Grant Desme is making it to The Show. Just not the one Nuke LaLoosh dreamed about.
The decision by one of the Oakland A’s top prospects — he was considered a lock for the Majors one day — to leave baseball and enter seminary is a story that, quite remarkably, has gotten the attention it deserves by media outlets big and small, local and national.
The AP article offered the details you would expect — Desme is a lifelong Catholic who “kept his path quiet within the sports world” — but without much discussion of why he felt so compelled. I particularly liked this history lesson:
“Al Travers, who gave up 24 runs during a one-game career for a makeshift Detroit Tigers team in 1912, became a Catholic priest. More recently, Chase Hilgenbrinck of the New England Revolution left Major League Soccer in 2008 to enter a seminary.
It’s a good story, but I can easily image the AP’s Eric Gorski digging deeper into this story. That is, if the Godbeat was still blessed by his membership.
And what about the local paper, the San Francisco Chronicle, which isn’t exactly known for its sensitive treatment of the Catholic Church?
Pretty good. The overall story isn’t significantly different than the AP’s. But the structure and choice of quotes are. It starts:
“Baseball is a good thing, but that felt selfish of me when I felt that God was calling me more,” Desme said on a conference call. “It took a while to trust that and open up to it and aim full-steam toward him.
“I love the game, but I’m going to aspire to higher things.”
The decision was entirely unexpected. Desme said A’s general manager Billy Beane was shocked, and assistant GM David Forst made sure director of player development Keith Lieppman was sitting down before relaying the news.
“He was right on the verge of fame and fortune and glamour, and he’s denying all that,” Lieppman said. “He’s going in a totally different direction. Grant said it was a very powerful call, and that’s much more important.”
It’s interesting to see a baseball front office guy refer to someone’s ministerial calling. But that pales in comparison to the quote that closes the article:
“For those of us who were never good enough to make it to the big leagues, this is a head-scratcher,” one American League scout said. “But during this time in baseball when there’s so much lying and selfishness and hypocrisy, I’ve got to say I think this is very refreshing. This is someone who has his priorities intact. God bless him.”
God bless him, indeed.
Desme’s move reminds me of when Fernando Tatis, the only player to ever hit two grand slams in the same inning and off the same pitcher, returned to the Majors to fund the construction of a church in his native Dominican Republic, and MLB.com has a story saying that Desme isn’t that unusual.
If that’s true, I know one church softball league I need to stay out of.
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Comments (11) |
January 29, 2010, at 12:25 pm
The MLB.com story is not bad.
January 29, 2010, at 2:20 pm
Some truly fascinating quotes here, almost provocative in their sensitivity. Glad the reporters picked up on these. And by the way, Brad, nice work of your own on the structure and wording of this post.
January 29, 2010, at 3:02 pm
I heard an interview with the guy; he seems like a well-spoken, intelligent young man. Incidentally, he is only a little bit older than me.
I also thought that, on the radio, he sounded really hesitant to talk about his decision in-depth, which I completely understand (I am preparing to enter seminary [though not Catholic] as well). A lot of people will not understand it when someone who has a bright future making lots of cash in whatever field he is in makes the decision, not only to leave his field and become a clergyman, but also to make the commitment to lifelong celibacy as a Catholic priest. It takes a strong faith to do that, and it can be hard for anyone (including a journalist) to understand it if they haven’t felt it themselves.
January 29, 2010, at 3:05 pm
For that matter, throw in poverty, obedience and stability as part of the vows. Not exactly mainstream, at least for most people.
January 29, 2010, at 3:06 pm
Wow, sorry folks..
The blockquote above should read:
January 29, 2010, at 3:51 pm
This is a good story. But balancing this one is the lack of priests which was covered at USA Today in a story about a person who was facing potential death and could not find a priests to administer last rights: http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-01-28-last-rites_N.htm
January 29, 2010, at 4:00 pm
I can’t believe nobody mentions Billy Sunday, who left what passed for a lucrative career in baseball in the 1890s (he was one of the great base-stealers of his day) to become the nation’s preëminent evangelist.
January 29, 2010, at 4:14 pm
Brad, my understanding of the Tatis story is not that he “left the Majors to start a church”, which would indicate that he was in the role of a pastor starting a new congregation. But rather he returned to the Majors after some absence in order to earn some money to build a church building (Catholic? Protestant?) in his Dominican hometown.
January 29, 2010, at 4:15 pm
What I wanted to know about Desme, and couldn’t find in any news story, is which seminary is he going to attend? Is he joining a religious order, or will he be a diocesan priest?
January 29, 2010, at 5:38 pm
While I can’t be sure, I got the feeling from the interviews I heard that he was not quite that far along yet. I’ve got to think he is close, though, otherwise he would not be making what appears to be a relatively final decision.
January 29, 2010, at 9:32 pm
Matt, that is correct. I misspoke: