A SAINT IN SIN CITY

PREFACE

In the fictional story that follows, is a tale of two baseball teammates. Their complex relationship comes to a bizarre head during the World Series. Saul Sallie, nephew of Seven Sallie, and Mason Maxwell are both pitchers. Both have dreamed of one day playing in the majors. Both make it in the majors. They even played in the biggest games in baseball, the World Series. One has the best game of his life, and is adored by most. The other becomes both despised by many, and admired by few for refusing to play in a deciding game seven due to religious convictions.

The two men are teammates, yet rivals, who came up through the minors together. They are friends, yet at times, enemies. Both their Christian faith and family are more important to them than baseball. Yet this too is on an opposite spectrum. Saul adheres to the Bible, and the Bible alone. Mason, although reluctant to admit it, adheres to the creeds of man-made theories and traditions.

Since this tale of spiritual struggle and redemption takes place in the not too distant future, I have placed the major league team in Las Vegas. I have heard that Vegas has been wanting a MLB franchise, with Oakland, Tampa, and Cincinnati the most likely teams to possibly move there. One of the reasons I have placed this tale in the near future, is I want to be able to speculate on things happening in the world that will at some point affect both religious liberty and liberty of conscience.

Bible prophecy has warned us of this, and things are certainly brewing in the world along these lines. But only God knows the exact timetable. So the exact time frame is also vague to me the writer, and my speculations are just that. What could happen, not what will happen. Yet God has given us signs of when the end is near. One excellent example are the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 24.

After a brief prologue in the third person, it is my intention to post a chapter every week. Hopefully time restraints allow me to achieve this goal. Mason and Saul will be telling their story in the first person. I may add another person or persons later on. Although I have the basic outline conceived, I do not know where exactly this will be going. But half the fun of writing is seeing where the story takes you. Thanks for your interest!

PROLOUGE

Mason sat on a log outside of Saul Sallie’s empty cabin and watched the sun glistening on the lake. Where was Saul? Mason was sure he would find him here at his favorite getaway. Was Saul worried that the back lash against him was so strong, that the morons issuing death threats would actually look for him here?

It had seemed a lot longer than six days ago since Mason pitched a perfect game in the World Series, crediting his dead wife for being with him. The day before he had gone to a psychic medium, who told him things he was certain she couldn’t have known about his wife and him. He knew Saul would have advised him against it, shoving Bible verses in face as he did so. But how could she know that their daughter was named after Beth’s grandmother? Or that he had proposed to her on a lake? The very lake he now gazed at.

He had kept this visit to a psychic to himself, but the media loved him referencing his deceased wife as helping him. The drama had made him a hero, not only in Las Vegas, but the entire nation and even internationally. His perfection on the mound had also tied the series at three games apiece.

Saul, who was considered Vegas’s ace, was to pitch the deciding game seven the next night, a Wednesday. But it was rained out. Thursday, it rained again. It was finally rescheduled for Friday evening, with not a cloud in the sky. But Saul not only refused to pitch, he wasn’t even at the ballpark.

It was in Saul Sallie’s contract that he was not required to pitch on Friday evenings or Saturdays. He followed the Biblical Sabbath, and his love for, and devotion to God would not allow him to waver even for the World Series. His manager had hoped he would waver his conviction, given the circumstances. But he was not only disappointed, he was angry. Especially when their opponent got eleven hits and scored six runs to go on and win the World Series.

Saul had insisted on this Sabbath stipulation ever since his first year in the minors. It was a demand that likely made his road to the majors twice as long. It might have gotten him cut if he wasn’t such a talented pitcher. It had been a beautiful young lady that he had studied and argued with that had convinced him of the Sabbath truth.

Marcella Knight-Storm had shown Saul Bible text after Bible text, and then had given him a history lesson on how and when Sunday keeping first began, and how it ultimately became a tradition among most Christian denominations. That beautiful young lady would become his wife a year later.

Mason looked at two things carved into the log. Both were heart shaped, and in the middle, both had two names. One said Marcella -n- Saul, while the other said Beth -n- Mason. He smiled to himself as he recalled the day he carved his fiancée’s name into the wood.

“Mason asked me to marry him!” Beth told Marcella excitedly as the two women hugged and jumped up and down. Saul simply grinned, shook Mason’s hand, and told him congrats.

Marcella ran into the cabin, and returned with a knife. She handed it to Mason and giggled. “Make it permanent.”

He ran his hand over the carving as tears filled his eyes. “I miss you, Bethany. Where are you?”

A Goldfinch landed five feet in front of him, seemed to look at him, and flew away. Was that her? He snorted and shook his head. Over thinking can drive you crazy. And right now he was overthinking Saul’s situation too. It overshadowed his glee of a perfect game. He was part of one of the biggest swings in sports history. He was the big hero of game six, but his good friend was the goat of game seven, even though he didn’t play. How ironic.

Mason was confused, and sighed heavily, shaking his head. “Oh brother, where art thou?”