Alright:

Image from:
Wikipedia

Bear with me while I depart JUST a bit from the standard Wisdom and Life column here.  I think you’ll see this come full circle.  I’m a HUGE Boston Sports fan having been born wearing Red Sox.  To watch the team being dismantled last week at the Thursday trade deadline was surprising even as I knew it had to be done.  Pitching ace, Jon Lester said all the right things during the tumultuous weeks leading up to last Thursday.  In fact every player traded said the right things.  I resigned myself to the fact that Lester was gone even before the Thursday deadline.  What came as more of a surprise initially, was the John Lackey trade.  However, after I had some time to consider that as well I realized that trade was most likely for the best as well.

With Jon Lester gone, would John Lackey really want to continue pitching for Boston?  There was also rumblings that Lackey wouldn’t play in 2015.  After considering everything that happened with the Red Sox in the aftermath of the Thursday Trade deadline, I think the team is set up well for the future.

When The Red Sox collapsed in 2011 amidst the beer and chicken stories, John Lackey became the scapegoat.  He was seen as one of the ringleaders.  His reputation was tarnished.  Fans didn’t believe his heart was in the game anymore.  He underperformed.  Lackey was booed constantly.  What the Boston fans didn’t know at the time was that Lackey was hurt when he pitched and played poorly.  He lost a year to Tommy John surgery.  When he returned in 2013, there were no expectations placed on him.  As with the entire team no one expected Boston or Lackey to do much as they had just come off one of their worst seasons.  That’s why it came as such a shock when they came out and won so quickly so early and so often.

John Lackey was one reason why.  He seemed to have turned himself around.  With each win he notched, his previously tarnished reputation got a bit more polished, until the 2013 World Series when John Lackey was fully redeemed after he clinched The World Series for Boston.  The most enduring scene from that last baseball game of 2013 was watching the pitcher who became a whipping boy for all that was wrong with Boston, walked of the mound and tipped his hat to the fans.  Not just the fact that he tipped his hat, the reception he received upon doing so came as the entire team completed a miraculous turn around as did John Lackey himself.

John Lackey’s redemption should be an example that regardless of where you are today, there is always tomorrow.

John Lackey’s redemption should be an example of not to judge someone.  For we have no idea of what is happening in someone’s life to cause them to misstep.

Touching All the Bases sums up Lackey’s time in Boston with the following:
2. Threw this out there yesterday during the madness …
… and was pleasantly surprised with the overwhelming response in the affirmative. I’d say 95 percent of the respondents said, yeah, of course the five-year, $82.5 million deal Lackey signed before the 2010 season was worth it, for one reason: He was crucial in winning the World Series last year, and that trumps everything. Who would have thought, even a year ago, that Lackey, that avid beer-and-chicken connoisseur who missed one full season and was historically brutal in another, would be held in such high regard upon his departure? And yet, after what he did last year, he’s earned the admiration. I’m just surprised such a majority feels the same way.

Remeber:
There is ALWAYS tomorrow!

Be Happy!  Be Well!  Be Positive!
Blessings to you.
—
Chris

Once you realize that life is eternal,
That our souls our eternal,
That we return to light and physical over and over;

We then lose all our distress
We then lose all our fear of dying.  For there truly is no end.