You Are Beautiful, Day 16

For my last post of this month, I want to talk about how sometimes beauty doesn't come in a physical form at all. Tonight I want to talk about how I discovered the truly moving beauty of a man I admire greatly. His name is Mark, and he's an incredible person, and I was inspired all the more when I discovered that he knows Who his beauty came from, and credits Him with the many gifts he's received.

To anyone who knows me, or anyone who knows my mother was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, it should come as no surprise that I am a life-long New York Yankees fan. I went to the first game I can remember when I was five year old, and I still have (and fit into) the Paul O'Neill shirt my parents bought me at that game. Even when they make stupid plays or stupid trades, they're still my boys, and they always will be. No other team will ever have the place in my heart I've reserved for the Yankees.

During the 2009 season, I was glued to the TV and any news of the Yanks, who were doing unusually well (they won the World Series that year), and the new first baseman was brought to my attention as he had a very good year himself. As far as players went, he was a very good one, but my favorite was the catcher at the time, Jorge Posada. Posada was having a solid year, and special attention was being paid to him, Derek Jeter (the shortstop), Andy Pettitte (a starting pitcher), and Mariano Rivera (the closing pitcher) as they were the remaining four players who had been with the team for the '96, '98, '99, and '00 World Series wins. I was psyched out of my mind when the Yankees took home the trophy that year, and showed up to school the next morning in navy and white knee socks (the dress code said one or the other, but I didn't care) and chalked the interlocking NY and the number 27 (it was their 27th World Series win) onto my jumper.

That day, my mother went out and bought the special issue of Sports Illustrated about the World Series, and I read through it eagerly (even the story about our grossly overpaid third baseman, Alex Rodriguez). One story in particular caught my eye- the story about the first baseman, Mark Teixeira. Teixeira had gotten off to a tough start in April, but by May he had his groove going, and he wasn't thrown from it for the rest of the season. In fact, his career had been remarkably consistent. He never batted below .280, hit less than 30 home runs, or had less than 100 RBIs. He had four gold gloves in five years, and in his second year in the major leagues, he was elected a players' representative to the union.

But it turned out he wasn't just a good player. In high school he played baseball, and the Boston Red Sox offered him $1.5 million to play for them. He turned them down and decided to attend Georgia Tech instead, where he played for their baseball team and met his wife. They got married, and he was drafted by the Texas Rangers for $9.5 million. The first thing he did with that money was approach the principal of his high school to endow a scholarship in the name of one of his best friends from the school, who'd died in a car crash during their junior year. The principal informed Teixeira that the school would need at least $75,000 to endow the scholarship, and so Teixeira wrote the check right there, and the scholarship continues to be endowed today. In addition to that, Teixiera's teammates noted that even doing the most mundane things he does every day, like standing to hear the National Anthem before each game, he does them as if he's never done them before and as if they are the most important thing he will do all day.

I was pleasantly surprised by Mark Teixeira, who was not only a good player, but a good man, as well. When Jorge Posada retired I was quite sad, but I knew who my new favorite Yankee on the roster would be: Texeira. I thought it was a no-brainer until I ran into this article in the National Catholic Register. I was absolutely floored. Not only was this man a crack baseball player and a stand up guy, he was quoting Scripture and a papal encyclical! I just about died and went to heaven reading that interview, and it reaffirmed my decision that Teixeira was my favorite player on the team. I could not believe that he was so talented, intelligent, generous, and faithful all at once. If someone had told me that it was possible to have a ball player like this, I probably would have laughed when they came to the "faithful Catholic" part. Sure, you have to be good to make it in the majors, several players have impressive college degrees, lots of them have their own charities to help out people less fortunate than themselves, and lots of guys have faith, but if you'd told me that all of those guys would turn out to be my favorite guy on my team? To say I wouldn't have believed you would be an understatement.

The beauty of this man doesn't lie in how he looks, although he isn't bad looking. It's not in his talent, although he is undeniably talented. It's not in his generosity, although he is certainly generous. It wasn't in his intelligence, although he is definitely intelligent. It wasn't in his faith, although he is faithful. The beauty of Mark Teixeira is in the fact that he uses all of those attributes which he received from God to serve Him. In my kitchen there is a plaque above the sink which reads, "What you are is God's gift to you. What you make of yourself is your gift to God." I believe that, and I see it lived out in Mark Teixeira, who, although he had received from God so many blessings that other people have not, he has taken every one of those blessings and turned them back to God's service. Mark Teixeira was good to start with, and he made an incredible and admirable man of himself.

If you're reading this blog right now, it's very likely that the only blessings Mark Teixeira has that you don't are fame and fortune. You don't need those to return to God a stunning gift of the person you are, of the person He created you to be. Your beauty lies in accepting the tremendous love and blessings God has given to you, and giving them back to Him in service of His people. I pray that we will all be able to take the examples of the Mark Teixeiras in our lives and emulate them to the greater glory of God, because that is what He made us for, and that is our true beauty.

Mark Teixeira, showing us that beauty is taking God's gifts and turning them back to Him.