Scoring the Game

On September 26, 1997 Philadelphia Phillies star, right-handed pitcher, Curt Schilling, broke the single season strikeout record for the Phillies (314) in the first inning against the Florida Marlins' center-fielder Devon White.  The reason I know this is not because I have a tremendous memory but because I wrote it down on my score card that night.  I have scored nearly every game that attended as an adult.  I must admit that I slacked off this past year because my file cabinets are full and I really have no place to put them any more.  But this post is not about my messy office but about why I score baseball games.

I have a hard time paying attention during baseball games.  The truth is out.  I love baseball, and especially the Phillies, but when I'm at a game I can get easily distracted by everything going on around me.  There are folks to talk to, thousands of people to watch (I'm a people watcher because people do weird things) and then there's that Phanatic running all over the place.  If I'm not careful I could miss some spectacular plays, which I paid good money to see, so by scoring  the game I make myself focus on every pitch and every play.

This same principle works in many other applications, like taking notes during preaching.  I have drawers full of notebooks with sermon outlines because when I have the opportunity to hear the Word of God preached I don't want to miss anything.  And you all know that there are many distractions during preaching services, so I force myself to focus.  It works for me.

By the way, there were 18,007 in attendance that night in Philly, left-fielder Billy McMillon made a spectacular diving catch against Florida's Moises Alou to end the 7th inning, and Curt Schilling was ejected from the game in the top of the 8th for hitting catcher, Charles Johnson, with a pitch.  Now think about the score cards that I've accumulated in eight years from sitting under the preaching of Pastor Leon Gray at Berean Baptist Church.  I'm glad I paid attention.


Chuck