
"The most dramatic ever," Dodgers second baseman Steve Sax would say. "The guy was hobbling around all day, looking like a one-legged steer, and he hits it out with basically one hand."
Eckersley is his typical self after the game -- honest, candid and succinct. "It was a dumb pitch," he would say, referring to the final pitch to Gibson. "It was the one pitch he could pull for power. And he hit the dogmeat out of it. He didn't look good on any of his swings, and that's why we threw him so many fastballs away, and that's why it was stupid to throw him a breaking ball. If I throw him another fastball away and he hits it out to left center, I can almost live with that, but I can't throw him a pitch he can pull. I mean, I threw him the only pitch he could hit out."
Gibson's dramatics are so reminiscent of the heroics in the movie "The Natural" that when Gibson returns to his locker, he finds a nameplate over his locker that reads "ROY HOBBS."
Rick Weinberg
He could barely walk. Actually, he could barely stand without his leg wobbling and shaking. When no one was looking, back when he was in the batting cage outside the Los Angeles Dodgers' locker room during Game 1 of the 1988 World Series against the Oakland A's, he actually used a bat a few times as a walking cane, to balance himself.
His knee, his hamstring, his ankle, his whole damn leg, for goodness sakes, ached. But he was still in uniform and on the bench for the start of the World Series -- no way Kirk Gibson was going to miss this. This was his team, after all. He had signed as a free agent over the winter and declared that the Dodgers were going to win it all, that he was going to guide them to a championship, just as he did for the Detroit Tigers in 1984, when he led them to a World Series victory -- and capped it all over with a towering eighth-inning, three-run jack off Goose Gossage to turn a tense Game 5 into a rout and deliver the Tigers' first world championship since 1968.
Gibson had transformed the Dodgers into workmanlike, lunch pail-carrying winners with his leadership, grit, hustle, aggressiveness and attitude, leading them to the National League West Division title and then the N.L. pennant with a seven-game victory over the New York Mets. He was later named the N.L.'s Most Valuable Player.
It was during the N.L. Championship Series against the Mets that Gibson's MVP season came to a screeching halt, when a season's worth of poundings took their toll and knocked him from the lineup. His leg was so badly damaged that when the Dodgers won Game 7 of the NLCS, manager Tom Lasorda refused to let Gibson run to the mound for the celebration after the final out, fearing he'd injury his leg further.
As the World Series began in L.A. a few days later, the prospect of Gibson playing at all in the Series against the American League champion Oakland A's, was doubtful, let alone Game 1. When Gibson awoke that morning, he attempted to walk on his gimpy leg. He could barely stand up straight. The pain was unbearable, even for an athlete with a pain threshold as high as Gibson's. He knew he couldn't walk, let alone run, but perhaps he could swing a bat, at least giving himself the option of being able to pinch hit in a tight, late-inning spot. He took some swings in his living room. Realizing he couldn't even do that, he tossed his bat aside angrily.
THE MOMENT
Oct. 15, 1988, Game 1 of the World Series, Dodger Stadium.
Gibson is one of the first players to arrive at the stadium. He is transported from the player's parking lot to the dugout in a cart. He limps into the dugout and toward the trainer's room, where he is given injections of cortisone and xylocaine for the sprained ligament in his right knee. His leg is so bad that during the pregame festivities and player introductions, he can't even make it out to the field.
As the game begins, Gibson cannot bear not to be a part of it, so he drags himself down the dugout runway and begins swinging a bat. Adrenaline starts rushing through his body. He walks into the batting cage and hits a ball off a tee, then another, then another. His leg aches, but his adrenaline, his competitive spirit, his unflagging desire, offsets the pain.
Gibson's replacement, Mickey Hatcher, slams a home run in the bottom of the first inning, only his second homer of the entire season, and he sprints around the bases as if he is leading a Lakers' fastbreak. Elated that his replacement is the one to deliver a home run, Gibson smiles.
As the game progresses, Gibson walks back and forth, from the trainer's room to the runway to the dugout, then back to the trainer's room and clubhouse. As the Dodgers take the field in the top of the ninth inning, trailing 4-3, Gibson slips back into the trainer's room and onto the trainer's table.
"Well, the man who's been there for the Dodgers all season, Kirk Gibson, is not in the dugout and will not be here for them tonight," broadcaster Vin Scully tells a worldwide audience. Angry, Gibson slides off the trainer's table and shouts back at the speaker from which he heard Scully's voice, "Bull, I'll be there." He grabs an ice bag and straps it to his right knee in order to numb it. Then he pulls on his spikes and limps down the runway.
He tells clubhouse man Mitch Pool to inform hitting coach Ben Hines and Lasorda that he's going to get himself ready to pinch hit in the bottom of the ninth. Gibson knows the exact lineup situation: if anyone gets on base, pitcher Alejandro Pena is due up fourth. That's exactly where Gibson intends to hit.
To test his knee, Gibson hits some balls off a tee, slamming one after another into the net. His knee is numb. He feels good, confident, strong. He feels he can give the Dodgers one good swing. He hobbles back down the runway. When he gets to the dugout, Hines nudges Lasorda, who turns to see Gibson at the end of the dugout. Gibson motions to Lasorda, who walks toward Gibson. "If you want to hit [Mike] Davis for [Alfredo] Griffin, I'll be next in line," Gibson says.
The A's are retired in the top of the ninth, and as the Dodgers race off the field, out of the A's bullpen emerges Dennis Eckerlsey, baseball's best closer, who led the majors with 45 saves. This save looks like it'll be one of his easiest of the season since he is scheduled to face the bottom of the Dodgers order -- catcher Mike Scioscia, third baseman Jeff Hamilton and shortstop Alfredo Griffin.
As Gibson stands at the end of the dugout, his helmet pulled down over his eyes, up steps Scioscia. Eckersley gets him easily on an infield pop-up for the first out. As Eckersley strikes out Hamilton for the second out, Gibson angrily removes his helmet and turns his back to the field.
Down to the last out, Lasorda calls on Davis to bat for Griffin. Davis had played most of his career with the A's. After a stellar 1987 season, he became a free agent and was one of the Dodgers' key free-agent signings, along with Gibson. But Davis fell into an early-season slump and was never able to climb out of it. He was a horrendous bust, hitting just .196 during the season and .166 as a pinch hitter.
But if Davis is able to find his way on base, Gibson will hit next. As a decoy, Lasorda sends light-hitting shortstop Dave Anderson into the on-deck circle instead of Gibson. "I figured Eckersley would pitch more carefully to Davis with the right-hander on deck," Lasorda would reveal later. "If he'd seen Gibson on deck, he would have pitched Davis differently."
There is nothing in the world Davis wants to do more than to hit a game-tying homer off Eckersley, a hit that would salvage his atrocious season. But Davis does exactly what Lasorda tells him -- disrupt Eckersley's timing by stepping out of the box.
Davis immediately gets ahead in the count, prompting Hatcher to say to teammate Tracy Woodson, "Watch what happens if Davis gets on . . . Gibby's going to bat."
When Davis steps back out of the box again, Eckersley is seething. "The guy's hitting a buck ninety -- what the hell's he doing calling time?" Eckersley would say later.
Davis accomplishes his purpose: infuriating Eck and coaxing a walk from a pitcher who had allowed only nine unintentional walks all season. "That was terrible," Eckersley would say later to the media, referring to falling behind Davis 3 and 1 and then walking him on a 3-2 pitch. "A two-out walk to any hitter is inexcusable, and I don't do it very often. I tried to go right at him, but everything sailed outside. He was stepping in and out of the box a lot, disrupting my rhythm."
As Davis heads to first base, Anderson quickly turns around, slips back into the dugout and out steps Gibson. The stadium of over 56,000 people explodes in delirious joy as Scully announces, "And here comes Gibson!"
Dodger players stand agape in the dugout as Gibson hobbles to the plate. The enormous, deafening ovation takes Gibson's mind off his pain and immobility. "The fans really pumped me up," he would tell the media afterwards. "I didn't even think about the pain. I was just trying to visualize hitting."
With his adrenaline flowing, the left-handed hitting Gibson digs in. The right-handed Eckersley, with his funky, side-winding delivery, plans his approach. "I'll feed him fastballs, away," he says to himself.
The hamstring strain in Gibson's left leg and the sprained ligament in his right knee prevent him from being able to plant his legs and turn quickly enough. Even if he finds a way to get his bat on the ball, it would likely be an off-balance, awkward swing that would likely result in a weak, opposite-field fly ball.
With the crowd on its feet, Eckersley fires a fastball. Gibson takes a strong cut and fouls it off. Eckersley fires another fastball and Gibson fouls that one off too. Gibson steps out of the box, slams his right hand on helmet and gets back into the box, determined to keep the inning alive. The next offering is a hard sinker. Taking an ugly off-balance cut, Gibson hits a little slow roller up the first base line that barely rolls foul. Running down the line, Gibson looks like he has two wooden legs.
Eckersley comes back with a sweeping slider that usually comes back and catches the outside corner for strike three on lefties. But this one tails away, slightly, for ball one. "That was the key pitch because I was able to stay back and lay off it," Gibson would tell the media after on. "And it just missed the strike zone."
Gibson fouls back the next pitch in this amazing duel between two of baseball's marquee players. "The ultimate competitors," Lasorda would say. Gibson steps out of the box again and takes a deep breath as the crowd roars around him. He feels good, confident, excited. "I live for these moments," he would tell the media afterwards. "I'm an impact player, and I love the added pressure of admitting it."
The next pitch is another fastball, and Gibson lets it go as it sails in wide of the plate for ball two. It's now 2-2. As Eckersley throws his next offering, Davis takes off for second base. The pitch, a backdoor slider, just misses the outside corner for ball three. A's catcher Ron Hassey doesn't bother to throw the ball down to second base in an attempt to nail Davis for the potential final out of the game.
"Mike's stolen base was huge because all I had to think about was shortening my swing and trying to get a hit to score him," Gibson would say.
With first base open, A's manager Tony La Russa doesn't consider walking Gibson. Never put the winning run on base, he says to himself. And why even consider it with his ace closer on the mound, one pitch away from closing out a 4-3 victory?
Gibson steps out of the box again. The drama is thick. As he taps his helmet, he thinks back to what Dodgers scout Mel Didier said in his scouting report on Eckersley before the Series: At 3-and-2 against Eckersley, "look for the backdoor slider."
Gibson limps back into the box. Dodger Stadium is tense. All the fans are up on their feet. Players and coaches in both dugouts stand. Hassey crouches. He gives Eckersley the sign: backdoor slider.
"We had been throwing him all those fastballs, and I felt we could freeze him with the breaking ball," Hassey would tell the media afterwards. Hassey admits afterwards that he didn't consider altering his pitch selection because of Gibson's battered physical condition. But the fact is, Gibson is unable to catch up with Eckersley's fastball. Eckersley doesn't shake off Hassey's call for the backdoor slider. "I figured I'd just throw the nastiest slider I had," Eckersley would say.
The stadium is frozen as Eckersley wheels around and throws. As the pitch travels toward the plate, Gibson readies himself. The pitch hangs out over the outside of the plate. Using nothing but his wrists, Gibson reaches out over the plate, takes a quick cut and connects.
The ball explodes off his bat and sails through the night sky. As right fielder Jose Canseco races back, the ball keeps carrying . . . it sails over the fence and into the bleachers. As the ball disappears, the stadium explodes in celebration over the miraculous 5-4 victory, and Gibson begins his slow march around the bases. As he heads toward first base, he raises his arm and holds it aloft. He hobbles around the bases, limping heavily.
The freeze-frame moment is etched in everyone's mind forever. There are many dramatic moments in World Series history -- Bill Mazeroski's World Series winning homer in 1960, Carlton Fisk willing a ball inside the Fenway Park foul pole in 1975, Reggie Jackson's three homers on three swings in 1978, Joe Carter's Series winning homer in 1993. But this one by Gibson is . . .
"The most dramatic ever," Dodgers second baseman Steve Sax would say. "The guy was hobbling around all day, looking like a one-legged steer, and he hits it out with basically one hand."
Eckersley is his typical self after the game -- honest, candid and succinct. "It was a dumb pitch," he would say, referring to the final pitch to Gibson. "It was the one pitch he could pull for power. And he hit the dogmeat out of it. He didn't look good on any of his swings, and that's why we threw him so many fastballs away, and that's why it was stupid to throw him a breaking ball. If I throw him another fastball away and he hits it out to left center, I can almost live with that, but I can't throw him a pitch he can pull. I mean, I threw him the only pitch he could hit out."
Gibson's dramatics are so reminiscent of the heroics in the movie "The Natural" that when Gibson returns to his locker, he finds a nameplate over his locker that reads "ROY HOBBS."
Rick Weinberg
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Allan K. Chalmers:
The Grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery:
If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
Arundhati Roy:
Not only is another world possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman:
However, one cannot put a quart in a pint cup.
Christopher Reeve:
Once you choose hope, anything's possible.
Dale Carnegie:
Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.
Don Quixote:
Sanity may be madness but the maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be.
Dorothy Thompson:
Courage, it would seem, is nothing less than the power to overcome danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm inwardly that life with all its sorrows is good; that everything is meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that there is always tomorrow.
Dorothy Thompson:
Fear grows in darkness; if you think there's a bogeyman around, turn on the light.
Elie Wiesel:
I have learned two lessons in my life: first, there are no sufficient literary, psychological, or historical answers to human tragedy, only moral ones. Second, just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.
Elizabeth Gilbert:
The inability to open up to hope is what blocks trust, and blocked trust is the reason for blighted dreams.
Elizabeth Gilbert:
To sit patiently with a yearning that has not yet been fulfilled, and to trust that, that fulfillment will come, is quite possibly one of the most powerful "magic skills" that human beings are capable of. It has been noted by almost every ancient wisdom tradition.
Erik H. Erikson:
Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive. If life is to be sustained hope must remain, even where confidence is wounded, trust impaired.
Friedrich Nietzsche:
Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man.
George Bernard Shaw:
He who has never hoped can never despair.
Caesar and Cleopatra
Henri J. M. Nouwen:
All the great spiritual leaders in history were people of hope. Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Mary, Jesus, Rumi, Gandhi, and Dorothy Day all lived with a promise in their hearts that guided them toward the future without the need to know exactly what it would look like. Let's live with hope.
Henry Ward Beecher:
Repentance is another name for aspiration.
Jane Wagner:
A sobering thought: what if, at this very moment, I am living up to my full potential?
Kalidasa:
Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the
Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!
Lin Yutang:
Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.
Louisa May Alcott:
Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow them.
Margaret Fuller:
I accept the universe!
(Ralph Waldo Emerson's reported response: "By God, she'd better!")
Marion Zimmer Bradley:
The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair, even though they both lead to the same destination.
Martin Luther King, jr.:
If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.
The Trumpet of Conscience
Mohandas K. Gandhi:
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
Molly Ivins:
I still believe in Hope - mostly because there's no such place as Fingers Crossed, Arkansas.
Patricia Hampl:
The future is here, now, and the past is full of actual deeds, real history. Utopias hardly have the meat on their bones to sustain a people in grave times.
Pearl S. Buck:
None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.
Pearl S. Buck:
To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death.
Pearl S. Buck:
Life without idealism is empty indeed. We just hope or starve to death.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin:
The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope.
Reinhold Niebuhr:
Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime,
Therefore, we are saved by hope.
Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;
Therefore, we are saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone.
Therefore, we are saved by love.
No virtuous act is quite a virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own;
Therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.
Rita Mae Brown:
Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.
Robert Fulghum:
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge -- myth is more potent than history -- dreams are more powerful than facts -- hope always triumphs over experience -- laughter is the cure for grief -- love is stronger than death.
Robert G. Ingersoll:
Hope is the only universal liar who never loses his reputation for veracity.
Samuel Johnson:
The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure but from hope to hope.
Thomas Jefferson:
I steer my bark with hope in the head, leaving fear astern. My hopes indeed sometimes fail, but not oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy.
1816
Thomas Merton:
Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.
Will Durant:
The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds.
William Penn:
Never give out while there is hope; but hope not beyond reason, for that shows more desire than judgment.
Winston Churchill:
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Adversity Quotes
Adversity is the diamond dust that heaven polishes its jewels with.
large sailing ship moving onward - Leighton
A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner.
- Anonymous
The storm also beats on the house that is built on the rock.
- Anonymous
Don't ask for a light load, but rather ask for a strong back.
- Anonymous
Who indeed can harm you if you are committed deeply to doing what is right?
- I Peter
It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows great enthusiasms, great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who hiker on snowy mountainknow neither victory nor defeat.
- Theodore Roosevelt
What a great feeling to look back on what you've already climbed
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
- Albert Einstein
Accept challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.
-George S. Patton
Adventure is worthwhile.
-Amelia Earhart
Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
-Joshua J. Marine
Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
-William Ellery Channing
In order to be walked on, you have to be lying down.
- Brian Weir
It is not good for all our wishes to be filled; through sickness we recognize the value of health; through evil, the value of good; through hunger, the value of food; through exertion, the value of rest.
- Greek Proverb
We are like tea bags - we don't know man lying on sidewalk as people pass byour own strength until we're in hot water.
- Sister Busche
Many have encountered and overcome the challenge of homelessness
Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
- James 1:24, RSV
There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself to meet them.
- Phyllis Battome
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