Post by Sly Fox on Jan 12, 2006 15:51:19 GMT -5
Here's a cool update on what Steve & Matt are doing this offseason from a Colorado fishwrap:
www.greeleytrib.com/article/20060112/SPORTS/101120070
Faith and Fastballs
Matt Schuman
schuman@greeleytrib.com
January 12, 2006
BY MATT SCHUMAN
schuman@greeleytrib.com
Whether it is with his baseball bat or his cello, Steve Baker believes its important to use his God-given talents to serve God.
On Saturday, that brought the 25-year-old minor league baseball player back to Greeley to help teach his sport and spread his personal message of faith to more than 30 middle school and high school kids at the annual Professional Baseball Clinic with the Pros put on by Greeley's
Christ Community Church at the University of Northern Colorado's Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion.
Other times it has the San Diego Padres prospect playing his cello outside of
stores during the Christmas season for the enjoyment of others and to earn a little money for Christmas presents in the off-season.
"I put out a little bucket and just get out there and start playing," Baker said. "I have gotten kicked out a couple times, but most of the time at least the managers are cool about it. They are like 'we love hearing you when you play, but we just can't allow you to play here.' But I have had a couple managers come out, and they will open the door to the store because they enjoy hearing it."
Growing up in a family of six boys, Baker's mother insisted that they all learn a musical instrument. So his dad made a rule that the boys had to do so if they were going to play sports.
"I think it was my dad's compensation for having all boys, you know," Baker said.
Baker has been playing the cello for 14 years. One Christmas in North Carolina, he got the idea to play for Christmas money, but wanted to make sure he was honoring his strong Christian beliefs.
"Nowadays it seems as if people have taken the true meaning out of Christmas, so I play biblical Christmas carols like "Joy to the World" and "Oh, Come All Ye Faithful" and stuff like that to get people thinking."
Baker is not the only one trying to get people thinking. The instructors at Saturday's clinic were made up mostly current or former major and minor league players that were there to share their passion for baseball and their strong Christian faith with the children.
Most of them, like Baker, are friends of former Eaton High School standout Matt Hagen, whose entire family helps run the clinic.
The clinic is more like a family reunion for most of the instructors, who either met Hagen during his college playing days at Liberty University, an independent, fundamentalist Baptist college, or throughout his playing time in the minor leagues.
Each year they come back and stay in the basement of the Hagen family home talking about old times and catching up on each other's careers.
"(Friday) night, we knew we had to get up at 5:30 (Saturday) and we stayed up way past midnight telling stories, joking and laughing," Hagen said. "We were having fun."
The Hagen's are like family to most of the players and vice versa. Matt's 27-year-old sister Katie, grew up with Matt's friends and considers them like "little brothers."
She believes the close relationship the players have through baseball and their shared faith has helped them deal with the trials and tribulations of playing in the minor leagues.
"They just build each other up so much," Katie said. "I will give Matt a call and I will hear him talk about all his good friends and how they are doing and how much they support each other. I think they have really become a family."
Steve Wapnick, a former major league pitcher who had brief stints with the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox, coached at the clinic for the first time and immediately noticed the close bond the players share.
"I went to Fresno State and I had some close friends," said Wapnick, now a pharmaceutical sales representative living in Fort Collins. "But I think having a special tie-in with Christ as being a center of their life and building fellowship there just makes such a big difference. I am friends with some of the guys I played with, but these guys are like brothers."
Matt Hagen hopes the children at the clinic realize the strength of that bond is because of their shared faith more than because of baseball.
"I hope the kids see that there is a deeper connection in our relationship than some other people may have," Hagen said. "I think the kids get a sense of that and I hope they do."
Matt Schuman
schuman@greeleytrib.com
January 12, 2006
BY MATT SCHUMAN
schuman@greeleytrib.com
Whether it is with his baseball bat or his cello, Steve Baker believes its important to use his God-given talents to serve God.
On Saturday, that brought the 25-year-old minor league baseball player back to Greeley to help teach his sport and spread his personal message of faith to more than 30 middle school and high school kids at the annual Professional Baseball Clinic with the Pros put on by Greeley's
Christ Community Church at the University of Northern Colorado's Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion.
Other times it has the San Diego Padres prospect playing his cello outside of
stores during the Christmas season for the enjoyment of others and to earn a little money for Christmas presents in the off-season.
"I put out a little bucket and just get out there and start playing," Baker said. "I have gotten kicked out a couple times, but most of the time at least the managers are cool about it. They are like 'we love hearing you when you play, but we just can't allow you to play here.' But I have had a couple managers come out, and they will open the door to the store because they enjoy hearing it."
Growing up in a family of six boys, Baker's mother insisted that they all learn a musical instrument. So his dad made a rule that the boys had to do so if they were going to play sports.
"I think it was my dad's compensation for having all boys, you know," Baker said.
Baker has been playing the cello for 14 years. One Christmas in North Carolina, he got the idea to play for Christmas money, but wanted to make sure he was honoring his strong Christian beliefs.
"Nowadays it seems as if people have taken the true meaning out of Christmas, so I play biblical Christmas carols like "Joy to the World" and "Oh, Come All Ye Faithful" and stuff like that to get people thinking."
Baker is not the only one trying to get people thinking. The instructors at Saturday's clinic were made up mostly current or former major and minor league players that were there to share their passion for baseball and their strong Christian faith with the children.
Most of them, like Baker, are friends of former Eaton High School standout Matt Hagen, whose entire family helps run the clinic.
The clinic is more like a family reunion for most of the instructors, who either met Hagen during his college playing days at Liberty University, an independent, fundamentalist Baptist college, or throughout his playing time in the minor leagues.
Each year they come back and stay in the basement of the Hagen family home talking about old times and catching up on each other's careers.
"(Friday) night, we knew we had to get up at 5:30 (Saturday) and we stayed up way past midnight telling stories, joking and laughing," Hagen said. "We were having fun."
The Hagen's are like family to most of the players and vice versa. Matt's 27-year-old sister Katie, grew up with Matt's friends and considers them like "little brothers."
She believes the close relationship the players have through baseball and their shared faith has helped them deal with the trials and tribulations of playing in the minor leagues.
"They just build each other up so much," Katie said. "I will give Matt a call and I will hear him talk about all his good friends and how they are doing and how much they support each other. I think they have really become a family."
Steve Wapnick, a former major league pitcher who had brief stints with the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox, coached at the clinic for the first time and immediately noticed the close bond the players share.
"I went to Fresno State and I had some close friends," said Wapnick, now a pharmaceutical sales representative living in Fort Collins. "But I think having a special tie-in with Christ as being a center of their life and building fellowship there just makes such a big difference. I am friends with some of the guys I played with, but these guys are like brothers."
Matt Hagen hopes the children at the clinic realize the strength of that bond is because of their shared faith more than because of baseball.
"I hope the kids see that there is a deeper connection in our relationship than some other people may have," Hagen said. "I think the kids get a sense of that and I hope they do."
www.greeleytrib.com/article/20060112/SPORTS/101120070
