Deja Boom!

Most people that know me, know that I have a passion, okay maybe an obsession with the St. Louis Cardinals.  I grew up in Missouri and spent almost every night during the summer either watching a Cardinals game on television or listening to Jack Buck and Mike Shannon on KMOX radio call a Cardinals game.  That was life for me growing up!  I lived, breathed, ate Cardinals baseball.  I remember being upset as a 7 or 8 year old when Whitey Herzog broke up the '82 World Series team by trading away Keith Hernandez for Neil Allen.  Most people would be like Neil who?  Keith who?  But that was my life.  I still love baseball and especially the Cardinals.  So much so that my son has been indoctrinated/brainwashed into supporting the Cardinals himself.  Some of the first English he learned when we got him home to the states was 'Ewww....Cubs!'  Why is all this important?  Well it's because as I was feeding my need/addiction to Cardinals baseball by watching their game against the Cubs on Sunday afternoon an interesting thing happened.  Time for a disclaimer - if you don't like baseball just hang with me I will get to the point and its not about baseball.  Ok, back to the game.  The Cardinals had already taken won the first two games of the series over the Cubs 6-1 on Friday and 5-4 on Saturday on an Albert Pujols walk-off homer in the 12th inning.  The Cubs had walked Albert a couple innings earlier with runners on to avoid him ending the game, but pitched to him with two and no one on in the 12th when he hit the homer to end the game. On Sunday, the Cubs went into the bottom of the 9th up 2-1 and had two outs and one on when Ryan Theriot came to the plate. After getting ahead on Theriot and being just one strike away from winning the game, Carlos Marmol, the Cubs closer hung a slider to Theriot that he stroked for a double and tied the game.  The next batter got out but the game was now going into extra innings for the second straight day.  After setting the Cubs down 1-2-3 in the top of the 10th the Cardinals came to bat and who was leading off but the previous days hero, Albert Pujols.  Mike Quade the Cubs manager had stated a day earlier in his postgame comments that he would have to consider and most likely would intentionally walk Pujols anytime he faced him with the game on the line in the future.  Well here it was, not even 24 hours later and that situation was upon Quade and the Cubs.  Yet for some reason, Quade decided to pitch to Pujols and on a 2-1 slider, Albert deposited the pitch into the centerfield bleachers, completing the Cardinals comeback, weekend 3 game sweep and an unlikely back-to-back walkoff homer games.  Pujols finished the weekend with 4 homers in 3 games against the Cubs, has been named the NL Player of the Week and appears to have reclaimed his stroke that for the first two months of the season has only been seen in short glimpses during games.  Now you ask again, why is this important?  Well, after I came back down to Earth from the excitement of my beloved Cardinals sweeping the rival Cubs and in the fashion that they did, I began to think to myself, why did Quade pitch to Albert.  Was it pride?  Statistically was it the smartest move?  (What!? even I am not dumb enough to believe that was the case!) Did Quade have a sudden case of amnesia and forget what had happened just the day before and already 3 times in the last 3 days!  I can't answer for Mike Quade or the Cubs about why they pitched to Albert Pujols in that situation understanding there was at least a chance that Pujols would end the game with one swing.  What I do know is that in life, we all tend to have our Mike Quade moments.  Times where we have sudden amnesia or ignore the obvious smartest decision to make and instead make a less than stellar move that ends up causing us or those we care about or maybe just others unnecessary pain.  Now don't get me wrong, I am not trying to equate arbitrary decisions made about the outcome of a simple baseball game to those made in life changing situations.  What I am trying to point out is that we are all only human and when the opportunity comes to make decisions that affect our lives or the lives of those around us, it would be beneficial for us to not close our eyes to history, statistics, or even better yet Godly wisdom and the Bible before we make blind decisions.  In Proverbs chapter 2 it says this:
 My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you, 2 listening closely to wisdom
and directing your heart to understanding; 3 furthermore, if you call out to insight
and lift your voice to understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver
and search for it like hidden treasure, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and discover the knowledge of God. 6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. 7 He stores up success for the upright;
[He is] a shield for those who live with integrity 8 so that He may guard the paths of justice
and protect the way of His loyal followers. 9 Then you will understand righteousness, justice,
and integrity-every good path. 10 For wisdom will enter your mind,
and knowledge will delight your heart. 

So, the point is when we are faced with 'game-changing or ending' situations in life, the wisest thing to do is consult the Creator and read his game-plan (the Bible) and then follow through with His instructions.  Oh and by the way....when Albert Pujols comes to the plate in extra innings or with the game on the line, you should probably walk him or you too will experience 'Deja Boom!'
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_06_05_chnmlb_slnmlb_1&mode=wrap