MLB Christmas

Hi. I'm going to divide the articles that I have into two posts so that they won't be too long. This post has just MLB Christmas articles. Every Christmas each MLB team interviews one player, coach, broadcaster, or front office person for a Q & A article about the holidays. Following are quotes from the seven articles that stood out from a Christian perspective:

Blue Jays coach Brian Butterfield:

MLB.com: As the head of the house, are you required to still believe in Santa?

Butterfield: No. We've never really put too much emphasis on Santa. We put it more on our Lord and Savior. We have a strong faith, so the great thing of it all is the celebration of Jesus' birthday. That's big under our roof. We always remind people that he's the reason for the season.

Here's that article: http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071216&content_id=2327545&vkey=news_tor&fext=.jsp&c_id=tor.

Mariners broadcaster Dave Niehaus:

MLB.com: What's your favorite Christmas song?

Niehaus: It's always been "Silent Night." In fact, a couple of years ago, Marilyn and I went to Germany and went to this little town in Austria called Obendorf. I remember from my childhood that my mother told me the man who wrote "Silent Night, Holy Night" was from Obendorf. Anyway, we were on a bus tour and came into the town of Obendorf. There were houses painted with children's stories and all of a sudden it started snowing. I mean it was just beautiful. The snowflakes looked more like snowballs falling on this little village in the Bavaria Alps.

Here's the article: http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071215&content_id=2327345&vkey=news_sea&fext=.jsp&c_id=sea.

Nationals pitcher Mike Bacsik:

MLB.com: Why will Christmas be special for you this year?

Bacsik: Our little girl, Mary Grace, who is almost 3 years old, has a pretty good idea about Christmas and Santa Claus. We are trying to teach her the religious part of it, too. She understands Santa Claus, which is neat for us. She will wake up Christmas morning and (realize that) Santa Claus came to our house.

Here's the article: http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071215&content_id=2327306&vkey=news_was&fext=.jsp&c_id=was.

Orioles manager Dave Trembley:

MLB.com: What are your favorite things about the holiday season?

Trembley: Family. Good food. Reflection. Church. Where I grew up, there was a lot of snow at Christmastime. But I don't miss that at all. I like sunshine and 75 degrees on the beach. That's what I like now.

Here's the aritcle: http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071215&content_id=2327287&vkey=news_bal&fext=.jsp&c_id=bal.

Padres pitcher Jake Peavy, a Christian:

MLB.com: You talk often about how important family is to you. How big a deal was Christmas growing up in the Peavy house?

Peavy: It was as big as it gets. I think down south, Christmas is much more than just the toys and stuff -- Christianity, the birth of Christ. I just think that a lot of that is bred into Christmas down south. It's a great holiday. There's lot of family involved, and now that we're doing it with my boys ... that makes it very special.

Here's the article: http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071215&content_id=2327311&vkey=news_sd&fext=.jsp&c_id=sd.

Rockies general manager Dan O'Dowd, a Christian:

MLB.com: Finally, what is Dan O'Dowd's Christmas wish?

O'Dowd: My Christmas wish is that everybody's dreams come true. I believe that dreams are really an essential part of life. I think they're God-given. I think they're created down deep within you. I hope everybody's dreams true, people that do believe.

And I pray for that for my kids every day. It's the greatest feeling in the world -- in this world, anyway.

Here's the article: http://colorado.rockies.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071219&content_id=2333482&vkey=news_col&fext=.jsp&c_id=col.

The last of the MLB Christmas articles, Tigers pitcher Jason Grilli, a Christian:

MLB.com: Having grown up in a baseball family, how important has Christmas been in your family, when you know everybody can be together?

Jason Grilli: It's definitely huge. Holidays for us are huge especially when you're away from them so much throughout the year. For us, the holidays that we play [during] can be tough. Any holiday, I think, especially during the baseball season, whether it's a birthday or a wedding, those are the occasions that sometimes you miss out on, unless it's someone in your immediate family. So Christmas and Thanksgiving are very huge in the sense that it's a point to celebrate the holiday for what it is. I celebrate Christmas and we celebrate the birth of Jesus and what his sacrifice means to us and we celebrate being together.

Here's the article: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071218&content_id=2330412&vkey=news_det&fext=.jsp&c_id=det.