football and MLB misc.

First, a blog post by former Titans runningback Eddie George on his former Titans teammate Bruce Matthews, a Christian, who is going into the NFL Hall of Fame today. Here's a quote:

More than anything though, I had a great appreciation for him as a man – how he carried himself, being a man of God and a family man.

Here's the blog post: http://www.titansonline.com/blog/blog.php?author=4 (originally found at: http://www.bpsports.net/bpsports.asp?ID=5642).

Here's an article about Colts tight end Dallas Clark, a Christian, and how he's okay with the amount of catches he gets. He knows that he's not the star receiver on the team, and that's fine with him because it makes the team better. However, his teammates realize how important he is to the team as a whole. Here's the article: http://www.colts.com/sub.cfm?page=article7&news_id=5a4d0c4e-8d6b-4e97-92c0-f77b892e95ba.

Next, an article about Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer's foundation that helps to fund camps to help kids who are grieving after a death in their family. There are eight camps so far, with more in the works. He and his wife have joined up with several other Major Leaguers and their wives to expand the camps. Here's the article: http://mlb.mlb.com/pa/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070731&content_id=2120226&vkey=mlbpa_news&fext=.jsp.

Here's an article about Braves outfielder Willie Harris teaching kids about the life of Jackie Robinson. Harris has a connection with Robinson not just because they are/were both African American, but because they are the only two Major Leaguers who were born in Cairo, Georgia. Granted Robinson moved to California when he was like 1 1/2 years old. Here's the article: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070731&content_id=2120719&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb.

Also, an article that goes under the "What is the world coming to now" category. Iowa State head football coach Gene Chizik tried to hire Baptist pastor Kevin Lykins as the team chaplain. However, 130 members of the school faculty signed a petition against the hire because it gave preference to one religion over another. So then Chizik tried to go around them by hiring Lykins as the teams "life skills coach". But the faculty still complained because there was "not an open search that guaranteed members of every faith an opportunity to apply for the position." They said that it "violated ISU President Gregory Geoffroy's mandate against creating a perception of 'giving preference to one religious faith or viewpoint over any others.'" Give me a break! Since when was it a crime for a team at any level to have a team chaplain or other similar position?! This all seems totally wrong to me. Here's the article: http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/uwire/073107aaa.html.

Here's the webpage about Faith Day in Cincinnati August 12th (it includes a link to a video invitation with Reds outfielder Josh Hamilton and his wife): http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/cin/ticketing/faith_day.jsp.

Lastly, Yankees 3rd baseman Alex Rodriguez in his post-game interview after hitting his 500th homer said this: "The Good Lord will lead my path." You can watch the video of the press conference here: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/237/popup/index.php?cl=3578892.