Tuesday night we finished up our 2021 Knights Baseball regular season. We won! Good game. Close game. We won 5-4. That made our final regular season record 10 wins and 9 losses. For most people, that means we had a winning season. 

I try not to get too hung up on winning and losing … but I’ve still got a lot of work to do in that regard! But I have gotten much better at seeing the blessings of baseball despite what the scoreboard says. 

This season was like no one other for the Knights. First, we were coming off the “lost season” of 2020, when our entire season was cancelled due to the pandemic. You may recall that I wrote about that season, and in particular the 7 seniors that never got to play their final season. Even to this day, that still weighs heavy on my heart. 

But this season became one of special blessings. My eyes were fixed more on the beauty and wonder that this game provides rather than the scoreboard. And we had plenty of amazing blessings to thank God for. Let me share a few:

> Our Athletic Director and Administrators:  Let’s start at the top. In my 4 years coaching here, I have never been so connected to the high school administration as this season. I’m sure much of that was because of the pandemic, but it gave me the opportunity to see all that goes into offering a sport in high school during a pandemic. I discovered first hand just how dedicated the leaders of our high school are to our kids and their families. 

In particular, our new Athletic Director, Nathan Seal, walked into a flurry of pandemic rules and requirements for high school sports, and Nathan was hands on with every team and every player in every season. And, I should mention, he did this every day! Oh, and by the way, Nathan is also our High School Assistant Principal!  

I am so thankful for the leader and administrator he is. Being a former coach, he always had the big picture in mind, and he worked many extra hours to ensure that our teams, and players, had every chance to play sports this year, whatever it took. And it took a lot of work from Nathan, and Shannon Cheek (Superintendent), Stephanie Seegmiller (Principal), and, behind the scenes, our dedicated school board members. I hope all of them get at least a week to decompress from this past year before they start getting revved up for another. They are all a blessing in my life.  

> An amazing group of seniors: Actually, there were 2 different amazing groups of seniors. First are the 3 seniors who there from the very first day that I arrived in Arthur. Amy and I were attending our first ALAH football game, and a small group of young men came up and introduced themselves, saying, “We hear you’re the new baseball coach.” Since that day, Logan Brough, Nik Miller, and Brady Borntreger have been committed to our team and their development in extraordinary ways. Indeed, during these 4 years, each of them has been a fixture in my life, helping to build our program and be better players on the field, and better young men off. And they have succeeded. 

The other group of seniors is 3 athletes at ALAH that made a personal decision to come out for baseball this year because, like so many teams in the area, our roster was very small. Thanks to Coach Jefferson (football) and Coach McGill (basketball) encouraging them, we added Wyatt Romine, Brayden Fay, and Jamison Rocke to the team this year. Wyatt and Brayden had played for us early in their high school years, but both chose to focus on their number one sport – Wyatt’s is basketball and Brayden’s is football. And Jamison (basketball) hadn’t played baseball for years, but he came out to help us too. 

I love a school where this can happen. At bigger schools, it’s much more unlikely that students can hop from sport to sport, or even from sport to band, or chess club, or bass fishing, or academic team. But here, it’s the norm. And because of that, our students get such a broader and deeper experience, I think, than those at big schools. These seniors are all a blessing in my life. 

> Our one freshman: Coaches seem to agree that our rosters go in cycles, so that one year we may be low in freshmen, and the next year we’ll have plenty. It all evens out in the end. This year we were blessed with one freshman who remained “all in” from his very first day of practice in February to this very day. Derrick Schrock is one committed ball player, and Cardinals fan too, by the way. Without a doubt, Derrick has made more progress in his game than any other player on our roster. He hasn’t received all the playing time he deserves, but that’s often the life of a freshman athlete. What Derrick has done, is put a smile on my face each and every day of practices and games. Just the other day, raining outside, we played our periodic game of whiffle ball in the gym. Derrick pitched. I watched all our guys have pure uninterrupted fun! Especially Derrick. Over and over, as I watched him with joy in my heart, he laughed and smiled, and played the whole game, too! And isn’t that what it’s all about.

This freshman, Derrick, is a blessing in my life.  

> Our parents and fan base: This year our home field was moved from Arthur to Lovington. Not everybody was happy with that move, but it’s clearly worked well for us. Except, it leaves many of our local Arthur fans with an 18 mile drive, there and back. But, as is said in one of my all-time favorite movies, Field of Dreams, if you build it, they will come. And our fans came. Each home game, I was so impressed with the turnout and the vocal support our team received. Yes, many of them are parents or grandparents of the players, but praise God for them. And, for our other loyal fans who showed up just as often as the families of the players. In particular, my mom, Lois Silvanik, came to several games, thanks in large part to my brother-in-law Peter. And Susan Bursa became one of the regulars at our home games, and would always flash the thumbs-up sign to me before the game. And a special blessing was Doug Davis, pastor at Arthur Southern Baptist Church, who was willing to broadcast ALAH baseball games for the very first time on the Knight’s Roundtable. That meant so much to our players and fans. All these folks blessed my life this season. 

As I always say when I’m writing about baseball … “I could go on” – and there are many more people that have blessed my life this season. But I think the point is clear. The true blessings in baseball, as in life, aren’t written on any scoreboard except the one in heaven, which only counts blessings. The true blessings aren’t runs, or wins, but the people that God surrounds you with as you attempt to share God’s love with a bunch of teenage baseball players who are still learning what the real blessings in life really are. 

For me, it’s the players themselves, the athletic director and administrators, and the fans in the community who actually care about the team, because the team is composed of “our kids.” Trust me on this one, the true blessings in life are not often found in the things the world places importance on – like the scoreboard in baseball. But rather the blessings are in the hearts of people around you, right in front of you, or sitting in an office at school making all the arrangements with opponents and umpires and busses, so that I can “play” the game I love and receive all the blessings this beautiful game offers me. 

FINAL NOTE: Our season is not over! This Friday, June 4th, at Lovington Field, our Knights take on Casey-Westfield in the regional tournament at 4:30pm. Win or lose, it will be a day of many blessings. I hope you can join us.  

You’ll find me in the 3rd base coaching box, praying,  

(Ponder this: this ancient but well-preserved epistle was found in the year 2414; in a clay urn; on  sheets of 8 ½ X 11 white bond papyrus; written in black printer ink that was common for the day. It was  discovered by a young boy tending his rabbits, who happened to wander into the ancient grounds of the  original Vine Street church. It is believed that the document was written in 2021, during the first phase of  the takeover by the Holy Spirit of this small but powerful church in Arthur.) 

(Or … was it?) 

Book of Acts: Chapter 2,648: Verses 1-4  

When the day of Pentecost came, there was a great sense of relief among the  congregation. The global pandemic was winding down, and on this very day the chief  moderator told the church that it was time to open. Thus, perhaps more than had been the  case in recent decades, there was a hopeful anticipation in the sanctuary the God’s favor  was finally making itself known again to God’s people. 

And so it was, that on this memorable day in the life of the Vine Streeters in Arthur,  and also in the life of all who were watching via the internet, they were all together in one  place. Both physically … and spiritually.  

On this day of the Lord, the Holy Spirit had already filled up the sacred space for  worship by the time the worship planner and church pastor arrived early in the morn. Then  the flames of candles – like the flames that shoot out of a canon at launch – caught the wind  of the place, and rode it all around the spaces of the church and into the hearts of those  present.  

Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a mighty wind came from heaven and filled the  whole place where they were sitting. As the angels led the people in song, the mystical  reality of the real presence of the Spirit of the Living God showed itself to all in that place  that day … and to those watching live.  

As the songs led into the prayers, the prayer elder of the church read aloud – before  God and in the presence of God’s people – each and every name in the church’s book of  need. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each  of them.  

Then God became visible to those gathered in the fullness of the Holy Trinity. The  water of God revealed to us that God is indeed everywhere, and that we cannot live without  it. The ice of God revealed to us that God loves us so much that God became one of us, came  to abide with us, and then completed our assurance of forgiveness by dying for us. And third,  the God of their time and of ours … the steam of the Holy Spirit … revealed to us that God  can now be within and all around all those who seek to know God. No exceptions – steam  permeates everything and everybody.  

Because of the power of the Holy Spirit in the church on that day, all those present and  watching were infused with that spiritual truth of divine love, and immediately and forever  understood that God’s love was now available to all God’s precious children, through all  time.  

With the partaking of the elements by the assembled flock, each and every pilgrim  was consumed by the Holy Spirit, and began to think about, and speak about, their fellow  believers and everyone else across the globe in a new and different way. It was promised to  us by the Holy Spirit that God’s divine love can overcome any other feeling, emotion, opinion  and prejudice of any other person that instinctually latches onto our mind and is assumed by  us to be truth. All that’s a product of the self-will, an extremely powerful force in the lives of  Americans in the 21st century. But on this day, things changed: hearts were penetrated and  transformed; and Divine love was poured out on the souls of the people, and there was no  going back. 

Sisters and Brothers, this is a description of the day in 2021 that we now mark as the  beginning of the Jesus revival era. Just like in the 1st century, this revival began with a small  band of spirit seekers and soul diggers who had been touched deeply by God’s Spirit and  knew that the rest of their lives would be about giving their one precious life to God. With  that as their launching pad, the little church at Vine Street in Arthur, Illinois, began a journey 

that would begin a new Christ-like era of praising, worshipping, and serving God – all of it  Spirit-fed, and all of it Spirit-led.  

It’s Time! Catch the Spirit!