July 5th 2011
As I sit here at work today, I can't help but to think back on yesterday and how cool lunch was. Over the weekend PJ gave me a call and asked if I would be interested in attending a FCA lunch with the Minnesota Twins and Tampa Bay Rays. PJ said he'd give me a pair for being a loyal partner to him each month. The one thing that he mentioned was that he'd prefer that the ticket went to a pre-christian. As I thought about it, I figured I'd ask Mark Scott. I know that he loves baseball (like I do) and I wasn't sure where his spiritual journey has taken him. As yesterday approached I received a second phone call from PJ letting me know that another person cancelled and that he would give me a 3rd ticket. I remembered the previous stipulation, so I asked CDH, but didn't hear a response from him. Next I asked Finley, but he had a meeting with his VP and couldn't get out of it. Finally I asked Jon Biermann and he was excited about attending.
Lunch was held at the Farmers Market Annex, about 2 blocks away from Target Field. There were probably 50 people in attendance excluding players. Out of the 50 maybe a 12-18 were kids that were so star struck they didn't realize what was going on (reminds me of a similiar situation in my life). We had a wonderful catered lunch, fruit spread, salad (which I some how forgot to add to my plate), brats, dogs, burgers, corn on the cob and cookies. I chose the burger, which I immediately regretted after I saw the dogs and the Oatmeal cookie, which was super buttery and delish.
After the meal the presentation began. A former Minnesota FCA leader Dukes, now working press with the Rays, started off he talked about his travel from MN to FL and how he received his job with the Rays. Dukes than introduced Justin Ruggiano who talked about his journey to MLB and how he has seen God direct his life. He talked about how he felt when the Rays dropped him from the 40 man roster and how he didn't know where his life was headed after 6 years in AAA. At the end Dukes shared that was the first time that Justin publically shared his testimony. Duke than brought up Ben Zobriest to share. Ben was a very elequent speaker. He talked about how he was a PK (pastor's kid) and how he grew up in the church, but that was something he did, not something he was pursuiting. He talked about how he accepted Christ and began living his life for him. He shared that accepting Christ was way better than going to the All-Star game or playing in the World Series. Overall, I have a lot more respect for Ben and I know that I will be cheering for him (accept when the game is on the line vs the Twins) just like I cheer for Josh Hamilton.
Next they introduced the Minnesota Twins team chaplin. He seemed like a good guy, honestly I was a little unimpressed as I thought that was something that I could easily do, but just don't know the route to it. He introduced Matt Capps and interviewed him Matt talked about his faith journey and how he was brought up in a Christian home, but he focused a lot of his time talking about the ups and downs of his carrer on how he went from low A ball to the majors in one year, but then how the Pirates decided to non-tender him and how he had to wait until Christmas to sign on with the Nationals. That season he went to the All-Star game and was the winning pitcher. Later that year he talked on how he was excited to be joining the Twins in a mid-season trade and how things have had the ups and down in Minnesota (guessing the recent string of 4 unsuccessful save opportunites would be a low he is currently experiencing).
Finally, Scott Baker came up and stated talking about his faith. He talked about how he asks each team chaplin who the believers are and how Baker likes to know because he likes cheering for other Christians as well. Baker talked directly at the kids 12 and younger and finished with a prayer of protection over each of them and how he prays that they will each find Christ and accept him as his personal savior. That concluded the presentation, I thanked PJ for the opportunity to attend and how awesome the 1.5 hours were.
As we were leaving, we walked pasted the table the players were sitting at and saw Ben just sitting there. I walked up to him, shook his hand and thanked him for sharing and being a great example out there. I told him that I was a new fan of his and that I will be cheering for him. I then walked up to Capps and thanked him for sharing. I told him that we were in Arizona and watched the Twins and how he signed Steph's ticket stub and how we got a picture of Steph with her signed ticket stub. He thought that was pretty cool. Finally we had the opportunity to say hi to Baker. I told him how I was a his near perfect game in 2008 and how he has always been one of my favorites and then I found out that he was a man of faith and how I became an even larger fan of his. I also told him that we've watch the Twins play in several different stadiums.
This was definitely one of the coolest lunches that I was ever able to attend. Praise God that I am blessed and highly favored and cool things like that happen to me all the time.
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