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It just couldn’t be! I was coaching my son’s travel baseball game many years ago when the unthinkable happened! In a semi-final game of our league’s championship tournament, we led 7-6 with two outs in the bottom of the last inning. With a runner on second, the batter launched a long fly ball to left field that went over our outfielder’s head. As there was no fence the ball just kept on going. The crowd was in full hysteria as the 10-year-old boy rounded the bases for a sure home run bringing an end to our bid for the championship. As he rounded second base I glanced at my assistant coach and said, “The only thing that will save us is if that kid misses touching third base. And much to my amazement, as the kid rounded third base to go home, I noticed that he missed third base. He went right over top of it without touching it. The entire team was waiting to greet him at home plate, a hero’s welcome. The fans were jumping up and down in the bleachers and I can imagine his dad was leaping for joy. As he crossed home plate he ran into the stands and jumped into what I assumed was his mother’s arms. Meanwhile I was yelling at my pitcher, to retrieve the ball and appeal to the umpire that the runner had missed third base and was therefore ‘out.’

The bleachers went silent, on both sides, as my pitcher went through the legal procedure of throwing the ball over to the third basemen and he stepped on the bag asking for a ruling. The umpire raised his hand in a fist and declared, “yer out!” Well, all heck broke loose with the other coaches arguing the call. But it was a fact. The kid was in such a hurry to get home that he had missed touching third base. I later talked to the umpire, and he told me that the kid had also missed touching second base. With the game tied, as the runner on second base had counted, we went into extra innings, and we ended up winning.

I’m sure it was a hard lesson for that young man to learn but one I bet he never forgot. You can’t cut corners! You have to touch all of the bases in order to get home. That’s true in baseball and it’s certainly true in life. It’s even more sure when it comes to getting back to our home above. A place where all are heroes, and no one is a loser! There are rules as to how to get back Heaven. And there are just no cutting corners to get there!