My Brother’s Heavenly Bleachers
As I begin to watch the 2021 World Series, I am confident that the Braves have a good chance of winning it all. A few of my friends think I’m nuts. But I know something they don’t. The Braves have a secret weapon that even they don’t realize they have. That secret weapon is my brother, who is now in the bleachers of heaven. He arrived there a couple of years ago, and he’s been waiting for a long time to help answer a few prayers for his fellow Braves fans.
Anyone who knew my brother knew he was one of the greatest Braves fans of all time. In fact, he was one of the most ardent baseball fans anyone had ever known. My brother could quote not just a player’s stats, he could rattle off all there was to know about any Brave. Each day, even in the off-season, he followed everything Braves – the trades, the rumors, and even their off-season personal lives. He did this while sitting in his private command center – an easy chair in his garage. Surrounded by two TVs, a desktop, a laptop, and a pad of paper, he had all the tools to keep it all at his fingertips. My brother had become severely disabled a few years before his passing. To most people, this would have made life more challenging and harder to endure. For him, he finally had all the time he needed to pursue his greatest passion – his Atlanta Braves. So he set up his private world and got down to living his new life, loving it as much as he could given the circumstances. Not bitter, but happy.
With the start of game one of the World Series, I watched as the Braves blasted off to an early 5-0 lead. I know my brother was not just smiling; he was dancing. The earthly disabled body no longer limited him to his chair. I can see him as he jumps up and down in his bleacher seat. He is driving everyone else in heaven crazy as he rattles off the stats and stories. Even God has sent someone down to the bleachers to try to get a little more quiet in heaven.
I also wonder if Gurriel has my brother to thank for his eighth-inning single. With a slight tip of his hand, my brother could very easily have gently tipped the ball just shy of the yellow line in the stadium. He could then have tapped the ball expertly to Rosario. Finally, he could have tripped up Gurriel as he barreled into his slide in the dirt. Yep, my brother could have done all that.
Fortunately, he had to do none of that and would have never considered it. As a pure sports fan, he would want every play to be legit. He would have wanted every call to be fair and accurate. Besides, he would be too busy yelling and screaming with any and all Braves fans in the world as they watched the play unfold.
So yeah, I have confidence in my Atlanta Braves. I have faith because the Braves have their greatest fan sitting in the Bleacher of Angels.