Monday, October 31, 2011

Communication Breakdown

Last week many of us got to see an amazing communication breakdown on national television. It was during the World Series. Did you see it? (neither did I, thank you SportsCenter).

But here's what happened. St Louis needed to start warming up their relief pitchers so they called the bullpen, which is on the other side of the field and behind a wall, coach La Russa could not see what they were doing, he could only communicate by the bullpen phone.

The problem was, the Texas fans were so incredibly loud, the people in the bullpen couldn't hear the phone or the instructions. So a few minutes later when La Russa wanted a reliever to come in, he wasn't ready. He hadn't even started warming up. They were warming up the wrong pitcher. So they kept the current pitcher in a little longer. Bad move. The next batter got a hit, not just any hit, it scored two runs and put Texas in the lead (and eventually was the game winning hit). All because of bad communication.

Now where the problem was, who knows. Was it the phone? Was it the person on the other end just couldn't hear? Did they hear the right name but tell the others in the bullpen the wrong name? We'll never know. But it does make me think about the church. How good are we at communication? Are we sending a message of a loving God who wants to be a part of our lives to the people on the far end of the field? Are we even getting that message across to our own team?

Just something to think about.

T

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