Batting average: 296, Salary: $20 million

     My father loved baseball. Like yesterday, I can see the car door ajar and hear the radio blaring as Dad washes his 1956 white-and-turquoise Ford Fairlane on Sunday afternoon. I can tell by his grin that the Yankees are beating the Red Sox and "All's well in the world".
     Now I live in FL and follow the Tampa Bay Rays religiously. (Is that word OK here?) I don't cheer the Yankees any more.  How could I if I'm a Rays fan? Whether at the stadium, on TV or via the Internet on mlb.tv, I rarely miss a Rays game. At this time of year before baseball resumes, I read every word about the upcoming season.  Who are the new players? How about that new AstroTurf at Tropicana Field? Is a guy who's just playing baseball, not a rocket scientist or a church organist, worth all that money? 
     Did you see how Carl Crawford, who was a Ray from 2002 - 2010, was lured to the Boston Red Sox by a seven-year, $142 million contract?  It makes me breathless even to type that large number.  It's like sightreading while simultaneously transposing a Franck chorale up a minor third. That's so much moola that I need a cardiac stabilizer device!
     Can you imagine getting millions of dollars for only hitting the baseball less than one-third of the time? That means you can miss the ball two-thirds of the time and still be a rich, entitled person. And Carl's 296 batting average last year is high. An average player hits in the neighborhood of twenty per cent of the time.
     What about church organists? What if they played a hymn and missed two-thirds of the notes? Would they still have a job?  Would they still warrant their salary, every penny of their often starvation wages without benefits? Or would the board of directors or trustees meet to deal with the situation?
     Most organists have a crazy-kind of job security.  No - they don't get fired.  Who else could play even half the notes?  No, the board of trustees or deacons or directors convenes to address the dissonance.  In my home town, the trustees voted to give the organist lessons! (Certainly the 5 - 10% of churches which pay living wages to their directors don't fit in this discussion.  That's a topic for another day.)
     So, dear friends, all you colleagues, how did we end up in a profession where we're expected to hit one hundred per cent of the notes and where any mistake is LOUD? And where we play thousands of notes every week and often hear only grumbles when our "batting average" sinks below 900? Life is unfair, but this is ridiculous!
     The rest of you: be kind to your organists.
     BTW, be sure to comment anonymously if you wish to discuss an issue in your church life. I'll be pleased to listen to you and, perhaps, be able to help.


     Talk to you next week.  Donna


P.S.  Spring Training started this week!