Had to share a baseball story:
During the spring of 2005, I was teaching full time at Elder High School here in Cincinnati. Located as they are on Cincinnati's West Side and the West Side being a traditional hot bed of baseball (Pete Rose was born and raised in the neighborhood,) baseball has always been Elder's Sport of choice. They have won a state championship at least once a decade since at least the 1950's.
Well, the 2005 team was carrying on the tradition quite well, running the season up until the last game. As I was the only priest full time, they asked me to celebrate Mass for them before their last game, which I was happy to do, and they LOST! I didn't blame it on the chaplain, but the coach did!
Next week, start of the playoffs, Mass again. Guess what?!?! They nearly lost! They played horrible for the first few innings before pulling it out late. WHEW!
Well, they are running at full steam through the playoffs, heading to the state Final Four, and the Athletic Director approaches me at graduation: "Umm, Father, you got something next Tuesday?" "Yeah, [but I can't remember what it is now.]" AD: "Oh, good, the baseball team wanted to have Mass again and they asked another priest." Me: "Considering their performance after the last two Masses I had with them, I wouldn't think that they'd want me!" AD: "Well......"
They won State that year in a landslide.
I still don't blame it on the Chaplain.
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1 comment:
maybe it is something akin to these highly regarded and rewarded players - once they have their contract in hand, their performance suffers - there is no incentive to pray hard enough to get the job done - ooops: i meant to 'play' hard enough ... oh, well ;-)
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