MLB, basketball, and football

Hi. I hope that everyone had a very merry Christmas! I just have a few articles to post today. The first article is hopefully the last article that I'll post on the topic of the MLB drug report. It's a Christian article about the Christians named in the report, from the viewpoint of former Cardinals pitcher Rick Horton, who is currently the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) director for the St. Louis area. Here's the article: http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4970635988821363616.

Here's just an inspiring story of Drexel basketball player Nicole Hester, who is returning to play this season after missing last season while undergoing treatment for cancer: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/columns/story?columnist=hays_graham&id=3147753.

Next, a quote about Christmas from the end of Colts head coach Tony Dungy's (a Christian) pre-Christmas blog post:

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and gets to experience what Christmas is really all about--God expressing His love to us through His son Jesus Christ.

Here's the post: http://www.mycolts.net/tonydungy/blogentry/907a8703-9c4d-4297-8539-45185fe81b88.

Here's another inspiring story, this one about Hawaii football graduate assistant Brian Kajiyama. He helps coach the defense by breaking down the opposing teams' offense even though he's confined to a wheelchair and can't speak because of cerebral palsy. In order to communicate he types words into a computer and a computer voice speaks for him. The team, who went undefeated and is playing Georgia in the BCS Sugar Bowl on January 1st, says that he's an important part of the team and their success this year. He's making his first road trip with the team to the Sugar Bowl, as he didn't travel during the season. Here's a quote from him:

Kajiyama's interest in football came early from watching Hawaii play at Aloha Stadium with his father every Saturday night. Despite being in a wheelchair, Kajiyama believed he could one day play for Hawaii.

"Back then, I thought I'd become a star athlete," Kajiyama said. "But as I grew and matured, I realized that God's plan didn't have me being that athlete. ... I began to focus on academics since that was one area where physical ability didn't matter."

Here's the article: http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;_ylt=AmlB.TxSLbgb61OD3FlsVn1.T4h4?slug=ap-t25-sugarbowl-kajiyama&prov=ap&type=lgns.

Also, an article about the charity involvement of Rockies owners, brothers Dick and Charlie Monfort, and the Rockies. They are especially involved with Children's Hospital in Denver, among other things. Here's the article: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071224&content_id=2336352&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb.

Here's an article about Arizona State tailback Keegan Herring, who lost his father, sister, best friend, and aunt in four months last spring. Then he lost the starting tailback job in training camp last summer, but got it back after the starter went down to injury. He's been an inspiration to those around him though, because he's kept smiling through it all. Here's a quote from him about it:

"I don't consider myself as a role model," he said. "I consider myself as a normal person that's got a little extra to him. God put me through a test. And I think I went through the test pretty well."

Here's the article: http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;_ylt=An5t7EbrXlKIMZOc7g_1YXF.T4h4?slug=ap-t25-arizonast-herring&prov=ap&type=lgns.

Lastly, an article about the Colts, including owner Jim Irsay and punter Hunter Smith (a Christian), going Christmas caroling at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, which they do annually. Here's the article: http://www.colts.com/sub.cfm?page=article7&news_id=53d2d2ad-d062-4453-b843-bf1cfe1c3009.