Sports have played parts in various Pastor Stephen Grant adventures. Here are 4 cool sports moments from these adventures:
1. Auto racing from WINE INTO WATER: A PASTOR STEPHEN GRANT NOVEL:
Stephen Grant decided to savor the moment.
He sipped the aromatic, earthy white Hermitage wine. Bottled 15 years earlier, it came from grapes grown on slopes above the French town of Tain on the banks of the Rhône River.
While swallowing, Grant took in his surroundings from the rooftop of the Loews Hotel in Monte Carlo.
He looked down at the Formula One cars fighting an unnatural restraint in order to make hairpin turns. As was always the case when observing excellence, Grant admired the drivers’ skills, as well as the expertise of those who built and maintained these machines. His ears recognized the vast difference between these engines versus other so- called high-performance cars, not only in terms of power, but also the precision and responsiveness needed to compete in the Monaco Grand Prix.
2. Baseball from MURDERER’S ROW: A PASTOR STEPHEN GRANT NOVEL:
Casey Granger peered at two fingers just over 60 feet and six inches away. Ty Beachamp called for the hook.
Granger nodded, and offered the faintest of smiles that few would have noticed.
Beachamp shifted his crouch behind home plate slightly to his left, moving away from the left-handed batter.
With his glove just inches from his face, Granger set a curveball grip on the cowhide with his left hand. He pivoted on the rubber while kicking his right leg in the air, and pushed forward off his left leg and let the baseball go.
The 89-mile-per-hour rotating white sphere seemed headed for the batter’s head. In 0.45 seconds, the man in the batter’s box leaned back as his knees buckled, while the pitch broke down and across the plate. It snapped into Beachamp’s mitt, and the umpire called, “Strike three!”
3. Golf from WARRIOR MONK: A PASTOR STPEHEN GRANT NOVEL. A moment on the course for the threesome of Stephen Grant, Ron McDermott and Tom Stone...
Ron asked Stephen, “Shall I lead the way?”
“Please do.”
Ron teed his ball up high. The combination of his long
“Please do.”
Ron teed his ball up high. The combination of his long
driver with a huge head and a flat, aggressive, inside-out swing resulted in a long draw that landed in the middle of the fairway, but continued to run left and settled just in the light rough some 270 yards away.
“Nice ball,” observed Stephen, as he teed up his own. “Thanks.”
Grant showed off a smooth swing, with his high, slight fade coming to rest on the right side of the fairway at a distance of 255 years.
Grant showed off a smooth swing, with his high, slight fade coming to rest on the right side of the fairway at a distance of 255 years.
“Even better,” said Tom, who finally arrived on the tee box with a hybrid in his hand and a shiny new ball. The look of Stone’s swing was not as polished as his friends’. A three- quarters back swing was followed by a hard, crushing move on the ball, with an abbreviated follow through. The result, though, was a high, straight projection that split the fairway at about 220 yards.
“And you do that without warming up,” Ron observed shaking his head.
“Clean living and concentration,” Tom responded.
“Really? We’ll see if that clean living and concentration help you sink a putt today,” said Ron.
4. Beach volleyball on SHIFTING SANDS: A PASTOR STEPHEN GRANT SHORT STORY...
Melissa Ambler took a stride forward, and tossed the white, blue and yellow ball high against the azure sky. She jumped in the air, and slapped a serve that skimmed just above the net. The ball hit the sand between the two frozen opponents, and just inside the end line. Ambler and her partner, Ranya Khan, pumped their fists, exchanged a high five, and urged each other forward.
Meanwhile, thumping, high energy music played on unrelentingly. The beat even continued during the action, though at lower decibels than between points. There was no indication that the players cared or were distracted, and the fans loved it.
Like many spots up and down the California coastline, the sands of Manhattan Beach ranked as familiar terrain for beach volleyball. Of course, this particular event was far beyond a local pick-up match or amateur league. This was professional beach volleyball, with men’s and women’s two- person teams competing for not-so-insignificant purses. And they played before a few thousand fans packed into a temporary stadium erected between the waves of the Pacific Ocean to the west, and palm trees and the city of Manhattan Beach to the east, while sitting alongside the famous pier.
Manhattan Beach had served as a stop for the pros since the 1980s, and the 928-foot Manhattan Beach Pier included plaques of the “Volleyball Walk of Fame.”
This new tour called itself “Bedlam on the Beach.”
Ray, interesting typo on #3: 255 years?
ReplyDelete