One of my favorite movies is the baseball story For the Love of the Game which starred Kevin Costner. This is the film rendition of Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Perfect Game. Both the book and the movie tell the story of “Billy Chapel” a pitcher who played 19 seasons with the same team, in the movie the Detroit Tigers. The story focuses on the last game of the season in which Chapel is to start. The game for his team is meaningless, they will not be going to the playoffs. In fact the long time owner who signed Chapel out of high school is about to sell the team.
The book and the movie present a tapestry of the pitcher’s life in between pitches. Unlike most baseball films this focus’s not on a season, but a game, a single game. Woven in this rich tapestry of this game are the lives of several people. A manager who has a wife with cancer, a catcher who is linked to Chapel as “his” catcher. A former love who has drifted back into his life, a former team mate now playing for the other team and the son of a former team mate.
The story is built around the last game that Billy Chapel will pitch. He’s old. He has had a mediocore or for him a bad season. His all star days are past. His dad who taught him the game and witnessed his greatest moments is dead. It is a story that could end like so many stories in sadness or despair. Instead it is the story of triumph. It is the story of how in spite of a whirl of emotions and a lot of pain from past injuries he triumphs. He does so against an opponent that is going to the playoffs, the always dangerous Yankees in the venerable Yankee Stadium. Chapel pitches a perfect game against the odds. Supporting players who had failed during the season make stellar plays. The team which had nothing to look forward to celebrates one of the rarest of human events, a Major League perfect game. Not just a “no-hitter” which I have been specially graced by the Deity Herself to see in person, but a perfect game of which only 17 have been thrown. Perfect games are unforgettable and this story gets it right. The game itself is a story of redemption, in life, love and the pusuit of excellence.
The story of Billy Chapel is one of finishing well. So many people start their lives full of promise and somewhere along the way give up. For whatever reason they stop living, stop striving for excellence and forget about love, life and friendship. They forget what loyalty means. They have lost their love and passion and simply go through the motions of existance. In the military we have a slang term called the “ROAD program.” It means “retired on active duty. These are the guys who have stopped trying, they know that short of committing a criminal act they can retire. They go through the motions. There are these kind of folks everywhere, not just the military. Somewhere, somehow they have given up. I don’t want to do that. I want my last game to be my best.
Billy Chapel is the epitome of a man who gives his all in what he knows will be his final game, a game that for everyone else but him is meaningless. However in that game everyone finds meaning. As he pitches and the tension builds, those who had just been along for the ride get caught up in the magic. His manager, his journeyman catcher “Gus,” his team mates, and even the opposing players and the hostile Yankee fans. People who had given up find inspiration and hope. Billy Chapel creates magic on the mound which in that moment of time makes life right. Sure it is just a novel, it is just a film, but it is life.
I find the story of Billy Chapel in The Perfect Game to be compelling. I love baseball and for me the story of someone at the tail end of their career achieving the next to impossible is inspiring. I find inspiration in other old ball players who keep doing well. Jamie Moyer of the Phillies is one of those guys who inspire me. I could well be finishing my career in the next few years. I want my time in the Navy to matter in my last few years. If I get promoted and remain a few more, that is okay, but even then I want to finish well. When I’m done with that I hope that God Herself will give me the grace to continue to strive for excellence in serving Her people as a priest. I never want to be on the ROAD program even if I live to be 90. I want my last years, be they a military career, or my life to be my best. I want to finish well. Peace, Steve+
Note: As I wrote this and thought of the book and movie I was having waves of emotion which occasionally brought tears to my eyes. There is something that hooks me in this and I know it. Part is the magic of baseball. Part is the story itself. In a few days baseball begins again. I’ll watch the Orioles and Nationals play an exhibition at Harbor Park. Today I got my season tickets for the Norfolk Tides. In every game I’ll see something new, I’ll find something to ponder and I’ll find inspiration.
The Inglorius Padre Steve's World 