Arts and Culture on Baseball

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“They Ain’t Learned You to Hit that Curveball…”

Author

Keywords

The American Baseball player Moe Berg was more than just a great catcher. Berg had received graduate degrees from Princeton University and the Sorbonne in Paris, knew several languages and later serve...

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Catch & Release

Author

Mike Herman

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I’ve been going to professional baseball games and trying to get a souvenir baseball as far back as I can remember. A foul ball, a home run ball or even a batting practice ball—anything would do. I w...

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The Only Opinion That Matters

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Most of us have heard of Babe Ruth, but have you ever heard of Babe Pinelli? Pinelli was an umpire in Major League Baseball who once called The Great Bambino (Ruth) out on strikes. When the crowd bega...

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Service over Glory

Author

Chris Stroup

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When Pearl Harbor was bombed, one of the Americans who volunteered to serve his country was Bob Feller. Bob was a 23-year-old pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, a phenomenon who had already pitched a ...

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A Shaming for Taking Selfies

Author

Craig Detweiler

Keywords

Did you follow the shaming of sorority girls that were caught on camera taking selfies during an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game? The male television announcers bemoaned “every girl locked into the...

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What I am Supposed to Do?

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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The American Golfer George Archer had a relatively successful career on the PGA tour, winning thirteen PGA tournaments, including the 1969 Masters. As he drew closer to retiring from the sport, he was...

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What am I Supposed to Do?

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

The US Golfer George Archer had a relatively successful career on the PGA tour, winning won thirteen tournaments, including the 1969 Masters. As he drew closer to retiring from the sport, he wasn’t ex...

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Finding the Right Pastoral Work–Life Balance: A Few Unbalanced Thoughts

Author

Dan Baumgartner

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Scripture

John 15:null

I might not be the best person to be writing this. After an eleven-year career in business in my twenties and early thirties, I’ve been an ordained pastor now for nearly twenty-seven years. There are...

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The Car and Suburban Sprawl

Author

Eric O. Jacobsen

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Cars have allowed us to spread out our living patterns significantly. Historically, cities have had a natural limit set by how far people could comfortably walk from place to place. Then, with the dev...

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Holding on to the Extreme

Author

Linda Evans Shepherd

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Scripture

Matthew 6:19-21, 1 Timothy 6:9-10, Luke 12:15, Matthew 16:26

Have you ever seen an episode of the A&E TV show Hoarders? It’s a show about perfectly normal-looking people who live in perfectly normal-looking houses who become overwhelmed by their possessions...

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The Simplicity of Basketball

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Arnold “Red” Auerbach was one of the winningest coaches in NBA history. He won 9 championships as coach of the Boston Celtics and was named NBA Coach of the Year in 1965 and NBA Executive Coach of the...

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Losing the Other Eye

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

James 1:2-4, 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, Nehemiah 4:14

Professional football players often get heated on the field, sometimes letting their emotions get the best of them when penalized by an official. Art Holst, a longtime NFL referee, recalls a Sunday ga...

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Why Games are Fun

Author

Ian Bogost

Keywords

Scripture

Zechariah 8:5

The lesson that games can teach us is simple. Games aren’t appealing because they are fun, but because they are limited. Because they erect boundaries. Because we must accept their structures in order...

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Not Being Chosen Hurts

Author

Bob Goff

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Every year when I was in school, we were required to go to “athletics,” better known as gym class. I always hated it because there was a possibility we’d play kickball or dodgeball or pretty much anyt...

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Nowhere to Go on Sunday

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The announcement that the Cleveland Browns were moving to Baltimore after 30 years in Cleveland devastated many people. Among the many Browns fans interviewed, one man sat in his pickup truck and wept...

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A New Thing Has Been Made

Author

Jonathan Cornell

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Scripture

Matthew 3:1-12, Galatians 3:26-29, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 2:14-16, Colossians 3:10-11

My kids love the movie Remember the Titans . It’s the story of the integration of the TC WIlliams High School Football Team in Alexandria, Virginia, in the 1960s Civil Rights era. The white players a...

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Golf and Power Dynamics

Author

Clifton Fadiman

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Scripture

John 12:43, Luke 14:11, 1 Peter 5:6, Daniel 4:

George Bush Sr. (41) enjoyed the game of golf, even if he wasn’t necessarily very good at it. Following his presidency and his return to private life, he began to notice something: It’s amazing how ma...

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Size is not Authority

Author

Jeff Volkmer

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I am a huge football fan and there have been several times in my life where I have either met or have happened upon an NFL player. Whenever this occurs, I can never get used to just how big these peop...

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Author

Katherine Lee Bates

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O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From ...

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Being a Master of Maneuverability

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

The great San Francisco 49ers football coach Bill Walsh, when asked about legendary wide receiver Jerry Rice said, “Rice was considered too slow for NFL greatness.” But, when you studied the film fr...

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ONE MORE LAP!

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

2 Timothy 4:7-8, Hebrews 12:1-3, Philippians 3:13-14, Romans 5:3-5, Philippians 1:6

I recently heard a story about a race in which one runner had a significant lead over the rest of the field. As the man rounded the final turn, the crowd roared as he inched closer and closer to the f...

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Author

Amy Farrah Fowler

Keywords

I study the brain, the organ responsible for Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Bernadette studies yeast, the organism responsible for Michelob Light.

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Longing and Belonging in Runner’s Club

Author

Justin McRoberts & Scott Erickson

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Recently I’ve wondered about the connection between the English words “longing” and “belonging”. Isn’t belonging one of our greatest longings in life? Don’t we all have some deep, inner desire t...

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Baal In America

Author

John M. Perkins

Keywords

I know most Americans today do not worship Baal, but when I look at the church in America, I fear that we have our own Baals that demand our worship. I see so many people bowing down before prosperity...

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An Advance of $90,000

Author

Andy Cook

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 19:1-10, Luke 7:36-50, Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 6:23, Matthew 18:21-35, Psalm 103:10-12, 2 Corinthians 5:21

Millions of golfers know the name of Harvey Penick. His first book, Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book, became a surprising best-seller, selling more than 1 million copies in 1992, quickly earning the ti...

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A Prayer for Those Who Govern

ALL SINGING: (America the Beautiful, first verse) O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grac...

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Opening Prayer for Labor Day Weekend

Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

Keywords

Blessed Jesus The Carpenter, the Rabbi, The Healer, the Good Shepherd, The One who washes feet, the Ruler of all that is seen and unseen We bless you and thank you for the good gift of you and the go...

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Author

Terry Linhart

Keywords

Leadership isn’t one big race; it is a bunch of little races with little finish lines to cross along the way.

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Religion and Politics in America

Author

Jon Meacham

Keywords

Religion has always been woven into American politics. John Quincy Adams liked to read the Bible in the mornings and would plunge naked into the Potomac for a swim before attending his weekly Sunday c...

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The Two Runners

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 6:33, Colossians 3:23, Psalm 39:6, Luke 12:15, Acts 15:29, Matthew 5:14-16, Ephesians 2:10, 1 Corinthians 10:31, Jeremiah 9:23-24, Matthew 16:24, Luke 9:62, 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, James 1:12, Romans 8:16-17, Galatians 2:20

The true story of Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams, two British sprinters who qualified for the 1924 Olympic Games, illustrates two contrasting approaches to life and identity. Abrahams was driven by ...

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