Crowded Weekend -- Champs Win!

This past weekend was crowded with all sorts of events from which to choose. Well, dear reader, I'd say that's typical for this city that loves to party. And so I had to pick and choose -- and didn't always pick what I initially most wanted!

And it began on Thursday; at the San Antonio City Council meeting I received two items concerning Diez y Seis. One was a medal for the holiday, the other a printed schedule of all San Antonio events to do with this holiday that celebrates the independence of Mexico.

It's Diez y Seis (Spanish for "16") because the struggle for our southern neighbor's freedom from Spanish rule started on 16 September 1810. At midnite on the 15th, the priest of the village of Dolores, Miguel Hidalgo, rang the church bells, to call together his parish. He then uttered the cry for independence, which began the long struggle. And so, at midnite on the fifteenth the President of Mexico utters a version of el grito ("the cry" or "the shout") from the balcony of the National Palace, to open the Diez y Seis celebrations. San Antonio, even tho' longer a city of Mexico, holds its own El Grito ceremony in Municipal Auditorium. I attended it once, missed it last year because the concluding cry was done two hours early (at ten), and desired to attend again this year.

So, with the medal and printed schedule, I was all set to go enjoy the El Grito ceremony, right? Wrong! I worked at Fiesta Texas 'til 2:00, then went to a library to do some work until the library closed at 5:00. And then I took the bus home and listened to KKKYX-AM 680's broadcast of the Missions championship game in Missouri for the 2007 Texas League crown.

And what a game it was! San Antonio's baseball team dominated the game until the bottom of the ninth. The Missions led 11-0 at that point, and for several innings Springfield's team, despite playing at home, didn't even have a hit, let alone a run.

But. . . don't give the visiting Missions the 2007 TL crown just yet! The Springfield Cardinals, farm team of MLB's St. Louis team, came alive -- very alive -- as the bottom of ninth commenced. They gained six runs before the Missions' defense even got an out on them! Things were looking grim for awhile there. But once there was one out, the ending for Springfield and San Antonio came quickly. Final score was Cardinals 7, Missions 11.

The San Antonio Missions had three wins to one loss in the best-of-five championship series. They thus had won the Texas League crown for 2007!

I went to sleep considering how this was the second sports championship for '07 that San Antonio had earned, the other being the Spurs winning the NBA. And I knew that the baseball guys wouldn't get the recognition that the Spurs got back in June. Folks in this city just do not seem to know or care that there is more to sports here than the Spurs and the "Friday night lights" of high school football. Oh, well, I'll get off my soapbox. . . .

Sunday morning I awoke and began the day's entry in my prayer journal. I wrote the heading: "Sunday 16 September. . ." Yeah, today, the Diez y Seis holiday, I would be preaching the sermon at Mexican Christian Church. . . wait! "¡Diez y Seis!" This means that I missed El Grito ceremony last night at Municipal Auditorium! Oh well, one cannot turn back the hands of time to participate in some event one has missed. . . .

So I simply continued preparing to attend church and preach a sermon. This BTW, was why I had gone to the library after work on Saturday, to finish my sermon preparation. We had a good number of people at Mexican Christian Church for worship, including several small children. That's great! My sermon was "Gracia y Gratitude / Grace and Gratitude", with the featured Scripture being I Timothy 1:12-17, with reference also to Psalm 14 and Luke 15:1-10. All three Scripture readings are from the lectionary (the list of recommended Bible reading for a given Sunday), and had God's grace and a person's gratitude as theme.

Following worship I did get in a little celebration of the Diez y Seis holiday. I had Sunday dinner at Mi Tierra, the well-known restaurant in S.A.'s El Mercado. Then I wandered around the marketplace and enjoyed the live music and other elements of the Fiestas Patrias (more or less "Patriotic Parties", what Spanish-speakers would also call the U.S.A.'s celebrations on or about the Fourth of July) annual festivity.

And once in awhile I'd think back on what I had missed the evening before -- El Grito over at Municipal Auditorium -- AND also what I'd experienced: listening on KKYX-AM 680 to the San Antonio Missions win the 2007 Texas League AA baseball championship! Hooray, Missions! Y también ¡Viva San Antonio!