On Purpose For a Purpose

The winter blasts across the country are a reminder that baseball season is about to begin! So get your cold gear ready!

In simplest terms, success in baseball can be reduced to 3 requirements: A team that can play a good game of catch, nine guys that can put the ball in play, and pitchers who throw strikes. Undoubtedly, this formula is a great place to start.

Baseball can also be described as a battle for the strike zone. Whoever wins the strike zone wins the game.

Remember the pitcher in Little League who threw harder than everyone else? So hard that hitters had a difficult time getting on the plate much less putting the bat on the ball. Or the hitter (often the same player) who stood on top of the plate daring you to throw a strike? Those players dominated Little League because they dominated the strike zone.

Major League Baseball is played by hitters and pitchers who are the best in the world at winning the strike zone. It’s the same game as in Little League.

When Scott Harris took over as President of the Detroit Tigers, he put it like this:

“I believe that the strike zone disproportionately influences just about everything you see on the baseball field. It dictates pitch counts. It dictates count leverage. It dictates length of inning, dictates the load you’re putting on the pitcher’s body and how many pitchers you’re going to have to use throughout a series. It also dictates the quality of contact that you’re giving up and how much contact you’re giving up, which therefore influences the quality of defense that you can build and execute behind the pitcher….We’re going to start with the strike zone. We want to dominate the strike zone on both sides of the ball…

A strong argument could be made that in today’s game, pitchers are winning the strike zone more than ever.

The explosion of analytics and the ability to measure virtually everything on the field as it happens has taken the development of strike zone-winning stuff to a whole new level. There was a time when the best pitchers in the world were successful throwing three pitches - a fastball, a breaking ball (either curve ball or slider) and a change-up or split. Hitters were attacked with a front to back approach. Hard to soft. Pitchers today throw harder and have much larger pitch arsenals that are not measured simply by velocity. Hitters today have to deal with east to west, north to south, as well as front to back. Hitting has never been more challenging.

My mind was recently drawn to “Purpose Pitches”. Most of the time when one speaks of a “Purpose Pitch”, it refers to a pitch that makes the hitter get out of the way. A pitch that not only sets up a next pitch, but one that is intended to intimidate the hitter, making him feel very uncomfortable.

It is in professional baseball that pitchers and hitters are often first introduced to “purpose pitches”. Pitchers on the first professional team on which I played were fined $50 if they allowed a 2-strike hit. Pitching “in” was strongly encouraged and became a regular practice. Inevitably, hitters would be hit unintentionally. Or intentionally. And in the process, pitchers began to learn that hitters didn’t like fastballs-in and off the plate whether they were hit by them or not.

I confess in what turned out to be my first complete game as a professional, I intentionally hit a batter for the first time. This particular hitter had “won the strike zone” his first two at-bats. So without the least bit of anger or emotion, I threw the first pitch of his third at-bat hitting him in his ribs. He dropped his bat, and proceeded to first base. After the inning was over, the first baseman said, “That guy said he knew you were going to hit him by the way you were looking at him.” It was a learning experience for me. And probably him, too.

We both were competing for the strike zone. And I threw a pitch on purpose with purpose that I might win the strike zone in future meetings.

My days on the mound have long since passed. But I’ve come to realize that God also delivers and allows “Purpose Pitches.”

But God is not battling to win a strike zone. He is battling to win our heart.

And sometimes, that requires our being “knocked down”. Making us uncomfortable. Vulnerable. Even afraid. Events we didn’t expect. Circumstances we tried to avoid.

Our first instinct is usually to “move up on the plate.” Take control of the situation. To fight it. To fix it. When our best response is to allow it to do its good work. To draw near to Him. To remind us that our very breath is in the hands of God.

And to teach us that God desires our devotion more than our doing.

There was one other time in my career that I intentionally threw at a hitter. But this time, I was angry. Almost out of control. I had just given up the lead on a 3-run home run in the top of the 7th inning. In my anger, I threw the first pitch to the next hitter right at his head. Fortunately, he was able to get out of the way with the pitch actually hitting the knob of his bat. So when he got up out of the dirt at home plate, he had an 0-1 count. The third base coach was yelling both at me and the home plate umpire. It could not have been more obvious that I had intentionally thrown at his batter, and I should have been kicked out of the game. But nothing was done. I got the batter out ending the inning and walked off the mound looking for a pinch-hitter since I was scheduled to lead off. (This was during a time in minor league baseball when there was no DH if two National League affiliates were playing.) It seemed rather obvious to me that since we were trailing by a run in the bottom of the 7th, my manager would pinch hit for me.

But such was not to be the case.

With bat in hand, I stepped into the batters box fully expecting to get drilled by the first pitch. My teammates in the dugout were on the top step waiting to run on to the field in my defense. But after 4-5 pitches I grounded out weakly to the shortstop.

Judging by the noise from the other dugout, specifically the voice of the manager, the pitcher had failed in his responsibility to protect his hitters by taking advantage of a rare opportunity to hit the opposing pitcher.

Following the game, my Pitching Coach pulled me aside to explain the decision to let me hit. In his words, if you’re gonna intentionally hit someone, “you’ve got to back it up.” Otherwise, I was just putting our best player at risk when he went to the plate.

I deserved to be hit by their pitcher. But was not. I received mercy.

I tried, but failed to hit their batter who did not deserve it. He was covered in grace.

God’s grace protects us from that which we don’t deserve or are unable to withstand. And God’s mercy from that which we do deserve.

In baseball, the battle is for the strike zone.

With God, the battle is for our heart.

God wants our heart. And He will “pitch in” to get it. But His motivation is never anger or retaliation.

God’s motivation is love.

And His “Purpose Pitches” are always covered with mercy and grace.

When was the last time God threw you a “Purpose Pitch”?

What was your response?

What about the next one?