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One of my favorite movie lines of all time is from “A League of their own”, when the grumpy manager Jimmy Dugan (played by Tom Hanks), chews out one of his plays and she starts to cry:
“Are you crying?” he asks. “Are you crying? ARE YOU CRYING? There’s no crying, there’s no crying in baseball! Rogers Hornsby was my manager, and he called me a talking pile of pigs—! And that was when my parents drove all the way down from Michigan to see me play the game! And did I cry? NO! NO! And do you know why?” She shakes her head. “No, no, no.” “Because,” says Dugan, “there’s no crying in baseball!”

Isn’t it interesting to think about what things make different people cry? Ok, maybe it’s just me because I’m waaaay tooo reflective (I think it has to do with my Dad dying when I was young….but that’s another couch trip that we don’t have time for).
The young lady ballplayer,who Dugan made cry, may have been frustrated because she never received approval from her Dad; and Dugan just remided her of that. Or, her husband may have just left her and the Dugan tirade was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We just don’t know.
What will make you cry? The OG is going to kill me but I’ve seen him cry…Yeah, that’s right…he’s an emotional guy on occasion.
Here is my list of some of the moments when the tear faucet was barely on:
1. The end of “Rudy”…when he runs onto the field.
2. Towards the end of “Hoosiers” when the Coach (Gene Hackman) tells the kids “I love you guys”. Do you sense a cheesy sports theme thing here?
3. Any “I’ve come full circle moment”. An example is when I was watching my daughter this past week at the Indy Zoo riding a pony. It’s like I was whisked away to yesteryear when I was sitting in that same position (It wasn’t the same pony or “Georgie” would have been eating his apple through a straw).
4. Any extremely emotional, surreal moment. An example would be at my wedding watching my soon-to-be wife come up the aisle. You think about these times when your a kid and you just can’t believe that it is actually happening.
Here is a partial list of those times when the tear faucet is cranked so wide open that the handle pops off:
1. When any dog that I own dies (I’ve had 4 in my lifetime…the last two were the toughest).
2. After I lost one of the battles with quitting snuff (see my last post). We won the war three and 1/2 years ago.
3. Breaking up with one of the last girlfriends before meeting my wife. It wasn’t because of her, it was because I was lost in life (right before I became a Christian).
4. When I found I my brother was filing for bankruptcy and he and his wife were filing for divorce. Another one of those surreal moments, except worse because I never thought about this time ever happening.
5. The worst was when my Dad died; I was 14. Life changed in every way and it has definitely shaped me.
In 2 Corinthians 2:4 Paul says, “For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.”
If you think about it, Love is/was behind almost every tear. At a loss, love is seemingly taken from you. During those surreal moments, a memory reminds us that love is being passed on from your parents to you to your children. At conversion/baptism, you find the ultimate love.
Of course, sometimes you just cry.
Enough about me…what makes you cry? Maybe next time I’ll offer a lighter post, such as, tips on backyard bar-b-que for the Fourth of July.
Da ‘Middy
Midwest Yankee