A few weeks ago I wrote about my work on a presentation for the Diocese of St. Petersburg's Living Eucharist initiative in which I dealt with the connection between sports and spirituality.
For anyone interested, or in need of a good remedy for sleeplessness, you can listen to the audio of the presentation here: http://vimeo.com/12432593. You'll be able to hear my presentation from April 30, 2010 as the slides progress along with the audio. Luckily, the presentation isn't just me lecturing; there are clips from three different movies that help to illustrate the message and to keep you engaged (*just as a disclaimer, there are two "bad" words in the clips, so be mindful of little ears).
If you're still interested but would rather not spend over an hour listening to me ramble on, you can access the slides here: click for a link to PowerPoint slides.
Or, if you just want the abridged version, check out this story of Detroit Tigers' pitcher Armando Galarraga: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5265148. An umpire's blown call on what should have been the final out of a game last week against the Indians cost Armando a perfect game and a chance to become the 21st player in MLB history to retire all 27 batters he faced. To put the magnitude of this near-feat into perspective, more people have orbited the moon than have pitched a perfect game in Major League Baseball.
And while Armando won't be remembered in the annals of Major League Baseball as the 21st player to be "perfect", Mr. Galarraga will be remembered instead for something even more impressive and unfortunately even rarer: being a perfect gentleman.
