For the Love of Baseball

The baseball season is in full swing, the All Star Game is almost here, and I am SOOOO happy! (By the way, Rob Thomson, the Yankees third base coach, had a daughter in one of my youth groups...I am such a name dropper!) Baseball is my favorite sport, and has been since my earliest days.  As a child I pulled for the Yankees (my little league team) and the Red Sox (they had Carl Yazstremski), not understanding at the time what a sin it was to pull for both of those teams!  From about 1970 on I became a Braves fan and would listen to their games on AM radio as they were broadcast by Milo Hamilton and Ernie Johnson Sr.  From ages 8-12 I played Little League baseball for the Guilford College Yankees and loved every minute of it.  Well...almost every minute!  My first day of practice everyone was warming up, and 12 year old Mark Gunther grabbed me and said "warm me up Jonesy."  Turns out that Mark, who everyone called "Swifty," threw much harder than anyone I had ever caught before, and he almost killed me the first day (Mark turned out to be the best 3 sport athlete my high school ever produced!). But I survived, and loved playing for the incredible Charlie King and the Yankees.  My Uncle Don Dormstetter took me to see the Washington Senators (now Texas Rangers) on "Bat Night" and I was amazed by big league baseball.  My family took regular trips to Atlanta to see the Braves play, and we were there the night Hank Aaron hit his 700th career home run.  In 1979, the Greensboro Hornets, a Class-A affiliate of the Yankees, came to town and I went to several games, taking youth with me on a number of occasions.  And then came the 1980 season...

Working as a youth pastor at New Garden Friends Meeting didn't pay many bills, and 1980 found me working a second job at Pizza Inn.  One night in the Spring of '80, a group of young men came in late one night to get pizza and beer, and I waited on them (even though I was a cook at the time).  It turned out to be a bunch of Greensboro Hornets, and as we talked I discovered who they were.  Some names I do not remember; others I will never forget.  That Hornets team included Otis Nixon, Greg Gagne, Matt Winters and Don Mattingly.  Yes- THAT Don Mattingly, also known to Yankees fans everywhere as "Donnie Baseball."  All I knew at the time is that they were young guys, about my age, playing pro baseball- so they were beyond cool!  I remember Otis as quite a character, and Matt Winters gave me a Hornets hat and left passes for me at games up until my summer job at Quaker Lake Camp began.  And I gave them free beer!  If I had known Don Mattingly would become one of the all-time great Yankees, I would have hit him up for an autograph- but I didn't.  If I had known Otis Nixon would become a star for my beloved Braves, but also would struggle with substance abuse, I wouldn't have given him beer.  And no one would have ever believed that Greg Gagne would start at shortstop for the world champion Minnesota Twins of 1991 (they beat my Braves).  But the person about whom I have thought the most in the years that have passed since those days was Matt Winters.

Matt was a star.  He was in Greensboro for most of 3 seasons, and he hit the cover off the ball the entire time, including leading that 1980 team in home runs.  But the Yankees were loaded in those days (as they are now) with big money free agent outfielders, and Matt never really got a chance.  He eventually made the majors with Kansas City, but never had a breakout season.  I think about him so often partly because he gave me a hat that I still have, and partly because he is a great example of someone who had great skills and small opportunity.  Matt had better numbers than other Hornets who went on to stardom, including Mike Pagliorulio, Greg Gagne and Derek Jeter (who made about 100 errors his year in G'boro!).  But he did not get the same opportunity to succeed.

As the years went by,  I always tried to give the youth I worked with the opportunities to do the things they were gifted by God to do.  Some sing, some write, some act and some play sports; everyone has a gift!  For some (perhaps many) of the students I have known, I missed their gifts, and didn't help them to become the people God made them to be; that was left to others.   Many reached higher heights because of their experiences in our student ministries, and I thank God for that.


I still love baseball, having adopted my the local Tampa Bay Rays as my new favorite team.  I never got that Don Mattingly (currently the manager of the Dodgers) autograph, so Donnie, if you are out there, you owe me!  And Matt Winters- you are still a star in my book!   May God give us all the opportunity to use our gifts in ways that are pleasing to Him.

Because of Jesus,