9 / 24
The Pinecone
|
June 2016
• 9 •
f r om Don J oh n s on , K i r b y P i n e s Chap l a i n
Chaplain’s COrner
Chris Sperry, baseball consultant and 18
year baseball coach at the University of
Portland, has a most remarkable story
about not only sport but life as well.
January, 1996, at the Opryland Hotel in
Nashville, TN, the American Baseball
Coaches Association (ABCA) held its
52nd Annual Convention. A featured
speaker was John Scolinos, a 78 year old
coach who started his career in 1948 and
was then five years into his retirement.
Scolinos receiveda standingovationwhen
he stepped to the convention podium to
speak. To everyone’s amazement he had
a real home plate resting on his chest,
held by a rope around his neck. He spoke
for 25 minutes, never mentioning the
home plate, causing some to think that
at his age he just forgot about it, while
others wondered if he had arrived from
some mental institution. He stated, “I
may be old but I’m not crazy. I want to
share with you what I’ve learned in life…
what I’ve learned about home plate in my
78 years.”
Asking how many Little League coaches
were at the convention Scolinos then
presented the question, “How wide
is home plate?” After a brief silence
someone called out, “Seventeen inches!”
Scolinos then asked the same question of
all the Junior High coaches, Senior High
coaches, College coaches, Minor League
coaches and Major League coaches.
From each group came the same answer,
“Seventeen inches!”
Another question was asked, “What if a
big league pitcher can’t throw the ball
over these seventeen inches?” He said
the Baseball League would never say,
Keeping Home Plate
J une Vesper Serv ices
•
6:30pm
•
Per formi ng Ar t s Center
“That’s okay. We’ll make home plate
eighteen inches, or nineteen, or twenty
inches. We can even make it wider still,
to 25 inches.”
Scolinos then spoke of America and the
world and described how so many were
forgetting the standard and ever widening
the width of home plate. He then turned
the home plate hanging around his neck
toward himself. On its white top with a
black magic marker he sketched a house
with chimney, windows and a door. As
he turned home plate back toward the
audience, his message emphasized how
we have added to the principles and
foundations of our homes many things
that don’t belong at all. Once again he
drew on the house a flag and explained
the widening efforts in our education and
government. In these areas too, the old
principles were being forgotten.
Lastly Scolinos drew a cross on the top
of the house and sadly talked about the
same influence being accepted by our
churches and religious groups.
Closing his address this unique coach
said, “If we fail to hold ourselves to a
higher standard, a standard of what we
know to be right, if we fail to hold our
spouses and our children to the same
standards, if we are unwilling or unable
to provide a consequence when they do
not meet the standard, and if our schools
and churches and government fail to
hold themselves accountable to those
they serve, there is but one thing to look
forward to…”
Then turning home plate around to show
its dark backside he finished…”Dark
days ahead!”
Home plate is still seventeen inches.
That cannot be said of so much in our
life today. We should wake up to hear
the call to stop widening what was given
to us by our founding fathers and godly
leadership. The principles of our Judeo/
Christian heritage must not be forgotten.
We can be silent no longer. The counsel
of Scolinos from his years of coaching
and life, and the directives from God
through the Bible should challenge us to
cherish the past, trust God in the present
and leave to His control the future. Let’s
begin again to live from Matthew 6:33,
“Seek first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these things will be
added to you.”
Till next time, Don Johnson, KP Chaplain
COACH JOHN SCOLINOS
June 30th
Dr. Matt Matthews
Professorof Theology&Arts
MemTheologicical Seminary
June 9th
Dennis Neenan
Directorof PastoralCare
&
Edu -WesleySeniorMinistries
June 16th
Dr. Sam Brassell
Covenant
Baptist Church
June 23rd
Nate Smith
Riveroaks Reformed
Presbyterian Church
June 2nd
Rev. Mark Metheny
United
Methodist Minister