I grew up in Minnesota and continue to be a die-hard Minnesota Twins fan. I have been pleasantly surprised by this past week where, living in Denver, I have had the opportunity to see two of their games. Now, this fortuitous situation has made me think again about the meticulous sovereignty of God, but thankfully whenever I see the Twins on national television they are playing the Yankees which reminds me of the deep depravity of humanity. Chief among the "sinners" must be Derek Jeter. For those Jeter fans, I must say that I might like him if he played for a small market team and was not drooled on by every announcer, but he has been lumped with an unfortunate crowd (the old adage must be true, "you're only as good as the crowd you're with"). Jeter is very sound fundamentally, but the biggest difficulty I have is the seeming necessity for the camera person to follow him into the dugout while the announcer posit what his mysterious thoughts are at that moment. Ok, maybe that isn't my biggest difficult, maybe my even greater problem I have is when the announcers completely ignore the reigning batting champion (Joe Mauer) and the reigning MVP (Justin Morneau) along with the reigning Cy Young winner (Johan Santana) in order to look longingly at Derek. Do I sound bitter? Good, then I have properly conveyed my sentiments.
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I am also deeply irritated with Jeter. I hate to take up the cause of a Yankee, but Jeter has made A-Rod's life in NY terrible. A-Rod could hit five homers in one game and Jeter could crap on a plate and everybody in NY would talk about what a balanced diet Jeter has based on his crap analysis. I am glad for his sake that A-Rod can leave after this season. NY fans are so fickle. Plus a lot of ladies think Jeter is hot, but Santana is so much finer than Jeter. Props to my mom for recognizing this objective fact.
Willow Creek Association's Leadership summit this year spoke exactly about this issue when they said that there are three models for choosing leaders for your church. Some follow the Montreal Expos (now out of business) strategy of signing young players, and then, trading them to somebody else when they get any good. Others follow the hated New York Yankees strategy of "cherry picking" the proven superstars from others and making an 'all star' line up from them (but this doesn't work either since the platform upon which the previous superstar existed is now gone). The best way is to follow the Boston Red Sox or Minnesota Twins strategy of signing hot young minor leaguers and giving them the experience to grow, and then, re-signing them to stay and lead.
So here is the moral of the story: Jeter may be the focus of the TV camera, but the real story is that it takes a team to get most things done. "Nothing begins without a champion, but nothing lasts without a team."
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