If you’ve heard of “Moonlight Graham,” it’s probably only in his existence as a fictional character — a journeyman baseball player whose career brought him to the Major Leagues for only half an inning. He came close to baseball glory, but ended up going to medical school and becoming a pillar of his community as a doctor who saved and enriched many lives. “Moonlight” appears in the classic film Field of Dreams.
Kevin Costner, playing a modern-day baseball fan in the movie, suggests that it must have been tragic for “Moonlight” to come so close to baseball fame without achieving it. Moonlight’s character, played by Burt Lancaster, responds: “No. If I had only been a doctor for five minutes, that would have been a tragedy.”
Isn’t that a beautiful thought? Moonlight found a calling in which he could serve his fellow men and women, and that was more important than sports fame to him. Here’s what I didn’t know about Moonlight Graham, though: He was real. The character in the film closely tracks the actual life of Archibald Graham — a brief sports career followed by a long and successful career practicing medicine. The story is worth reading; here’s a link.
For my part, I can’t identify with having just missed a glamorous career in entertainment or sports. But I can identify with Moonlight Graham. “If I had only been a professor for five minutes, that would have been a tragedy.” I feel fortunate to have found my calling, a job I truly love, and in that I see the influence of the Divine.