A SAINT IN SIN CITY

MASON MAXWELL

CHAPTER 8

YOU WILL SHOW ME THE PATH OF LIFE (Psalm 16:11)

I don’t think I ever would have made it TO the major league, if it wasn’t for my teammate, Saul Sallie. I don’t think I ever would have made it IN the major league without my friend, Saul Sallie. I don’t think my relationship with Beth would have survived without Marcella Knight-Storm Sallie. And I wouldn’t have ever known Marcella if it wasn’t for Saul Sallie. Ironically, the media made us out to be enemies.

But that was definitely my fault. When things got tough, I got weak. I’m not talking about baseball, but I’m talking about fame. When Saul came under scrutiny, I turned politician and rode the fence. I tried to distance myself from Saul, while at the same time not throw him under the bus. It proved impossible.

In my defense, although Saul gave me plenty of food for thought with what the Bible actually taught, I wasn’t fully convinced. When it came to Christians in our clubhouse, the locker room was divided. The majority sided with the popular worldview that now prevails, and the minority sided with Saul. Once again, this is where I rode the fence.

The majority used human reasoning, coupled with the common good, and an occasional scripture thrown in for seasoning. Saul had a ‘Thus sayeth the Lord’ for everything he proposed. He also had chapter and verses at the ready. He won a lot of true hearted, honest seekers to his side. But the hard reality is, most people don’t want to think too deeply. And when they do, they are governed by emotion, passion, and the herd instinct.

It was hard enough for Saul when he first took his stand on the Biblical Sabbath, and refused play on it back in 2022. Now, years later, the Sabbath was a major political issue, and Saul was on the unpopular side of the subject. For it is currently one the hottest topics on the political spectrum that both the right and the left actually agree on.

The left want a mandatory day of rest due to climate change. The right want a day of rest because they believe in legislating morality. Saul, along with people like him, declare that genuine morality cannot be legislated. We are not talking civil law. For some moral laws fall under civil laws. Obviously you cannot allow killing, stealing, etc.

And yes, I now say WE. I’m sorry it took that fateful world series for me to change. I regret it went that far for me to stand with my friend, my brother in Christ. I’m ashamed to say when the dirt hit the fan for him, I back petaled and betrayed him. But when the manure hit the fan, I don’t know, the Holy Spirit seemed to give me a swift kick, waking me up to what was truly right and wrong.

Life is a strange trip. Saul is one of my closest, dearest friends. Yet I spent much of our early relationship both despising him, being at odds with him, and yet at the same time, marveling at him. A teammate is an odd thing. You are often both an ally and an enemy. You both go to battle together against other teams together, yet you compete with each other to be superior at your particular position. This pushing each other, if handled correctly, not only makes the team better, but ourselves individually as well.

It can be like that in Christian fellowship also. I don’t mean that it is or even should be a competition. But I discovered in the minor leagues that it is important who you associate with. Who you choose as friends can and will affect your own character. You need to be around people who will make you a better you. You need to fellowship with persons of like faith.

I’m ashamed to say, that if it wasn’t for the Godly example of Saul, I likely could have turned into a womanizing partier. To what extent that would have been, I don’t know, God knoweth. I shudder to think what might have been. Thank God the Holy Spirit ultimately drew me to Saul, rather than the careless throng that liked to drink, gamble, and visit establishments where woman danced and disrobed.

But in those early days, when Saul made what seemed to me a bizarre demand of the manager regarding his religious convictions, I questioned not only his spiritual soundness, but his sanity. He had just had the worst start of his life, and was yanked before the first inning was even over. Before he even had another opportunity, he declared that he would not be participating in any team activities on the Biblical Sabbath.

I had regarded Saul as an extraordinarily pious man. Like I said, he was a great example to me of how a Christian should behave. But when he pulled the ‘I can’t play on God’s Holy Day’ card, I thought him a fanatic. I also thought he was going to get sent back down to the lower rank, if not cut entirely. Yet something strange happened.

Hindsight is better than foresight for us mere mortals. I now believe God blessed his servant’s obedience. You might call it a coincidence, I know I did at first. But going forward from Saul’s demand that he would remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy, he pitched lights out. Through six innings anyhow.

Over Saul’s next three starts, he had no hitters going into the seventh inning. Game one, first pitch of the seventh inning, WHACK, home run. That was followed by a single, two walks, and double. First pitch, seventh inning of the second game, WHACK, down the third base line for a triple. Followed by two singles before he was pulled. First pitch of the seventh inning of the third game, WHACK, home run, and Saul was done for the day.

Thanks to analytics becoming rampant in modern baseball, the powers that be quickly noticed a trend with Saul. He was absolutely fantastic through six innings. Especially the sixth inning. In those first three starts, he struck out the side in all three. That’s why it was so odd that he seemed to drop off a cliff in the seventh.

Not long after that, during a spur of the moment solo Bible study, I happened along Exodus chapter sixteen. This is the chapter where God gave His people manna from heaven. They were not to gather any on the Sabbath, but He gave them a double portion on Fridays. My jaw dropped at the parallel I saw with Saul and his first three pitching starts after refusing to participate on Sabbaths. Three sixth innings, throwing nine strikes, and no balls. Just a coincidence? I never forgot this, and it was instrumental in my spiritual growth down the road.

Just to be clear. Although Saul feels blessed by God, it is his belief that God is aloof when it comes to sports. In other words, he doesn’t think God answers prayers for specific teams victories, or waves a divine hand to manipulate games. I guess that was proven true by the outcome of the World Series we lost. I’m not saying I disagree with Saul. However, I still find his extreme success after becoming a Sabbatarian curious to say the least.

As impressed as I was, even jealous to be honest, I reacted the way King Agrippa did in Acts 26:28, when he told Paul that he almost persuaded him to be a Christian. Only for me, I was almost persuaded to be a Biblical Sabbath keeper. But out of pride and inconvenience, I justified my position on the traditional sabbath, which I didn’t keep in the purest sense anyhow.

Saul seemed on a fast track to advancement by his performance. But like most in positions of power, the powers that be didn’t like someone seeming to buck the system or their authority. I guess if you look at it from their side, they didn’t want a whole group of Saul’s, demanding this and refusing to do that.

But Saul couldn’t have been happier and more content staying put, despite playing like a big league pitcher. For he was dually in love. His heart yearned for the lovely Marcella as the two proceeded on the journey to becoming one flesh. In addition to finding the love of his life, his soul found refuge and nourishment at Cotton Creek Cove church, and the Biblical treasures he was digging up left and right.

I don’t subscribe to the theory of evolution, but life does evolve and change. Early the next season, I was  promoted to double A in Wichita, even though Saul’s numbers were clearly better than mine. But two weeks later, he joined me. Upon the news of his promotion, he and Marcella had an impromptu wedding, and she moved to Wichita with him.

To show you what a shallow Christian I was, maybe still am, God knoweth, I wanted Beth to shack up with me. She refused, but still relocated to Wichita. However, she moved into the Sallie’s apartment with them. So I roomed with another teammate.

Halfway through the next season, I again was promoted to triple A. Once again, Saul had better numbers than me, but once again, he followed two weeks later. We spent the next year and a half playing in Saint Paul in our home state. We both played well enough that we thought we were in our home state for good. The next step was across the river to Minneapolis and the show, the majors.

We both made it to the bigs alright. But it wasn’t with Minnesota. The following season, a team moved to Los Vegas. Saul and I were involved in a trade that took us to the Sin City along with their new team. Although we wouldn’t be playing in our home state, it became a faster track to the big league. This pleased me, but disappointed Saul. But typical of him, he took things that didn’t go his way in stride.

It wasn’t long before Saul’s Sabbath commitment became a national side story. It wasn’t headline news yet, but it felt like it to me. Because of our association together, it seemed like I had to answer for him as much as he did himself. This is where I first began to really distance myself from him. Yet he never held it against me. This was a good thing, because the truth is, I needed him more than he needed me.

You see, not long after we made it to the big time, Beth and I married. But we wouldn’t make it to our first anniversary. She died suddenly one day, due to a brain aneurysm. I would have completely lost way without Saul’s guidance. I almost did anyway.