DISABLED LIST

   Two of the most dreaded words in baseball vocabulary are disabled list.  They are second only to season ending injury.  In the long 162 game Major League Baseball season, the monthly fortunes of a team are often determined by who is on the list and for how long.  Should someone go onto the disabled list in the second half of a season, even a hot contender can be headed for elimination before September.  The disabled list is no respecter of persons.  Hence, a real "hero" of the game and solid role model like Chase Utley takes an injury that puts him on "the list."  Nor a real scrapper, someone who keeps coming back from injuries and makes spectacular plays even when injured like Brandon Inge is on the wrong end of a wild pitch, breaks his hand and heads for "the list."

Few teams are immune from the list's frustrating clutches. The Oakland Athletics lead baseball with nine players on the list, followed by the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels, Texas Rangers, and the Washington Nationals.  Today the Phillies added Ryan Howard and the Braves added Martin Prado at perhaps the most critical time of the season for these two contenders in the NL East.  The addition of Armando Gallaraga and Johnny Damon in the last five days for my own beloved Detroit Tigers have pretty much put the final nail in the coffin for this season. That's four starters and another starting pitcher.  There are not enough Toledo Mudhens to make an August-September miracle occur.

   This latter observation, however, does show who benefits from the Disabled List. Minor league prospects hoping to get a shot at the Bigs are called up, sometimes with dizzying speed. Like Lucas Harrell, who woke up in Louisville KY planning to pitch for AAA Charlotte, only to find himself that night at Cellular Field in Chicago, pitching (and winning) for his parent club Chicago White Sox.

The Disabled List actually reminds me of an observation made in the Bible. "The rain falls on the just and the unjust." It doesn't seem fair, but it is reality.  In an imperfect world, injuries happen.  The best laid plans of GMs and managers are thwarted by someone else's plans or someone else's choices.  In baseball the best team doesn't always get the pennant or the World Series ring.  There are too many variables in the long season and sometimes timing is everything.

The Bible actually reminds us not to place too much emphasis on the rewards of this world, precisely for those reasons.   The real reward that comes to a person who loves and serves God in this life is the joy of knowing you did your best for God and that your best for God always blesses someone. The real reward for a Christian is in the life to come when our Heavenly Father says "well done, good and faithful servant" and we take our place in His Hall of Fame.