Baseball and John Armstrong - A Great Day

Over the years I have gained a great friend through the fine pastime of blogging; John Armstrong. John is a minister who lives in Chicago and shares along with me a great love for three things: theology, blogging and... baseball.

John's ministry brought him to the San Francisco area this week and we wanted to catch each other at a Giants game (John is on the right in the photo). Needing to spend time with his ministry supporters, John offered to meet me at the game early and spend an hour and a half together during batting practice, so I bought a single ticket for myself elsewhere, confident that the pre-game time would be cherished. But God answered a previously made "selfish" prayer of mine that I haven't yet revealed to John. Namely that one of the attendees in their group would cancel and I could spend the entire game with John. (John, please forgive me and apologize to him for me!)

And that's what happened. The other two men in the group were Don Broesamle, an elder at the Church of the King, Santa Cruz (Andrew Sandlin's church), and a man named Tyler. These men were a delight, both as Christian men and men who loved baseball. John is a lifelong Braves fan (the Giants played the Braves on Wednesday) so he had so much insight into their team. We shared stories, good natured ribbing (John thought Petco Park in San Diego is a better park than AT&T) and much laughter. Peanuts and intense "digestion-challenged" ballpark food provided for a few good chuckles, too. Don was a gracious man as well, and I'm glad I got to meet him and talk for a few hours. He did chaplain work for the Giants (other Bay Area sports teams, too) back in their "God Squad" days.

I will treasure my memories of this day. Thank you John, Don and Tyler. The Giants beat the Braves on a good pitching performance from Tim Lincecum. Read more about the baseball side of the day over at my From the Bleachers blog.