Perfection

Opening, Rosh HaShanah Eve 5785

Rabbi Sam Cohon, Congregation Beit Simcha

Perfection.  No one can achieve it, right?  I mean that’s what the Days of Awe, the Yamim Nora’im, are all about isn’t it?  We try to do the right thing, much of the time certainly, and being human we are bound to fail, at least some of the time.  Maybe most of the time.  “On earth the broken orb; in heaven, the round complete,” wrote poet Robert Browning, and he was certainly correct.  No one here on earth achieves perfection.  That must be left to God.

But then I was watching a baseball game broadcast from Florida a couple of weeks ago, and at the start of the day Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball club needed two home runs to reach 50 on the year, and one stolen base to reach 50 of those on the year, creating the very first 50/50 season in Major League Baseball history.  Already regarded as the finest player on the planet, winner of two Most Valuable Player Awards in past years and the only person to ever pitch and hit at these incomparable levels since Babe Ruth—who never did both in full seasons like Ohtani—it seemed inevitable that he would reach these statistical milestones over the last couple of weeks of the season.  But you never know.

Now Shohei Ohtani is not built like most of us.  It apparently wasn’t enough for him that he simply continue to do amazing things no one has ever done before in the 150 years of big league baseball.  And so Shohei, on this September day in Miami, came up to the plate to hit six times.  It is rare for a batter to get up more than 5 times in a game, and much rarer for him to succeed every time.  Hitting a baseball in the major leagues is a very hard thing to do; the greatest hitters in the history of the sport fail to do it successfully about 70% of the time.  Getting 5 hits in 5 trips, going 5 for 5 is a rare achievement; it happens, but not often.  Going 6 for 6 seems nearly impossible.  It has only been accomplished about 50 times in history.  A perfect day, right?  An amazing accomplishment.

Of course, that’s exactly what Ohtani did.  But that’s not all he did.

Needing at least one stolen base to reach 50 on the season, this mythical statistical milestone, he stole two bases, and he did so after his first two hits.  Just because, he doubled again the next time up, although he was thrown out trying to reach third base.  But really, he was just getting warmed up.

He then homered on each of his next three times up at bat; he not only reached 50 homeruns, he surpassed it easily.  Shohei Ohtani had six hits in six trips to the place, three homeruns, two doubles, and a measly single.  He stole two bases.  He drove in 10 runs and scored 4 runs.  It was beyond a perfect day.  Most sports afficionados have called it the greatest day ever for a hitter in baseball history—or perhaps for any baseball player ever.  He broke the Dodgers single season home run record held by a favorite Jewish player of mine, Shawn Green, who hit 49 home runs back in 2001.  By the way, it was Shawn Green who, while playing for the Dodgers in 2002, also went 6 for 6, but with 4 home runs.  But Green didn’t steal any bases that day.  On the other hand, Shawn Green sat out on Yom Kippur one year, representing for Judaism and baseball-loving rabbis everywhere.  Sadly, I don’t think Shohei Ohtani will do that.

Basically, Ohtani capped a pretty perfect year with an incredibly beyond perfect game.

One oddity of that grand Ohtani day: the manager of the Florida Marlins is a fellow named Skip Schumaker.  I took my older kids to see a New York Mets ballgame at the old Shea Stadium back in 2008; they were playing the St. Louis Cardinals, who featured a singles-hitting utility player named Skip Schumaker.  That day, Skip had six hits, one of the other times in history a hitter has had six hits in a game, although all of his were singles.  It was Schumaker who chose to continue to pitch to Ohtani, a courageous decision not to walk him and avoid further humiliation in a game long lost.  I mean, Skip knew what it meant to do something unique at the plate, right? 

Now I know this may seem trivial to those of you who are not baseball fans.  But what Shohei Ohtani did that day—really, all season—can serve as a kind of inspiration for us.  He demonstrated that at least for one day something impossible can be accomplished, and perfection can be achieved by at least one human being.

You see, it’s not that we will all reach t’shuvah gmurah, full repentance over these aseret yemei teshuvah, the Ten Days of Repentance we enter now.  But it is the case that we have something to aspire to: the opportunity always exists for us to become better, to strive for goodness, to take the ordinary and the mundane and make theme sacred.  I can’t promise that we will each go 6 for 6 with three homeruns and two stolen bases; for that matter, Judaism discourages theft of any kind.  But I can promise that if you enter into these holy days with an open heart and mind, if you turn to those you love and ask their forgiveness for your mistakes, if you approach those you may have wronged and try to make amends, you will succeed in making your life, and the lives of those around you, better.

May we each be blessed over these High Holy Days with the ability to seek, even strive for a full return to goodness, to holiness, and to God.  And may our lives then be filled with blessings—if not perfection.