August 26, 2026 - Good Morning! It’s Wednesday, August 26.
On this day, in 1972, Leo Durocher was hired as the manager of the Houston Astros baseball team. I was a teenage Houstonian then, and a big Astros fan, and remember that moment well. He only led the ‘Stros for one year and it turned out to be his last year in the Big Leagues. Known for a fiery personality, Durocher constantly got into nose-to-nose arguments with umpires, getting ejected a record 100 times. He also infamously coined the phrase - “Nice guys finish last”. A good player, an excellent manager, a colorful character.
But 25 years before he came to Texas, Leo Durocher played a small part in a huge moment in history. In 1947 he was the skipper of the Brooklyn Dodgers, when a rookie infielder was brought up from the minor leagues. That young player made the team, and in so doing, broke the “color barrier” in baseball. Jackie Robinson went on to become a civil rights icon along with names like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. And Leo Durocher was there to play a small role in a big moment.
Three of the Gospels speak of a man called Simon of Cyrene. A visitor to Jerusalem during Passover one year, he was part of a crowd of people who lined the streets to watch a strange procession, a journey to an execution. He saw Christ, beaten to an inch of his life, carrying a beam on his shoulders, the size and weight of a railroad tie. When Jesus faltered under this heavy burden, the Roman guards pulled Simon from the crowd and laid the weight on his shoulders, as he followed the Messiah to Calvary.
Cyrene was a country in Africa, so it is possible that Simon was a dark skinned man. And on that day two thousand years ago, he played a small role in the biggest moment in human history. Simon’s story brings to mind this morning the words of Christ found in Luke 14:27 - “Whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple”.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
