[RebelYell]

Ever made a promise to God?

You know, when you were a kid. You were out camping and it got cold or something and you prayed "Dear Lord, if you just keep me safe and get me home tomorrow morning, I swear I'll never ... "
Just ill in the blank.

I'll never do it again, God. I swear it.
I've almost outgrown that need to cut late-in-the-game deals with God. I vividly remember the last time I did make a deal like that, though.

We were in Tulsa in the middle of the season and staying in a little three-floor hotel downtown, not too far from Drillers Stadium. We were staying on the second floor and it was a hot day. Third or fourth game of a long, dusty six-game series. The air conditioning worked well enough in the rooms of the building, but it was a little warm in the hallway.
Toasty.

Now one thing my momma and my wife can tell you about me is that I do like to be warm. It's nothing for me to have a blanket on the bed in August. Open the windows and let fresh air into the room? Not in my house nor in my room. Not unless its 80 degrees outside or there's the scent of rain. I do like the smell of an approaching thunderstorm.

Anyway, me and a teammate were on the second floor and waiting for an elevator. The stairs were closer to our rooms, but there was something about breaking the unwritten law of riding an elevator to the lobby from the second floor. Lo and behold, the elevator opens and there were two attractive girls staring at us.

They didn't like us immediately. We had broken the unwritten rule of etiquette for riding an elevator.

We sneered in kind back at the girls and then looked them over. Very nice. AAA, we decided. Just one step below the majors.

Shortly after the elevator door closed, there was a strange noise from overhead and the elevator seized up and lurched downward. No idea how far the car fell, probably just a foot or so, but it was enough to throw the girls into a panic.

And, of course, it was all our fault. We shouldn't have even been on the elevator.

But there we were. For the next two hours, we sweated in that elevator like it was a sauna.
During that time, I stayed pretty still and quiet. But after more than an hour, I finally made one of those deals with God.
"Dear Lord," I thought to myself, "just get me out of here and I'll never ride another hotel elevator less than 20 floors again in my life."

I thought of that again tonight when we got booked into our rooms in Boston.

We're on the 19th floor. The bellboy will take my stuff up.

But for me ... it's the stairs.