Millions of people watched the pre-game ceremonies featuring                                   49 Hall of Famers and                                    the Major Leagues                                        annual All-Star game                                   on Tuesday night, July                                   15th, 2008, at historic                                  Yankee Stadium. By                                        the time the game was                                over, a 4-hour, 50-                                          minute marathon, the                          television and stadium                              crowds had dwindled.

We were warned during                               the Home Run Derby                                  that it would not be                                     two days of normal                                 baseball. The evening                                     before the big game,                                     Josh Hamilton, had a crowd of 53,716 in the clouds of disbelief as he hit a record 28 homers in the first round.  What a comeback for a young man who had been at the drugs and alcohol bottom three years ago.  All of us watching by television heard him give credit to God and His Son, Jesus Christ, for his life-changing experience.

Gratitude and nostalgia took over as I watched the introduction of the Hall of Fame players and noted their accomplishments. Among those whom I have met was Bob Feller who gave me his autograph when I was 12-years old.

When I was in the fifth grade and beginning to listen to baseball games and read the sports pages, I asked my cousin, Jim Ellis, the teams I should root for.  He made it simple, “The New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers.”  I followed his advice.

Three weeks after Kitty and I were married, we sailed on the M. S. Italia out of New York Harbor on a wonderful seven-week trip to Europe.  On our return, we spent an August, 1955, afternoon at Yankee Stadium watching Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Billy Martin, Bobby Richardson, Hank Bauer and Enos Slaughter. Among the pitchers were Whitey Ford, Bob Turley, Tommy Byrne, Jim Konstanty and Don Larsen. Casey Stengel, the “Old Professor” and language master, was the future Hall of Fame manager.

When Don Larsen pitched his perfect World Series game, October 8th, 1956, we were living in the Republic of Panama, serving as missionaries for the Church of God, (Anderson, Indiana). On that particular day we were in a remote jungle area in the Darien Province, near the border of Columbia, South America. I listened to the game on a battery-powered short wave radio while resting on a bed under a protective mosquito net. We were traveling with Dr. Leland Edwards, of Los Angeles, California, missionary leader of the International Church of the Four Square Gospel and a big handsome missionary, Elmer Nelson, of the Church of the Nazarene.

You have read all the details of the game on the various sports pages, just as I have, but you will only read some of the things that make Yankee Stadium special to me in this column.  One of the largest crowds ever in “The House That Ruth Built” was a record 100,000 on July 20, 1957, during the historic Billy Graham Evangelistic Crusade in New York City.

The sixteen-week crusade started on May 15th, 1957, in Madison Square Garden and closed with a gigantic rally in Times Square on Sunday evening, September 1st.  Billy Graham, as a teenager, had dreamed of being a professional baseball player, but with the Bible instead of a bat in his hand, he preached before more people in Yankee Stadium than any game ever attracted.

As I watched the last All-Star game, all of it, ever played on this historic field which made its debut on Opening Day, 1923, with an announced attendance of 74,217 and in which Babe Ruth hit a home run, I had diverse thoughts running through my mind. A few I have shared with you. I would guess my friend, Billy Graham, may have watched also and recalled the times he had preached there and hit home runs for Jesus.
 

Publisher's Note: Bill Ellis, Award Winning Syndicated Columnist, P.O. Box 345, Scott Depot, WV 25560.  Phone:304-757-6089
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