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Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Daylight Pick Off
I used to play catcher sometimes in baseball. I didn't play it very often, so a lot of times in practice I wouldn't get to be involved in some of the "finer" points of the position because I was practicing another position. Well, one day our coach had gone over something called the "daylight pickoff" which depends entirely upon the catcher. I missed the lesson.
So, at a practice a few days later he wanted me to play catcher and he wanted me to run the "daylight pickoff." I told him I didn't know what that was so he explained it...but that didn't mean I could do it. So, we tried it a few times and I was a total disaster.
See, the way the "daylight pickoff" works is supposed to be simple. Whenever the other team has a runner on 2nd base, the catcher would call for the play to be run. What that meant was that I was supposed to stand up in front of the plate and hit each knee with the catcher's helmet. That let the pitcher and the shortstop know we were going to run the play.
Well, when the runner took his lead of 2nd base while the pitcher was looking at the catcher about to throw to the batter, the shortstop would break behind the runner. When the catcher sees "daylight" between the shortstop and the runner, he drops his glove. At which time the pitcher turns around and throws immediately to 2nd base. The idea is that the runner would get caught off guard because the pitcher wasn't looking behind him, and you could "pick off" the runner and get an easy out.
It sounds good in theory, but if the catcher's timing is off it goofs everything up. If he drops his glove too early then the pitcher will throw the ball into centerfield because the shortstop couldn't get there in time...and if he drops it too late you lose the element of surprise and the runner gets back easily, and that's if the pitcher doesn't make a mistake and "balk."
Since I hadn't practiced it before, my timing was really bad. We practiced it probably 10 times and I was either too early or too late...thankfully, the coach was in a good mood--probably because I didn't play the position much--and it was a running joke that I was goofing everything up. Of course, I laughed at myself...but the daylight pickoff day was something I never forgot.
In fact, a few years later I was talking with the catcher of my college baseball team and he was telling me had a tough day at practice because he struggled with the daylight pickoff! Immediately, it reminded me of my own coach a few years earlier.
In a similar way, that happened in John 21. The disciples got reminded of their mentor because of the recurrence of an event a few years earlier.
Remember yesterday that we saw that Jesus had died and resurrected and the disciples jumped back into their routine...their rut. Waiting for Jesus, they decided to go fishing. That's where we'll pick up the story today (from The Message):
"The rest of them replied, 'We're going with you.' They went out and got in the boat. They caught nothing that night. When the sun came up, Jesus was standing on the beach, but they didn't recognize him.
Jesus spoke to them: 'Good morning! Did you catch anything for breakfast?'
They answered, 'No.'
He said, 'Throw the net off the right side of the boat and see what happens.'
They did what he said. All of a sudden there were so many fish in it, they weren't strong enough to pull it in.
Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, 'It's the Master!'
When Simon Peter realized that it was the Master, he threw on some clothes, for he was stripped for work, and dove into the sea..."
Now, at first glance the story might seem a little odd. I mean, some professional fisherman go fishing on a lake they were very familiar with and they come away from a full night's work with absolutely nothing.
A bystander on the beach asks them how it went...and they tell him about the wasted effort.
The bystander tells them that the problem was likely that they were fishing off the wrong side of the boat.
Yeah, okay...sure. That's the problem. Right?
But, interestingly enough, they head out and heed his advice. They caught a tremendous haul of fish. So many that they couldn't haul them all in.
John gets clued in: It's Jesus!
Peter knows, too. He heads to the beach immediately. He's got some unfinished business with the Lord (which we'll study tomorrow).
But why would this remind John of Jesus?
Because of Luke 5. It's the story of the original call of the disciples some three years earlier. The exact same thing happened to them some three years earlier...before they'd seen all the miracles. Before they'd heard all the teachings. Before they'd seen the crucifixion. Before they'd witnessed the resurrection.
It was a red-letter day that had been pushed to the back of their minds because of everything else over the last three years. But then it happened again and they figured out that it was Christ Himself.
Just like when I heard the term daylight pickoff again after a few years, it brought me back to that day in practice with my coach.
So, for today, can you think of a time that you've seen God work in the same way in your life and it reminded you of Him in some way? Tell us about it...
Brent 4:04 AM
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