My May Newsletter Article

Huntington Park, the home of the Columbus Clippers, was named the 2009 Ball Park of the Year by Ballparks.com, an independent site dedicated to all things Baseball Ball Park. What makes this designation interesting is that the award has virtually no restrictions or quantifiers. It isn’t the Best Minor League Park, it isn’t the Best New Park, it isn’t even the Best Designed, Best Concession, Best Turf Park. It is just the plain old Best Park in 2009; a year when the new Yankee Stadium, the new New York Mets’ stadium, and others debuted. It is no wonder that that you can’t see a single piece of advertising from the Clippers without this fact front and center. I can’t blame them. If my park beat out both the Yankees and Mets - two of the top-5 wealthiest teams in all of baseball - I would make sure everyone knew about it too.

Huntington Park teaches us a valuable lesson. Rather than trying to build a park to rival the biggest, the most luxurious with the fanciest foods, or the most hip and modern, the people who planned this park took a good look at who they were , who the Clippers were, who their fans were, and the location where they would find themselves in and from there they began designing. Huntington works so well because it is a testament to honesty. By not trying to be something they weren’t they were able to be something great.

For people of faith it is an important lesson. When we struggle to become
something we are not we often feel disconnected from God and God’s embrace. Rebelling against the gifts we have been given means that we will never truly be the most fulfilled. It is only by being honest can we ever be the “Best (Insert your name here) of 2010.”