It's October - Baseball and General Conference

I must confess to one and all - October has always been my favorite time of the year. Why? Two reasons:

The New York Yankees

The Semi-Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 

This year holds particular enjoyment for me. The Yankees did the impossible last night. They came back to win the first round of the playoffs after losing game one in a short wild card series. And they didn't just win. Rookie pitcher Cam Schlittler, the 6-foot-6 right-hander, in his 85th day as a major leaguer, became the first pitcher to toss at least eight scoreless innings with at least 12 strikeouts and zero walks in a postseason game, according to ESPN Research. His 12 strikeouts were the most in a winner-take-all game in history, the most in a playoff debut in Yankees history and the most he's compiled in a professional game at any level.

Cam Schlittler, Yankees Hero

Every postseason I can remember going back a long way now, has been my favorite time of the year. I am old enough to have been an eyewitness to Don Larsen's perfect game pitched in the World Series in 1956. I was nine years old, still playing Little League baseball. Most of my readers on this page would not be conversant with that history, but I remember it vividly. It was in the heyday of Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra, who were my Yankees heroes back then. So here's a short course on Don Larsen:

Don James Larsen (August 7, 1929 – January 1, 2020) was an American professional baseball pitcher. During a 15-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he pitched from 1953 to 1967 for seven different teams: the St. Louis Browns / Baltimore Orioles (1953–54; 1965), New York Yankees (1955–1959), Kansas City Athletics (1960–1961), Chicago White Sox (1961), San Francisco Giants (1962–1964), Houston Colt .45's / Astros (1964–65), and Chicago Cubs (1967).

Larsen pitched the sixth perfect game in MLB history, doing so in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series. It is the only solo no-hitter and perfect game in World Series history and is one of only three no-hitters in MLB postseason history (the others being Roy Halladay's in 2010 and the combined Houston Astros no-hitter in 2022). He won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award and Babe Ruth Award in recognition of his 1956 postseason.

Yogi Berra and Don Larsen

Last night's performance by Schlittler comes as close to sheer domination by a pitcher as I have witnessed since then. Everybody watching the game knew a fast ball was coming on the next pitch, but the Red Sox hitters simply could not catch a break against his staggering performance. He averaged just under 100 mph on every fast ball he threw all night long. That's pure.

* * *

Now couple my joy over the Yankees so far this October with the prospect of the upcoming Semi-annual General Conference set to convene tomorrow in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Last week we said our final farewells to 101 year-old President Russell M. Nelson, the Church's 17th President, and the oldest ever to preside over The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

President Russell M. Nelson

I have had my boyhood baseball heroes, but I have likewise had my prophet heroes too. President Harold B. Lee was my grandfather, and he ranks at the top of that very long list of men whom I have admired.

President Harold B. Lee

President Lee was the 11th President of the Church, who presided for a scant eighteen months after many had predicted a longer presidency given his relatively youthful vigor compared to his long-lived predecessors Joseph Fielding Smith and David O. McKay, both of whom I also admired greatly. As a boy, one can easily deduce, I was blessed with men who were certainly worthy of my adulation and my gratitude.

And today we wait with eager anticipation about the upcoming changes that will occur at the top of Church leadership once again. I gathered my family last Sunday night after President Nelson's death to help them understand the next steps that will be taken to reorganize the First Presidency and to name a new Apostle. I suggested before it had been announced that the reorganization steps would not be taken until after General Conference and President Nelson's funeral. The next day we learned his funeral would be held on October 7, 2025. President Lee gathered his family after the passing of President Smith, and he told us with unerring accuracy exactly what would happen going forward as he assumed the mantle of the living prophet. 

How did he know? Because from the moment he entered the upper room in the Salt Lake Temple where the Apostles meet as the newly named Apostle in 1941, he had witnessed the various transitions in leadership as he rose in seniority in the Twelve. It was not some mysterious process. To him it was familiar and predictable, and he shared it with each of us in his posterity.

President Dallin H. Oaks

Until then, I assured my own posterity the other night, the Church is named The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for an important reason - this is the Savior Jesus Christ's Church. It is not just another church of men. He remains at the helm. The keys of the kingdom of God on the earth are in the hands of the living Apostles. Those keys in the due course of events over the next few days after General Conference concludes will be transmitted into the hands of the senior member of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, President Dallin H. Oaks, who will select his counselors. Then a new member of the Twelve will be called to fill the subsequent vacancy. There is order in the kingdom of God. There is no politicking for position. We have been blessed by an abundance of worthy priesthood leaders in the past and the kingdom will go forward without hesitation or delay going forward. All is well with the restored Church.

Now, one final word. In this Church many will bear a strong witness that they were foreordained to serve in various assignments in their lives. This includes Sunday School teachers, missionaries, bishops, Relief Society presidents, stake presidents and others. I accepted a call to serve one time as the ward clerk, and I came to understand the reason why after I had performed a function of converting the manual records of the ward to digital records via the computer. I learned later I was the only person in the ward at that time who knew anything about those strange contraptions we now take for granted - the personal computer. I was foreordained, no doubt. So do not discount your pre-existent covenant to accept whatever foreordained tasks to which you are presently assigned in this life. 

We will raise our hands in a not distant future day to sustain the new leadership of the Church. We will have a witness of the divine nature of their callings, and that witness will come to each of us through the ministrations of the Holy Ghost to us.