Thomas Boswell, sports columnist for the Washington Post, takes an excellent look at yesterday’s winning Phillies pitcher and childhood Phillies fan, 44 year-old Jamie Moyer, the player whose experience, tenacity, and sagacity helped tame this young Phillies pitching staff and provide much-needed leadership down the stretch.
Moyer, who skipped school as a kid to watch his hometown Phillies parade down Broad Street following their victory in the 1980 World Series, is the kind of guy who bridges baseball generations. If he chooses, he’ll be a big league pitching coach the day he hangs up his spikes, sharing his wisdom with pitchers who weren’t even born when he made his debut 21 years ago. Yes, Moyer has an appreciation for the generations of baseball. Speaking of baseball greats of the past, Moyers said,
"Sometimes, you wish you could snap your fingers, go back in time, and
play a game against them or be their teammate. . . . But, in a
way, you don’t, because you are extending who they are into the
present. It’s kind of cool to be one of the steppingstones in that
progression."
I don’t know if Jamie Moyer is a religious man, but the same could be said about the church. Surely there are times I wish I could snap my fingers, go back in time, and pray alongside Luther or Augustine or Francis or Jesus himself or the countless unnamed saints of generations gone by. But, with Moyer, I wonder if my present location doesn’t have its own benefits. We – the church today – we are extending into the present the life and witness of the saints of old. We are steppingstones in the progression of the church, a path that was begun by our ancestors in the faith and which will continue with our children’s children, and beyond.
As we proclaimed at our youth retreat this weekend, echoing Psalm 148 and Luke 19:40, even the stones shout out in praise of God. Yes, we are steppingstones in God’s pathway, proclaiming God’s praise along a royal highway reaching from the dawn of creation to the coming Kingdom of God. And that, to use Jamie Moyer’s words, is kind of cool.
The Lutheran Zephyr 
Wow! That’s a fantastic riff on a baseball story. I like the steppingstone idea a lot. And “extending who they are into the present” — that’s good.
BTW, have you seen the Mariners’ Jamie Moyer tribute commercial? It’s really funny. With any luck (I don’t really know how YouTube manages its links), you can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fVdETLnA9E
As an Oriole fan transplanted into the Pacific Northwest, I’ve seen an awful lot of Moyer. He’s a good pitcher, but I’ve never been comfortable trusting the fate of my team to a “crafty lefty”.