Last night the Houston Astros won the National League Championship. They are on their way to the World Series. Now you might wonder why this is so exciting to me as I don't even follow baseball. Sports just are not my thing.I do like to watch football, but only on the high school level and only if I am actually there in the stands.

So why is this so wonderful to me?. Why am I so elated and happy? It isn't even that it is my hometown that won. It is because of this man I once knew who loved the game.

He would sit and listen to every game of every season on this little old transistor radio he had.

The sounds of that radio are still in my mind. I thought it was the most boring game on earth,

but there he sat, night after night listening and excited as a kid.

I learned alot about how to deal with disappointment from watching him. Every year he would start out with such faith and hope. But they didn't go to the series. He would be so discouraged, but he would say "Next season, they'll make it. And every season, he would sit there and listen to them again.

Well, they didn't make it during his lifetime. But you see, he knew they would someday and that was enough for him. Seems that so many things in life are like that. You just have to hold on and believe that someday it will be alright. You have to hold on to faith and hope to make it through.

All of this I learned from watching him as he sat down year after year to listen to the game.

It was a game of baseball-that's all; but it was how my father dealt with the larger game of life.

I know he is smiling in Heaven, and dancing for joy today! My heart is rejoicing right along with him! And Daddy, you were right! 

Anita