Where Do You Turn for Relief? By Dave Dravecky

When I was called up to the major leagues in 1982, one of the first people to greet me was Eric Show (rhymes with pow), a pretty good pitcher in his day who won more games in a San Diego Padre uniform than anyone in history.
As far as I was concerned, Eric was a borderline genius who not only knew the Bible inside and out, but could expound on philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Freud and Kierkegaard. He was also an accomplished jazz musician who self-produced several albums. He liked to think big thoughts and study God's word intensely.
I was a new Christian at the time - and a lightweight when it came to heavy thinking - but this charismatic pitcher took me under his wing even though I had nothing to offer him.
When we were on the road with time to kill, Eric invited me, and a fellow pitcher, Mark Thurmond, to study the Bible with him. Those were some intense sessions. Articulate and self-assured, he would preach without notes at our Sunday Baseball Chapels or share his testimony on cue before church and community groups. Eric was such a natural-born leader that I never minded when he challenged to live a deeper life for God.
As I said, he was one studly Christian.
Yet, for all his biblical knowledge and leadership acumen, Eric was a hurting individual. No one, not even I or my teammates, knew he was struggling with drugs. Eric couldn't let his guard down lest anyone think he wasn't the person that everyone thought him to be.
No one knows when Eric started abusing heroin and cocaine, but he had a couple of bizarre episodes after he left the Padres. The Oakland A's cut him after he couldn't explain why he showed up at training camp with nasty cuts on both hands. At the age of 34, Eric was out of baseball.
It was a huge shock to hear the tragic news on a March day in 1994: Eric Show was found dead in his bed, the victom of a massive heart attack after taking a "speedball" - a toxic mixture of heroin and cocaine; he was only 37 years old. The newspapers made hay out of the story, taking great lengths to point out that Super Joe Christian was just another junkie. A total hypocrite. Someone who wasn't what he said he was.
Those things weren't true. I was devastated to hear of Eric's death because I was so close to him. We'll never know who the demons were that Eric couldn't get out. They kept the rally going by stepping up to the plate and feasting on what he was serving up. With each extra-base hit, Eric felt more and more alone, until he believed he was the only one left on the field battling those demons.
I'm sorry that Eric never asked for bullpen relief (help) from his friends. I would have loved to do anything I could to be there for him. If he had only owned up to the gravity of the situation, I'm sure that I or someone else in his life would have tried to help.
I take away three lessons from Eric Show's sad story:

* If you're hurting, don't be afraid to ask for help. Give others the opportunity to pick up for you.
* Be available to those who hurt. Ask God to direct you to friends and to give you the right words to say.
* Develop relationships with friends with whom you can openly share your heart. Eric didn't have those types of friendships, and it cost him his life.

As you minister to people, you deal with hurting individuals all the time. You may be very good at it. Even so, you might have a hard time being vulerable yourself. Like Eric, you may feel that everyone is looking up to you, and the worst thing you could do is disappoint them by letting them know that you struggle, too.
Don't make that mistake. Keep in mind that even the best pitchers often need relief.

Author and speaker Dave Dravecky played baseball for eight seasons in the major leagues before cancer cut his career short. This article is adapted from the book CALLED UP by Dave Dravecky, and was sourced from Focus on the Family's Plugged in Magazine (www.pluggedinonline.com).

Next Article: Lessons of a Father By Roland Merullo