Rip’s Ford Accordian

(#35)

During the spring of 1989, we had returned late on Sunday night after winning Hinds’ first Region 23 Tournament in Meridian. We were traveling in a 15 passenger school van that I parked in front of what used to be called the Visitor’s Quarters, the Hinds Hilton, on the west side of Joe Renfroe Stadium where our out-of-state players were staying because school was out and the dorms had closed.

It was pitch black in the front of the building a few minutes later when I jumped in the van to head home. We would be back on the road early the next day. And as I backed up, I heard a sound that couldn’t possibly be good.

I had backed the van into Noah James‘ black Ford Tempo and compacted a compact car. I crushed it like an accordian. I had “ripped” Rip’s new car. After all the tension cleared a few days later, we even jokingly called the Tempo a Ford Accordian.

That car wasn’t there when I pulled in and I never saw it until I crushed it. (circa, before outdoor lights on buildings and back-up cameras on vans).

Big Rip (Noah was nicknamed Rip, because he could “rip” baseballs), who was only 6’3″ and 230 pounds, was enraged and used each of George Carlin’s seven words you cannot say on television (well, at least not in 1989) and he called me every name in the book, except a Christian. I had been talked to like that before, but never by one of my players… at least to my face. It was a very effective tongue lashing.

It was as if he thought I backed over the car of my star player on purpose. So as not to reciprocate his rage, I invoked Proverbs 15:1 and calmly said to him, and I’m paraphrasing the verse… “You can act like a fool if you want to, but when you get finished, that car is still gonna be crushed. Let’s focus on solutions.”

I assured him that Hinds would make it right, file an insurance claim, and either get his car repaired or replaced. And I’m sure they did, but not sure which one they did.

But with his .375 batting average, 19 home runs and 75 RBI, they should have bought him a BMW. There had to be a dollar sign on those muscles.

I have often used that proverb before, “A soft answer turns away wrath,” and it has always worked well for me. It has saved my life many times. I recommend it to you in your future conflicts.

The next day while we were loading our charter bus, headed to Greenville, North Carolina to play in the Eastern District Tournament, Noah stepped on the bus and sincerely apologized for his outburst the previous night. Very impressive young man. Thank you Jesus. Many people could not make themselves do that without someone coercing them to do it. But he did it, because he raised with great character and was always a class act… and maybe he realized it was an accident and everything was going to work out well.

I thought about crushing it again just to see if he really meant it. 🙂

But whether he apologized or not, he would still batting in the clean-up spot in our batting order on Thursday afternoon against national powerhouse, Louisburg, North Carolina.

And by the way, as always, he played great and destroyed a few baseballs and came close to crushing a couple of cars of his own in the five games we played that week.

Lessons Learned: Just remember that anger won’t get you where you want to go in life and it certainly won’t un-crush a Ford Accordian.

And as far as I know, Noah A. James III never parked his new BMW anywhere near me again.

We came back from the loser’s bracket, winning four straight games to win the tournament and became the first Mississippi team to win the Eastern District Tournament and the first Mississippi team to play in the JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado.