A Christmas Story

Several years ago, there was a woman who was part of my Gettysburg congregation whom I'll call Jane.  Jane was in the nursing home, and she wanted to die.

Now, don't misunderstand that.  She was not suicidal, or even particularly depressed.  But she could no longer see, she could not hear very well, and she could not get out of her chair.  She simply felt that, as she could no longer do anything for anyone, and as she could no longer get much enjoyment out of life here, it was time for her her life on earth to end.  It was time to move on and find out what comes next.

I would visit Jane from time to time, and I always enjoyed our visits.  One day, shortly before Christmas, she told me that her wish had been granted.  On December 27, the doctor was going to come and shut off her pacemaker, and she would be allowed to die.

Now, I was skeptical of that then, and I'm skeptical of it now.  I don't know that a doctor could turn off someone's pacemaker, and I'm not even sure it's possible without surgery.  But none of that is the point.  The point is that Jane believed this was going to happen, and so did her family.  It was not my job to offer medical advice.  It was my job to provide pastoral support and encouragement and any spiritual guidance that I could.

So came Christmas Eve, the last Christmas Eve Jane would spend on earth.  I had my usual round of Christmas Eve worship services, and when they were over, around 8:45, Mrs. A and I decided to stop and see Jane for a few minutes before we went home.  We got there, and Jane's daughter Sandra was there.  We visited for a while, and Mrs. A got tired.  And the thing about Mrs. A is that she can go for a long time, but when she hits the wall, she hits the wall.  She needed to go home, but I could see Jane did not want us to leave yet.  So Sandra told Mrs. A to go home, and that she would give me a ride home later.

More time passed.  It was 11:00 or so.  Sandra had a really bad back, and she needed to go home and rest.  But I could tell that Jane was not ready to be alone yet.  So I told Sandra to go home.  I could walk home.  It was a nice night for Christmas Eve, and it was only about nine blocks.  I'd be fine.

So, it was just Jane and me.  We talked for a while.  We were silent for a while.  We sang some Christmas songs.  We talked some more.  Finally, around 12:30, Jane said that she'd be all right, and I should go home.  We wished each other a Merry Christmas, and I left.

The temperature was in the high 20s, and a light snow was falling.  The town of Gettysburg was totally silent.  There were no cars moving.  There were no lights in any of the houses.  There was not even a dog barking.  If not for the street lights, you'd have thought it was a ghost town.  As it was, it was almost like the rapture had come and I'd been left behind.  The only sound was of the snow hitting my overcoat and my feet crunching the snow on the ground.  It was really something.

Well, December 27 came.  Jane's family was gathered around her, as she prepared to die.  And in fact, while she was sad to leave her family, she was looking forward to it.  Mrs. A and I were there, too.  The doctor came in.  He said, Jane, I don't know how to tell you this, but your pacemaker stopped working some time ago.  Your heart is beating on its own, and there's nothing I can do about it.

Jane was incredibly disappointed.  She had been looking forward to this day, when she would be released from her earthly body, and now she was going to have to remain for a while longer.  She was not happy about that at all.

Jane lived for a few more months.  I was not there for this last bit, but Sandra told me about it later.  One day, when Sandra was visiting, Jane looked up at a corner of the ceiling and said, "God, you and I are going to have a talk."  And the next day, she was gone.  Apparently, she and God had that talk, and God granted her request.

Just as an epilogue, Jane had a clock.  Every hour, a bear would come out from each corner of the clock, and they'd play a tune.  Well, some of you know about me and bears.  I often expressed how much I loved that clock.  When Jane passed, Sandra gave me that clock.  It's in my office now.  It still works, and I still love it.  And I still think of Jane once in a while, and I hope that whatever came next for her was everything she hoped it would be and more.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Happy Birthday–December 24

Joe Quinn (1862)
Henry Mathewson (1886)
Tex Burnett (1899)
Chico Garcia (1924)
Frank Taveras (1949)
John D'Acquisto (1951)
Tim Drummond (1964)
Mo Sanford (1966)
Kevin Millwood (1974)
Jamey Wright (1974)
Gregor Blanco (1983)
Andrew Romine (1985)
Miguel Castro (1994)
Fernando Romero (1994)

Henry Mathewson is the younger brother of Christy Mathewson.  He appeared in two games for the Giants in 1906 and one in 1907.

Chico Garcia played professional baseball from 1944-1970, mostly in Mexico.  He played thirty-nine games in the majors in 1954 with Baltimore.  He also was a manager in Mexico for fifteen seasons.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–December 24

Random Rewind: 2024, Game 7

CLEVELAND GUARDIANS 3, MINNESOTA TWINS 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, April 6, 2024.

Batting stars:  None.

Pitching starsJoe Ryan struck out seven in six innings, giving up three runs on five hits.  Jorge Alcala struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.  Jay Jackson struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Brayan Rocchio was 2-for-3.  David Fry hit a three-run homer, his first.  Carlos Carrasco struck out six in three innings, giving up one run on one hit and three walks.  Six relievers combined to shutout the Twins for six innings, giving up one hit and four walks and striking out eight.

The game:  The Twins scored in the bottom of the first when Carlos Carrasco drew a one-out walk and Alex Kirilloff followed with a triple.  In the second, Josh Naylor was hit by a pitch, Will Brennan singled with one out, and David Fry hit a two-out three-run homer, making it 3-1 Cleveland.

And that was it for scoring.  The Twins drew a pair of walks in the third, but the other three batters that inning struck out.  In the fifth their first two batters reach on a hit batsman and an error, but the next three couldn’t get the ball out of the infield.  In the sixth they loaded the bases with one out on two hit batsmen and a walk, but the next two batters struck out.  They opened the seventh with two walks, but a double play took them out of the inning.  A frustrating offensive game, to be sure.

WP:  Nick Sandlin (2-0).

LPJoe Ryan (0-1).

S:  Emmanuel Clase (4).

Notes:  As we’ve noted before, the 2024 Twins only had a couple of “regulars” and a number of “semi-regulars”.  Alex Kirilloff was at first base in place of Carlos SantanaWilli Castro was at third.  Jose Miranda played the most games there with 79, followed by Royce Lewis (51) and Kyle Farmer (29).  Matt Wallner was in left.  Manuel Margot played the most games there (65), followed by Trevor Larnach (52), Austin Martin (40), and Willi Castro (34).  Santana was the DH.  Larnach had the most games there (52), followed by Ryan Jeffers (34), Lewis (28), and Miranda (27).

Alex Kirilloff was batting .385.  He would finish at .201.  Carlos Correa was batting .364.  He would finish at .310.

Jorge Alcala had an ERA of 0.00.  He would finish at 3.24.  Jay Jackson had an ERA of 0.00.  He would finish at 7.52.

The Twins had just two hits, but drew seven walks and had three hit batsmen.  They stranded eleven, going 0-for-11 with men in scoring position.  They struck out fourteen times.

Alex Kirilloff hit five triples in his career.  Three of them came in 2024.

Jay Jackson appeared in twenty games for the Twins in 2024, and I have no memory of him at all.  Granted, they were all in the first part of the season, when I was still working and not able to pay close attention, but still.  He gave up runs in twelve of his twenty appearances, adding up to an ERA of 7.52.  The Twins released him in July.

Six of the Twins nine starters had batting averages below .200.  Carlos Santana (.150), Edouard Julien (.130), Willi Castro (.130), Ryan Jeffers (.111), Matt Wallner (.100), and Max Kepler (.050).  Yes, it was very early in the season, and they would do better.  Still, that’s a really rough start.

Record:  Cleveland was 7-2, in first place in the AL Central, a half game ahead of Detroit.  They would finish 92-69, in first place, 6.5 games ahead of Detroit and Kansas City.

The Twins were 3-4, in fourth place in the AL Central, three games behind Cleveland.  They would finish 82-20, in fourth place, 10.5 games behind Cleveland.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 38-44 (.463).

Happy Birthday–December 23

Mike Grady (1869)
Sam Leever (1871)
Tommy Thomas (1899)
Jabbo Andrews (1907)
Jerry Koosman (1942)
Dave May (1943)
Raul Cano (1945)
Jerry Manuel (1953)
Keith Comstock (1955)
Tim Leary (1958)
Frank Eufemia (1959)
Rick White (1968)
Brad Lidge (1976)
Jesus Colome (1977)
Victor Martinez (1978)
Cody Ross (1980)
Hanley Ramirez (1983)
Tyler Robertson (1987)
Roberto Perez (1988)
Dalton Guthrie (1995)

 Raul Cano had a long career in the Mexican League as a player, manager, and general manager.

Dalton Guthrie was drafted by Minnesota in the fortieth round in 2014 but did not sign.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–December 23