Don’t let too many trips around the sun keep you from playing the game that you love. Bartolo Colón was still dealing from the rubber at 45 years old. Ichiro spotted 45 years too when he racked his bat for the last time. Nolan Ryan was 46 when he spit his last fire ball. Hall of Famer Phil Niekro was 48 when he untied his laces to rest those starting-to-wrinkle feet. Back then, they were made different, supposedly, as our grandparents say. Hoyt Wilhelm was one year shy of 50 when he said “that’s enough”. Jim O’Rourke was 54 and still running down balls in the outfield like a deer. But the oldest ever, to play Major League Baseball, was back in 1965.
Satchel Paige treated fans to a piece of history and made an appearance on September 25, 1965 with the Kansas City Athletics, against the hard-hitting Boston Red Sox. It had been 12 years since he’d toed the bump in the majors, and at 59 years old, he proved to the baseball world that the old guys are not to be messed with.
Like Milt Mason and Marvin Milks grand idea to boost fan attendance, like we read yesterday, Kansas City Athletics owner Charlie Finley partnered with ‘ol Satchel Paige. Paige was a Negro League star – an absolute icon in Kansas – and would bring out the fans in droves for sure. $3,500 helped Charlie pull it off.
Paige showed his old-man card when, before the game, he sat in the bullpen in a rocking chair while a nurse rubbed liniment into his pitching arm for the entire crowd to see. When he came into to pitch, the A’s had made an early lead to relieve a little pressure. Billy Bryan, the Kansas City catcher, described Paige’s pitching this way: “He threw slow, then he threw slower, and he just kept getting outs.” Making a little bit of fun of Father Time, Paige pitched three scoreless innings. He gave up one hit and no walks, proving that we blossom with age.
Age is just a number. Ask Methuselah – who was pushing 1,000 according to the Book of Genesis. He wins, if it’s a competition. And we know you like competition if you’re around our baseball ministry.
Even if your old, is God done with you? God sure wasn’t done with Abraham and Sarah. When they were giving up on having a son together, God blessed them. In Genesis 17:16, God said to Abraham, “I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”
That’s when Abraham lost it! He belly-laughed so hard that he fell on the floor and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”
When Sarah gave birth to this son, she laughed out loud too. She said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” They named him Isaac, which means, “he will laugh, he will rejoice”. God had a great time performing this miracle.
They both rejoiced – because God fulfilled his word in an amusing, hilarious, creative, but amazing way. God fulfilled the word he gave Abraham years before, when he took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars – if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be.”
As Satchel Paige walked off the field for the last time, the lights in the stadium were then turned off, matches were lit like the stars, and the 10,000 in the stands sang “The Old Gray Mare”, led by the PA announcer.
The old gray mare, she kicked on the whiffletree,
Kicked on the whiffletree, kicked on the whiffletree,
The old gray mare, she kicked on the whiffletree,
Many long years ago.
If you’re unfamiliar with force-distributing mechanisms (which you probably aren’t), a whiffletree is what hooks horses together while pulling the plow. The old mare still had the energy to get it done – and the same with Abraham and Satchel. They still had what it took, when they could have been just fine feeling the afternoon breeze, snoring, and waiting for the mail-truck in their front porch rocking chairs.
Let this be a lesson. If you’re still breathing, God ain’t done with you yet. He is faithful.
Prayer Prompt
Father, it doesn’t matter what our limitations are, you can blow them away. That’s just what you do. Let me believe that today. No matter what it is – if it’s age or some other self-imposed limitation – don’t let me put what you can do in a box when it comes to me. I fully submit to your will for my life today. You can do anything. Thank you for the many examples in scripture where you do unimaginable things. We give you all the glory.