A true team player

I was reading an article tonight about my favorite Tiger of all time, Alan Trammell. Alan was up for election to the Baseball Hall of fame for the sixth time in 2007. He didn't make it. He only received 19% of the vote. He needed 75% to get in and only Goose Gossage of the Yankees hit the mark and was elected.

When Trammell was asked about the Hall of Fame and his failure to get in, he suggested that getting in would be nice but it won't be the end of the world if he doesn't make it. Then he went on to talk about his playing career. He spent twenty seasons in the majors, all with the Tigers. He joins Ty Cobb and Al Kaline as the only Tigers to spend twenty years with the team. Tram was not a flashy player but his statistics put him among the best shortstops to ever play the game. He was the 1984 World Series Most Valuable Player and runner up for the league MVP in 1987.

What Tram is best known for is being part of the longest running double play combination in the history of the League. He and Lou Whitaker played 1918 games side by side in the Tiger infield. As Alan looked back at his career, he said it was never about individual awards or accomplishments. He learned to play the game as a team player. That was the Tiger way under Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson. So for him, it is only right that he is remembered as part of a team instead of an individual.

I guess the same is true for most of us as we seek to serve the Lord. Most of us will never be famous or make headlines for our Christian service but our actions make a difference. When we work side by side with friends at the soup kitchen, or when we are part of a Sunday School staff that is teaching moral values and the love of God to children, we are part of God's Hall of Fame team. The apostle Paul reminded us that we all have a part to play. Like the different parts of the body that come together to form a whole unit, so our faithfulness to God's call is part of something much bigger and greater.

Tram has got the right idea. It doesn't matter whether or not he is ever elected to the Hall of Fame. He was a winner simply because he always was a team player. May the same be said of us as we serve the Lord.

Cal