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Two Tiger newcomers seek a deeper walk Tuesday, May 8, 2007 By Lee Warren |
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Baseball fans have grown accustomed to seeing him put up big numbers. He hit 118 home runs while driving in 604 runs when he played for the Cincinnati Reds from 1998 to 2005. With all of that success, you might think a person like Casey might be prone to having a big ego. But to most fans, he’s generally known as one of the game’s nice guys. Nice is just a product of what’s really going on inside Casey’s heart, though. And you can get a peek inside of Casey by looking at a couple of books that he has in his locker. One is about Jackie Robinson. The other is about humility. “I’m really trying to stay focused on what God’s doing in my life and realize that I’m really nothing,” Casey said. “That nothingness is what enables me to really pray. I try to see people as God’s creation and I try to just love people.” So, how does a three-time All-Star who has tasted most of the success that the baseball world has to offer get to the point where he considers himself nothing? “I don’t know,” Casey said. “Through humility you really accept neither praise nor judgment. You’re not really as good as you think you are and you’re not really as bad as other people think you are. It’s just knowing that God is leading the way.” As is common with athletes, Casey finds it easier to stay focused spiritually when he’s on the road because he has more time alone then. And he says that he really has to stay conscious about the importance of investing the proper amount of time and effort to work on relationships with the people he loves when he comes home from a road trip. “Sometimes the people you’re closest to are the people you take for granted — your wife, your kids or your friends,” Casey said. “Sometimes it’s easy to love the people you don’t know. And I think that’s where love really needs to start — is at home, and with relationships with your friends. It’s something you’ve always got to be conscious of. “You look at your wife and you think, ‘Wow, she’s so special.’ Or your look at your kids and what a miracle they are. Instead of just going through the motions at home, I want to really make an effort to see my family as more important.” Chad Durbin, another newcomer to the Tigers’ Major League roster, has not come anywhere near the on-field success of Sean Casey. In fact, he’s struggled just to get to and stay in the Major Leagues for most of his career. In 2000, when he had a chance to start 16 games for the Kansas City Royals, he was 2-5 with an 8.21 ERA. Hoping for better things in 2001, he had a disastrous season with the Royals. In fact, he can still recite the numbers: 9-16 with a 4.93 ERA. “And I missed a month (that season),” Durbin said with a chuckle. “So, I could have won 10 or 11 or I could have lost 18 or 19.” In the midst of his struggles with the Royals, he began to watch Mike Sweeney — a professed Christian who walked the walk. “He’s such a solid guy to start out with,” Durbin said. “Then I found out he’s a strong Christian. It became a relationship between him and I, and then me and Christ. It’s blossomed from that.” Durbin became a free agent after the 2002 season, and he bounced from the Cleveland Indians, to the Arizona Diamondbacks, to the Washington Nationals, and finally to Detroit — which signed him to a minor league deal in November 2005. Durbin pitched for Toledo last season, the Triple-A affiliate of the Tigers, and put up strong numbers, going 11-8 with a 3.11 ERA. And he led the International League in strikeouts with 149 in 185 innings. The Tigers gave him a shot at the starting rotation in 2006 and he’s now their number five starter. “It’s a perspective thing,” Durbin said. “I needed to go do that [go to Toledo]. Now I’m here and they have the confidence in me to put me in this role so I’ll leave everything out there.” Durbin isn’t just interested in growing as a starting pitcher, though. He’s also working on his spiritual life and he finds inspiration for spiritual growth in several ways. “Maybe asking a guy a couple of questions,” Durbin said. “Or just opening a Bible, or reading a Max Lucado book, or just simply taking a walk and taking in some normal things like seeing a kid smile.” Speaking of kids, Durbin’s wife, Crystal, is pregnant with their first child. He was so happy when he heard the news in March that he told a reporter for the Detroit Free Press that, “My best news in March, wasn’t that I made the team.” In listening to him speak, Durbin has a certain ease in his voice that makes you believe that he’s found peace through all his struggles and that he sees God’s hand in each of them.
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