© 1999 Joe Murray

Last Friday, the New York Mets got devastating news. Their superstar catcher, Mike Piazza, would not be able to play for the next several days, due to an injured thumb and a bad reaction to the cortisone shot that would have normally relieved the pain so he could play. This couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Mets. They were tied one game apiece with the Arizona Diamondbacks in the best of 5 divisional series.

If the loss of one player could have doomed the Mets to defeat, it was Piazza. He is one of the greatest hitting catchers ever to play the game. He is the Mets’ best and most feared hitter. Piazza is well known to even the casual baseball fan. To show how valuable the Mets consider Piazza, he makes approximately fifty times as much money as Todd Pratt, the man who would be replacing him in the lineup.

The 32-year-old Pratt has been a professional baseball player for 14 years, but he has only 610 career at-bats in the major leagues. That is basically one season’s worth of at- bats for an everyday ball player or possibly a year and a half for a catcher because of the physical demands of the position. It took Pratt 7 years to reach the major leagues for the first time in 1992. Since then, he has been with 3 different major league teams and has jumped back and forth between the minors countless times. In all, he has played in 10 different minor league cities over the years. After the 1995 season, he was cut loose by the Chicago Cubs.  And, he was out of baseball for an entire season before he found another job with the Mets. According to ESPN, he spent at least part of that year working as a pizza delivery man.

What transpired probably has Kevin Costner planning his next movie, or at least we can hope he isn’t planning the sequel to Water World. In game 3 last Friday night, the rest of the Mets stepped up and pounded Arizona 9-2 to take a “two games to one” lead. In game 4, the two teams matched each other pitch-for-pitch, and the game went to extra innings -- tied 3-3. If the Mets lost, they had to go back for the deciding 5^th game in Arizona and face the dominant pitching presence of Randy Johnson. Johnson recorded 364 strikeouts during the regular season, which was the 4^th highest in baseball history. Johnson also had the National League’s lowest earned run average.  So, it behooved the Mets to finish business at home, if they wanted to win the series.

In the 10^th inning, Todd Pratt came to the plate, having gone hitless in 7 at-bats in the two games since Piazza had gone down. Every Met fan must have groaned a little to see Pratt at the plate again. In his previous at-bat, he had choked at the chance to be a hero. In the 8^th inning, with runners on first and third with one out and the game tied, all Pratt had to do was hit a fly ball for the Mets in order to take the lead. Instead, he hit a weak bouncer back to the pitcher.  The pitcher, Matt Mantei, easily fielded the ball and threw home to record the second out of the inning.  Mantei was, then, able to escape the inning with the game still tied.

Then, with one swing of the bat, Pratt went from a nobody and potential goat of the game to the toast of the Big Apple. Pratt hit a long drive to deep centerfield. Arizona’s center fielder, Steve Finley, went racing back to the wall, leaped and, for a split second, there was an eerie silence as it looked like Finley had came down with the ball. Then, Finley looked in his glove and his head slumped, letting the world know his glove was empty. The crowd erupted with a thunderous roar as Todd Pratt circled the bases with the winning run. This unlikely hero had become just the fourth player in major league history to end a post-season series with a home run.

I am a big baseball fan, so I enjoyed this story.  But, I find it even more compelling because it symbolizes the true strength of the United States. The strength of America resides in people taking advantage of their freedom to achieve great things. In a free society, even an ordinary person like former pizza delivery man, Todd Pratt, can draw on the image of God that dwells in every one of us to rise above his normally average self and achieve something great.

I suppose, in the great scheme of life, a dramatic game-winning home run isn’t that important.  But, everyday people in this country launch new dreams in our free market economic system that lead to prosperity for themselves, their families, and sometimes the entire nation or even the whole world.

One of these great success stories is Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. Upon getting out of the military when World War II ended, Walton borrowed $25,000 from his father-in-law to purchase a Ben Franklin store in Arkansas. Forty-seven years later, when Walton died, he was one of the richest men in the world, having multiplied that original $25,000 by a billion. His assets were worth more than 25 billion dollars. Wal-Mart was the largest retailer in America, providing quality products at the most reasonable price. This helped millions of people across the country improve their standard of living and provided jobs for thousands more.

Walton was a poster boy for the American success story that occurs in a free society.  Too many in the world would sneer and claim he was driven by greed and selfishness. Out of envy, they would deny his success was shared by millions of people. This was refuted by none other than the normally anti-business New York Times. The Times obituary included a short paragraph telling of a clerk at one of Sam Walton’s Wal-Mart stores who, until then, was unknown to the world.

Shirley Cox would be considered by many to be a nobody. She worked for years as cashier for a Wal-Mart store without moving up the corporate ladder or doing some heroic act to garner headlines. In fact, she never made more than $7.10 an hour. However, when she had retired in 1989, her pension plan that Sam Walton had established for his employees had $260,000 in it.  In other words, there was more than enough in it for her to live out the rest of her life with a better standard of living than she had ever experienced before. It was her reward for doing her best at her job, even if it wasn’t considered by most people to be an important job.

In his book, A New Birth of Freedom, Presidential candidate Steve Forbes made this observation after relating the story of Sam Walton and Shirley Cox:  

This is part of the greatness of America: a young boy growing up during the Depression with good parents who teach him hard work and the value of a dollar, with the freedom to build a business, with the courage to make a difference, becoming the wealthiest man in the world...and a young girl who grows up to work hard and loyally for a strong American company and retire with dignity and security because she was free to participate in the real American economy. In an environment of freedom, real human progress is possible. The least can become first. The establishment can be challenged, and the world made anew. This is the magic of a free society.

The greatness of a free society shouldn’t just be measured in material prosperity, but we too often forget the great good our freedom has rendered. I also think there is a great deal wrong with our country. Fortunately, in my opinion, the good still outweighs the bad. I don’t believe you can just ignore the problems. However, the solutions to many of the problems stem from the fact that we have lost sight of what works. By reaffirming what is right about our country or in our individual lives, we often will find the answer to what works.

At the foundation of what works is our freedom. Our freedom allows people not just to dream, but also to turn those dreams into reality. We aren’t limited by our pedigree, societal status or even level of education from becoming a success. Every one of us has a talent that will be of service, if we develop that talent and put it to work. Freedom works because most people have the ambition to put their talents to work. More importantly, it allows us the opportunity to discover our greatest talents.

When we develop our talents, we often obtain more than anyone and even ourselves ever thought possible. This was illustrated to me from the time I was a small child, when my parents and, later, I read the biblical parable Jesus told about talents. A rich man was going on a long trip. Before leaving, he gave each of his servants some of his assets to take care of while he was gone. He gave one servant 5 talents. He gave the second servant 2 talents and the last servant 1 talent.

When he returned, the first two servants had each invested his money and had doubled the principle. The master was pleased and told each of them. “Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter though into the joy of the lord.”

Unlike the other two, the servant that had only received one talent just hid it for safe keeping, then returned it just in the same condition and value as when the rich man had given it to him. The master was angry and called the servant wicked and evil. He, then, took the talent and gave it to the first servant who had doubled his talents from 5 to 10. He told the servant that, if nothing else, he should have put it in the bank to draw interest. He then said, “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath and cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Christ was talking in more than economic terms, but this is still a great illustration of the superiority of the free market system. When people use their talents to the best of their ability, they can not only double their talents, but they also have the opportunity (like Sam Walton) to increase them a billion fold. A Todd Pratt doesn’t have as great a talent as Mike Piazza; but, because he has done the best with what he does have, he was ready to step up when he was called on to perform. Shirley Cox was not given great talent, but she was a faithful employee and did the best with what she had. It eventually rewarded her for her effort. 

Place your trust in God and yourself and do your best every day of your life. No matter how unimportant and mundane the task, make the best of it. Eventually, in a free society, you will be rewarded for your hard work and dedication. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dream great dreams. You should want to hit the ball out of the park.  But, sometimes, a bunt can be just as important to winning the game. Todd Pratt could have settled for being a pizza delivery man, but he didn’t give up his dream, even when it looked lost.

You achieve greatness by practicing it. As the message of the parable talents teaches, doing the best in the little things prepares you for greatness. The Great Communicator of Freedom, Ronald Reagan, expressed it this way in a speech to the country in 1981. “I ask you to trust yourselves. That’s what America is all about. Our struggle for nationhood, our unrelenting fight for freedom, our very existence -- these have all rested on the assurance that you must be free to shape your lives as you are best able to, that no one can stop you from reaching higher or take from you the creativity that has made America the envy of mankind.”

“The envy of mankind” is a subtle and succinct way of exposing the true nature of the enemies of freedom. The enemies of freedom are those who expect to be rewarded for not doing their best. They define success as nobody achieving more than anyone else. They want to bring everyone down to the level of the unfaithful servant. They pervert the idea of freedom to a right to destroy yourself and anyone else that dares do better than someone else. They use their perverted notion of freedom to manipulate people to give them power. As the history of the Soviet Union illustrates, once they have power, all freedom is destroyed. When freedom is gone, prosperity, progress and happiness soon disappear.

At the heart of the socialist vision is the notion that a

compassionate society can create more humane living conditions for all through government 'planning' and control of the economy....

Idealist socialists create systems in which idealists are almost certain to lose and be superseded by those whose drive for power, and ruthlessness in achieving it, make them the 'fittest' to survive under a system where government power is the ultimate prize.... 
The issue is not what anyone intends but what consequences are in fact likely to follow.
     -- Columnist Thomas Sowell

As the 20^th Century comes to an end, many people have dubbed it America’s Century. I can go along with that, but I think a more appropriate description of the 20^th century would be called, “Freedom on Trial.” Both abroad and at home, freedom has been challenged -- both philosophically and by force of arms. The scales of justice have clearly fallen on the side of freedom. However, it has been battered and bruised along the way.

We have a government that has grown too large and an intellectual class that hasn’t heard the verdict in favor of freedom, which dominates our schools, churches and press. In addition, there are numerous enemies of freedom abroad that are emerging to replace those we defeated over the last century. We also have too many people that are ignorant of the problems or unwilling to face them because they understandably don’t seem to be that big. We are currently more prosperous than any people who have gone before us in the history of the world.

It is essential that those who understand that freedom is the source of our prosperity need to keep their eye on the ball and hit a home run for freedom every chance they get. People need warned of the threats to freedom. More importantly, they need reminded of the benefits that freedom has already given them. Tell them of the greatness achieved by others because of freedom -- how things will be better, if we have more rather than less freedom.

 To Joe's previous article