Overcoming the Odds

When many of us think "the history of baseball" we often think of men like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, and Ty Cobb. For me however, being the baseball historian that I am, I think of men such as Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston (all Negro League Players), and other such as Cy Young, Honus Wagner and Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown.

Allow me to tell you a little about "3 Finger". Mordecai was a farm boy who grew up in Indiana during the early 1900's. When he was 7 years old he was out on his uncle's farm when his right hand was caught in a corn shredder. His index finger was amputated just above his knuckle and his pinky and thumb were permanently damaged and rendered useless.

Now, most young men at this point in life would have thrown in the towel and thought that their baseball career was history. Not Mordecai. He developed a pitching style that was unique to him. He played 3rd base for a local team while working the coal mines as a full time job, but realized that his gift was on the pitching mound. He was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals but was later traded to the Chicago Cubs. Brown became one of the greatest pitchers in Baseball history with a lifetime ERA of 2.06 (which is great for you non baseball fans) and has the best ERA in a single season ever with 1.09. He also led the Chicago Cubs to 2 World Series Championships, which we know was A LONG TIME AGO!!!!

Brown paved the way for people such as Jim Abbot, the 1 armed pitcher for the Angels in the early 1990's. He didn't let his handicap slow him down. He overcame the odds and kept pressing on.

It's amazing to me how the Lord takes those men who are "less qualified" and uses them in HUGE ways to impact the Kingdom of God. He used 12 of the actually to start of with, and He is still in the business of doing it today. Where you think you are "weak," He is "strong." And that's the beauty of the Gospel...we're all weak in our own flesh, but in the Lord we are found strong.

Take Encouragment from this passage of Scripture today:

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10