The Big Payback...

Memories can be a tricky thing sometimes. The best ones are quickly forgotten, only to be recalled at a later date. However, it's the ones that cause the most pain that seems to linger like an old wound that never heals. Go back to the moments of your greatest disappointment and think about how long it took to move past it. Whether the event that happened to you was external or internal, the burden hardest to bear is living with the memory, even harder to erase it. That's why what took place in Arlington, Texas yesterday was a symbolism of a memory that stayed with the Texas Rangers long enough. The question is: was this best way to erase it? With unsubstantiated payback?

For those who may not remember how things started, I'll take you back to last October, Game 5 of the ALDS. The Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays were locked in an epic 3-3 tie. The Blue Jays, who had not been to the postseason since 1993, were in the bottom of the 7th when star player Jose Bautista stepped up to the plate:

With that, 23 years of frustration in the Rogers Centre went up into the upper deck, and while the Canadian faithful celebrated, the Rangers had the memory of vengeance on their minds, particularly due to an insignificant celebration by the Blue Jays' cleanup hitter. However, they had to wait until their last matchup of the year to exact their method of revenge. The Rangers decided to hit Bautista and he then does a direct slide right into Odor at second base, beginning the melee. Then it becomes a donnybrook as the benches cleared. At the end players were ejected and while the Rangers may have thought it made up for losing the playoffs, they only looked more foolish.

Baseball has been known for its long memories. Remember this incident?

For those who lived outside of the Big Apple and didn't watch, this was when Roger Clemens (allegedly) threw shards of a broken baseball bat at Mike Piazza. Now, back then it created a media firestorm of "The Mets need to get revenge on Clemens!" for a simple act of aggression. It resulted in one of the worst throwback pitches of all time...two years later! I hope it was worth it, because for a team to listen to the cries of the fans in some pointless desire for retribution shows the height of immaturity.

 

The Bible teaches us to "Not let the sun go down on your wrath." If there's a problem we need to learn how to resolve things quickly. Granted, some things do take time, I certainly know that from personal experience, but it is also said that he who angers you controls you. Will you allow your thirst for revenge to consume you, or will you allow forgiveness to be your way of life?