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56 pages

English

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When author Ethan D. Bryan sent an email to W. P. Kinsella (author of Shoeless Joe and the basis for the film Field of Dreams) describing the scope and vision of his latest project, Kinsella replied in short time and form:"I'm very distrustful of anyone who claims to hear voices. It is the fiction writer's job to create weird characters, but I wouldn't want to know any of them in real life."-W. P. KinsellaJourney with Ethan D. Bryan, a self-proclaimed real-life "weird character," in his quest to attend the Kansas City Royals' Fantasy Camp in Surprise, Arizona, and the unforeseen twists in the journey that led Ethan to take up a new cause: to raise money and awareness for High School baseball coach Howard Bell, a Springfield, Missouri legend recently diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).A portion of all proceeds will be donated to "Help Coach Bell Strike Out ALS" Charity.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Memoir

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Publié par	eLectio Publishing
Date de parution	29 mars 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781611879810
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0150€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Striking Out ALS: A Hero’s Tale
By Ethan D. Bryan
Copyright © 2013 by Ethan D. Bryan
Cover Copyright © 2013 by Brett Kesinger and eLectio Publishing
Cover Design by Brett Kesinger

The author is hereby established as the sole holder of the copyright. Either the publisher (eLectio Publishing) or author may enforce copyrights to the fullest extent.

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold, reproduced or transmitted by any means in any form or given away to other people without specific permission from the author and/or publisher. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please return it to your eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

eLectio Publishing wishes to thank the following people who helped make these publications possible through their generous contributions:
Chuck & Connie Greever
Jay Hartman
Darrel & Kimberly Hathcock
Tamera Jahnke
Amanda Lynch
Pamela Minnick
James & Andrea Norby
Gwendolyn Pitts
Margie Quillen

Other titles from eLectio Publishing:
Tales of the Taylor: Songs that Changed the World by Ethan D. Bryan
Learning to Give in a Getting World by Marcus R. Farnell, Jr. and Jesse S. Greever
At the Back of His Mind by T. Marcus Christian
Never Prosper by T. Marcus Christian
The Wall & Beyond by Joanna Kurowska
Drunk Dialing the Divine by Amber Koneval
The Advent of the Messiah: Finding Peace, Love, Joy, and Hope in a Modern World by Tony Turner
More From Life: 99 Truths to Understand and Live By by Christopher C. Dixon
Living to Give in a Getting World by Marcus R. Farnell, Jr. and Jesse S. Greever
Anabel Unraveled by Amanda Romine Lynch
The Sons of Hull: Book One of the Advocate Trilogy by Lindsey Scholl
Absolute Positivity: An Inspirational Story of Positivity, Prayer, and People by Karl B. Sanger
Hunger by R. H. Welcker

www.eLectioPublishing.com
INTRODUCTION

God whispered me into being.
That’s how my friend Benson the Writer taught me to think in his books. 1 I’ve been whispered into being by a God who knows me fully and invites me to join his mission of bringing heaven to earth. My job, according to Benson, is to love God and others and simply be “the me that God whispered,” which, frankly, is very, very hard to do.
Some days “the whispered me” would much rather be the Alex Gordon, Rob Bell, Derek Webb, or Thomas Merton, who have also been whispered into being and seem to live such amazing stories with their entrusted gifts. The whispered me struggles and wrestles with loving neighbors and loving self. The whispered me has doubts and unanswerable questions about this journey of faith, hope, and love. The whispered me wants to be a great husband and father, but feels constrained by the enormous debt of student loans and exhausted by the ceaseless demands of daily life. The whispered me knows Jesus said something about having “life to the full” and that it had nothing to do with the latest technological innovation and everything to do with God’s kingdom come on earth (John 10:10, NIV).
If God whispered me into being then he knows full well the bizarre and eccentric ideas that tend to consume my imagination for extended periods of time. When I was five years old, I was obsessed with being Batman. I didn’t just think that Batman was “cool.” No, I wanted to be Batman; to have the car and the mask and the muscles and brains. And that was just the beginning of the ideas.
For a week in high school I wanted to fly in the Air Force. This was more or less influenced by a video game, the movie Top Gun , and a family vacation where we visited the Air Force Academy. This idea quickly passed when I learned that my vision was not good enough to actually be a pilot.
The singular idea, however, that has consumed my imagination for the majority of my breathing days on this planet is that of being a baseball player. In fourth grade, I went to a church camp and listened to a speaker tell me that my chances of playing baseball professionally were about one-half of one percent. My then-best-friend Kyle and I looked at each other and knew we were both going to make it; we were both the one-half percent. I breathed baseball, playing it every chance I got-attending camps, taking lessons, and practicing daily with Dad in the street. Whenever I traveled, whether going on vacation with my family or to youth camp with my church, I always packed my glove and a couple of baseballs. The statistics and stories of my favorite team and players filled my memory; their baseball cards decorated the bookshelves in my bedroom.
But I stopped playing baseball competitively when I was sixteen. My favorite team won the World Series only a few years prior; I watched every post-season inning. There were no more lessons, no more practices, no more trying on the latest designs in baseball cleats. Trips to the baseball card store also stopped. Two years later, as a collegiate freshman, I heard a whisper say, “Come and follow me,” and I started preparing for a life and vocation in “the ministry” without having a clue what that really meant.
I met Jamie at the Baptist Student Union at then-Southwest Missouri State University, now Missouri State University, and fell in love. During my last semester in college we married and we have faithfully shared the fullness of life through the struggles of seminary and working in churches for fifteen years. We have two incredible daughters we are trying to raise, helping them be who God whispered them to be while navigating the murky waters of social media, peer pressure, and, now, the re-birth of my crazy dream: I still want to play baseball.
We lived near Kansas City, Missouri when I first learned of the Royals’ Alumni Fantasy Camp. Fantasy Camp, for me, is a glimpse of heaven on earth. It is one week of playing baseball alongside those who played professionally, wearing a jersey with my name on the back, and being treated as a friend and peer. Fantasy Camp is hosted at the Royals’ Spring Training facility in Surprise, Arizona.
Last year, my friend Mark and I spent two days walking and watching the Royals play and practice at this beautiful baseball complex; I imagined myself being on the field with them. Ever since, I’ve been hoping for Surprise.
A few months ago my family moved back to Springfield, Missouri, after being away for fifteen years. Jamie and I left Springfield for seminary in Texas shortly after our first anniversary; we were back in time to celebrate my 38 th birthday. Most professional ballplayers retire before they reach 38, though there are a few exceptions. 2 Baseball is a grueling and grinding game. The journey of the 162-game season takes its toll on both bodies and minds. Athletes at the professional level learn to play through the pain and still perform consistently at an amazing level. As soon as we hit Springfield city limits, I started trying to find a way back into baseball. There is (at least) one major hurdle-my arm is practically dead.
For the vast majority of daily activities, my arm is perfectly fine. I can strum my guitar, wash dishes, and change the channel on the remote without any difficulties whatsoever. But over the course of everyday life, baseball muscles aren’t maintained. The circular motion of throwing, the torque on the elbow and shoulder, the flexibility of legs and hips just don’t play a part in the daily grind unless you work at Lambert’s, “Home of the Throwed Rolls .” I knew if I was ever going to make it to Surprise and enjoy my experiences there that I’d have to get back in baseball shape. And that’s where this journey starts.

1 The Echo Within, Between the Dreaming and the Coming True
2 As I write this, Roger Clemens is staging a comeback at the age of 50. He was recently clocked throwing a fastball at 87 mph. I don’t think I ever hit 70 mph when I was in my best shape.
CHAPTER ONE

My 1993 Honda Accord groaned as I turned off the engine. I grabbed my 1991 Wilson glove-the George Brett Signature model-and my sunglasses and walked toward the field at Meador Park. As soon as I passed through the gates, the voices in my head started talking faster than I could possibly comprehend.
This is so not fair. These guys are half your age and don’t know how good they’ve got it. They actually have a chance to make a career out of this game. Their skills are sharp, their bodies flexible, and even their practice uniforms look cool. You, on the other hand, still look like a nerd. Turn around and go home before anyone sees you.
Just who do you think you are and what in the world do you think you are doing? You’ve already written one book about baseball, go do something else. Do you really think you can get back in baseball shape? Do you realize just how long it’s been? Do you think anyone cares about this “project?” Do you really think that baseball can change the world? Leave now before they start laughing!
See that warning track? Remember your last at bat? It all happened right here, twenty some odd years ago. You’ve put on close to sixty pounds since then. I bet if you had that extra weight back then, they wouldn’t have caught the ball.
Thankfully, mercifully, the voices were interrupted by Coach Stratton yelling, “Ethan! Hey! Glad you could make it. Go catch up with Coach Hagler and the pitchers on the other side of the field. Have fun, man! Good luck!”
I met Coach Stratton for the first time as a sophomore in high school after a baseball game against in-town rival Glendale. I don’t know why he was at a junior varsity game (I never played varsity) but as the mandatory-good-sport-handshake-high-five line formed, he greeted me, the losing pitcher, with a handshake, loo