cktimes.ca Archives for The Pastoral Lens
The Pastoral Lens
Famous Players
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
I have had the pleasure and blessing over the years of meeting a number of famous sports celebrities. Being a sports nut myself, I have appreciated these golden opportunities. Growing up watching all the major sports made these people seem larger than life.Back in high school, during the most competitive time of my long distance running involvement, I met Bill Rodgers after a 10km race on Detroit's Belle Isle. He had won the Boston Marathon twice, as well as the New York City Marathon a few times. He also represented the U.S. in the Olympics in 1976. My brother and I, and another friend, waited in line quite a while to have Bill sign our race number that day.
Then there was the time I met Leon Douglas of the Detroit Pistons. I was working as a parking lot attendant at an exclusive men's clothing store and had to verify that Leon was actually a valid shopper, and not some freeloader just trying to use the parking lot. He really teased me about that!
As a waiter working at a first-class restaurant in Windsor, I was once called in to wait on the entire Winnipeg Jets team (for you hockey novices, they were the team that moved to Phoenix and became the Coyotes). Dale Hawerchuk was a leading NHLer at the time and more than one busboy nagged me for Dale's autograph. I got a real sweet tip that night!
A very good friend of mine, David Fisher, is the chaplain of the Toronto Blue Jays. He has invited me 3 times to lead chapel services before a Sunday home game at SkyDome for Toronto and their opponent. My first year was 1997 where I met and preached to the Jays and their opponent, the eventual World Series champions, Florida Marlins. I LOVE baseball, so this was a real buzz for me. Amazingly, though, these giant men are quite down to earth (most of them, anyway). I also spoke to the New York Mets and my beloved Cleveland Indians. These 3 chapels allowed me to rub shoulders with the likes of Joe Carter, Roger Clemens, Tony Fernandez, Jerry Howarth, Jose Cruz, Jr., Edgardo Alfonzo, Darren Daulton, Charles Johnson, Dennis Cook, Turk Wendel, Gary Sheffield, Woody Williams, Travis Fryman, Omar Vizquel, Sandy Alomar, Jr., Mike Jackson, and many others. To a baseball maven like myself, it was like heaven on earth.
I am truly grateful for all these opportunities to interact with some of the "famous" people of the sporting world. Perhaps there will be other times when the opportunity will arise for me again. Nevertheless, any and all meetings, whoever they are with, will pale in comparison to the meeting I had with the most famous and most important figure in the history of the world. The date was Nov. 8, 1982, and the person was – Jesus Christ. That was the day I committed my life to Him. Now I meet with Him every single day without fail. Oh, I know, I haven't met Him in person. That day will come in the future, at a time of His choosing, but I have still met Him personally through faith.
As we have just come through the celebration of Christ's resurrection from the dead, this was a good time for me to reflect on all the famous players I've met. My faith in the Lord puts all those other meetings in their proper perspective. If I never meet another famous sports figure for as long as I live, it won't matter. I've already met the Creator of the game of life!
