Brooks Conrad, second baseman for the Atlanta Braves, had the final out of the ninth inning bounce right between his legs and out into center field, allowing the San Francisco Giants to score what turned out to be the winning run of the playoff game last night between these two teams. It was his third error of the game, and I noticed, as the manager brought in a new pitcher, that the rest of the infield gathered at the mound, but not Conrad. He was standing out at second, alone in his misery. It wasn’t that his teammates shunned him – it doesn’t take an invitation to come to the mound – but what seemed clear was that he couldn’t face them knowing he had let them down. Someone needed to go out there and give the poor guy some grace and mercy, and maybe they did, but I only saw the few seconds the TV camera caught of him, and that picture spoke volumes. Five players and a manager standing around the pitcher’s mound, and Brooks Conrad alone at second.
Do you know anyone who is alone at second? A co-worker whose mistake cost the company a deal, a musician bumped off the worship team, a single mom who can’t go into church for fear of being judged, a kid who can’t learn the way everyone else can, a neighbor who is gay? Take it on yourself to go and extend grace and mercy to that person. It’s what we all need and what God has offered to each and every one of us: grace (what we don’t deserve) and mercy (exemption from what we do).
Actually, the guy at second is the one who stands to find this out sooner than most.
John Fischer The Catch 
Ohhhhh, you HAD to use this as an example. I’m through licking my wounds and will be swinging my tomahawk tonight.
You are right, it’s these moments, especially when we know we’ve let someone [or a whole team of people] down that we most need mercy and certainly grace. I’m hoping the fans will know that tonight. Don’t you doubt there is a single one of us who could have done better! Right! It happens on the field. It happens on a church committee. It happens between coworkers, neighbors.
Although I understand the intent of your message, and agree we must extend mercy and grace to all as God does, we still cannot compromise God’s word. In the case of the gay neighbor, that is a choice he has made concerning his lifestyle. I would certainly treat him as a neighbor and share my own faith with him. I would also have to tell him that God’s word tells us that what he is doing is a sin. Just like the woman caught in adultery and brought before Christ, Jesus extended His mercy and grace but He also told her to go and sin no more( or do not continue this lifestyle ). I know God loves us all and we are all sinners and He provided a way to be forgiven of our sins through Jesus death on the cross but God is still against sin. I know this is a little off of what your message was, but when you threw in the gay neighbor, he still has to be held accountable for what he is doing.
And so are you; and so am I. So do we get grace and mercy and our gay neighbor doesn’t? What’s the difference?
Sure we are accountable, and that’s my point. We all experience mercy and grace everyday whether we believe in God or not.But sin is still sin and it’s still something that God hates.There has been a lot in the news about bullying gays. God extends his grace and mercy to the bully too, but I don’t think he likes what they’re doing either. Do you? Roman 6:1-2
Great insight, I see where a Giant’s player visited with him at the batting cage today! It also reminded me of a story I read in the paper yesterday. Jeff Hart a driller from Denver was called from Afghanistan to Chile to drill a rescue hole to 33 trapped miners. He was nervous and knew if he made a mistake 33 people die. It changed my perspective on the game and I am a really big sports fan
Sounds like his teammates read today’s Catch…
http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/10/10/brooks-conrads-errors-etch-his-name-into-painful-postseason-lor/
What if the one you need to extend grace and mercy to is yourself…and you can’t do it?
Oh my. You have put your finger on the hardest part. Believing it for ourselves.
DW… You CAN because God ALREADY HAS! It is so true that the hardest thing on earth to do is to forgive yourself. A huge part of that is because of the role that Satan plays in driving our guilt and shame. If you are a child of God, you are totally and completely forgiven – that cross bore your sins from the day you were born until the day you die, ALL of them! God has declared you righteous and free! (Rom 8:1)
JW, you can do nothing about the past. Can’t be changed, fixed, or modified. What’s done is done. However, you can choose to get up, learn from your mistakes or failures, and press on. Because you have breath in your body right now, that means God is not finished with you yet! Whatever has happened, you have not disqualified yourself from being a valuable, necessary, and honorable vessel for him.
Reject those thoughts, realizing they come from the evil one. God is waiting to do awesome things with your life. Forgiveness releases you from the curse of the past and frees you the to blessing of today!
I have been down this very same road in my own life until truth set me free. I know exactly how you feel, but I want you to know exactly how I feel, being liberated from your past, and enjoying the blessing of a life that now counts again.
God bless you and know that I am praying for you!
As a life long Braves fan, the errors by Brooksy hurt but almost worse was the fact fans who had cheered him earlier were booing him. What is that about? Does booing help in any way? Maybe if the fans had encouraged him instead (I’m sure there were many who did) it would have turned out different. In fact I think that booing him after his second error could have played a factor in the third. Even so, how could they forget about the games he had won for his team. They wouldn’t have been in the playoffs without him. And yes most (probably all) of the people booing could not have done better or even been allowed on the field of play. I pray that they don’t ever experience this in their life, being berated or vilified because of a simple “error” . I guess if more of us understood grace we would’nt be having this conversation.
And yes, it seems that The Braves as a team showed Brooks a great deal of grace, encouraging him and reminding others of his importance to the team. I didn’t even feel that Bobby Cox sitting him down was in any way a punishment but more of him protecting him from it getting any worse. I’ll guarantee you that it was tough for Bobby (the greatest manager ever!) to do. Yes I was hoping that Brooks could hit a homer or at least at hit in the bottom of the ninth but then that would have seemed too Hollywood.
Your wife is such a true saint of the Lord Jesus christ. I was touched so deeply by her “Unbirthday” party. We do some things in our church to heop the homeless and shelters but not nearly enough. I give her thanks for speaking into our lives encouragement to reach beyond our comfort zone our boundaries. I do want to ask permission of her, as it was her idea, if it is okay if we adopt this plan at our church as we in Seattle sure need it. Blessings to you.
Of course. No one has a patent on this idea! Marti would be excited to know it was being duplicated.