Elect Dewayne Wise in 2010!

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By now, you’ve certainly heard that Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox pitched the 18^th Perfect Game in baseball history on Thursday.

Think about that. Every year, for more than a hundred years, thousands of ballgames are played in the big leagues, yet there have only been 18 games in which the pitcher retired 27 straight batters.

To attain perfection, Buehrle needed help and got it from centerfielder Dewayne Wise, who made what sportswriter Rick Telander calls “the greatest late-inning, meaningful, regular-season catch in baseball history.”

A few facts about this Wise man; He’s is not a star, in fact he’s really bad at hitting a baseball. His batting average is .196 at this writing and his lifetime average in 7 big league seasons isn’t much better, .211.

He’s so poor a hitter that, on opening day, he was booed.  And just last week, many Sox fans were outraged when Wise was kept on the team while a similarly skilled outfielder, but fan favorite, was sent to the minors.

What Wise is really good at is catching a baseball. When he made his play, Wise had just entered the game as a defensive replacement.

“I told myself, ‘As soon as a guy goes out late for defense, that ball always finds you,’ and I knew it would come down to me making a play,” Wise said.

To underline the point, Wise was put on the field for a specific purpose.

“Right away, I took my eyes off it because I wanted to make up some ground,” Wise said. “But I looked up and said, ‘Wow, this might be one of those plays where I have to run through the wall to catch it or try to rob a home run.’ “

So, Dewayne Wise committed himself to fulfilling his purpose to the best of his ability, even if that meant running hard into a wall or endangering himself by leaping above the barrier to save the day.

Let’s compare Mr. Wise to the men and women who are elected to serve in the Illinois General Assembly. They also have been placed in a specific arena for a purpose.

They are supposed to act on behalf of their constituents. They are supposed to protect the people of Illinois, particularly the most vulnerable of our state’s citizens, the poor, the sick and the elderly.

With a few exceptions, they are about as good at that as Wise is at hitting a baseball.

How many of our legislators would literally or figuratively “run through a wall” to make sure the state’s social service agencies are assisting all needing help, and that every student in Illinois has the opportunity to attend a great public school?

If only our legislators took their roles as seriously as Dewayne Wise takes his.