Jack’s Winning Words 12/19/13
“To me, life is about helping people.”  (Ernie Banks)  Do you have an all-time baseball hero?  Mine is Mr. Sunshine, called that because of his upbeat disposition.  Today’s quote came as he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  At this time of the year much emphasis is placed on helping people.  For Ernie, it was a year-round passion.  The Bible says that the “needy” are always around us.  Look for opportunities to help.    ;-)  Jack

FROM HONEST JOHN:  We share Ernie as our baseball hero.   I still have a plastic statue of him that I got at Wrigley as a kid.   Met Gene Baker at an EM ball game that he was scouting.====JACK:  Thinking back to the time when I was growing up with the Cubs....It didn't seem like there was so much emphasis on winning as there is today.  We still wanted our team to win, but the "intensity" seemed less.  I wonder if had something to do with the fact that players stayed with the club for longer periods of time (no free agency).  It was baseball, not money-ball.  "Our" generation can relate to the Field of Dreams.

FROM GOOD DEBT JON:  Amen.====JACK:  Your Amen must relate to "helping the needy," since someone from Ohio might not be familiar with a Chicago Cubs' player.====JON:  You are correct.  I agree heartily with  Ernie's sentiment.====JACK::Some ballplayers are more than ballplayers.

 FROM TARMART REV:  Will do, Jack . . . maybe I can share a bag of popcorn with an unexpected recipient this afternoon . . . I'll tell them my friend, Jack, suggested I do so!!   I do have, as last year, $1000.00 donated by three of us to pass out to un-expecting folk to brighten their Christmas spirit. So far, we've blessed three or four single mothers with temporary housing, car repair and Christmas money to purchase gifts for them and their children.  Our church has a yearly anonymous donor (known only to the staff) who has given $10,000 the past several Christmases . . .the church matches that as well . . . and we choose deserving individuals and families to bless this Christmas season. It is very enjoyable to be part of such a giving church in this manner.====JACK:  From a bag of popcorn to $10,000...every little bit helps.  There is so much need.  Every little bit helps.  In Sunday School we used to sing:  "Jesus bids us shine with a clear pure light, like a little candle burning in the night.  In this world of darkness, we must shine.  You, in your small corner, and I in mine."  Your candle is shining at Target and Walmart.

 FROM CK IN MICHIGAN:  I grew up with the Cubs of old! Earnie Banks, Glen Beckert, Don Kessinger and Ron Santo! Around the horn for the Cubs infield ! I am still a Cubby fan to this day! Thanks for the memory you gave me today of a simpler time and and a great message for every day! Enjoy Jack! ;-) ====JACK:  I've been a Tigers fan for longer than I was a Cubs fan, but you never seem to forget the team you cheered for when you were a kid.  I used to cut the pictures of the Cubs' players out of the newspaper and put them in a scrapbook.  Whatever happened to that scrapbook with pictures of Ernie and the rest?  We once stayed in a condo in Florida that belonged to Don Kessinger.

 FROM RI IN BOSTON:  If all mankind would commit to those simple WW we probably wouldn't have those "needy" people anymore.====jJACK  If!!!!!  I'm reminded of the Kipling poem, IF.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
 ====RI  Kipling's poem calls out so many of the hardships or injustices with which we are confronted in life.  It challenges the dignity that is often dormant within us.====JACK:  Kipling saw the "need" through his eyes.  You see it through yours, and I see it through mine.  The question is....What do we do about it?

 FROM SHARIN' SHARON:  Enjoyed the WW and the poem IF. Our prayer group was praying up at the church on Wednesday morning and especially praying for the concerns of the people who use our food pantry. They write them on little pieces of paper. Was praying for each of them to receive blessings of health, peace and prosperity and it came to mind that, even though it seems daunting to believe that people at the margins financially can feel prosperous yet nevertheless being blessed by God is in the eyes of the beholder and praying for each person to have that window opened where a blessing is poured on them of some sort of wealth that is "exactly what they want and feel they need at THAT TIME" so that they can go on, like in the poem IF. I appreciate your blogging the poem. Thanks and God bless you.====JACK:  Sometimes, just mentioned the name of someone in need is enough of a prayer.  God knows and understands. ====SHARON:  I appreciated your comment to my comment. Sometimes, when I'm praying through the little pieces of paper, I get discouraged because they are all people who I never meet and actually relate conversationally with, but I still doggedly insist to myself that--even though there is only a little piece of paper between us--they must never remain anonymous people and have names--your comment was so comforting. At Emmanuel, we care in a personal way for the people who use our pantry. ====JACK:  The hymn, There's A Wideness in God's Mercy, has this verse...
If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would be all sunshine
In the sweetness of our Lord.
Sometimes we make our prayers more complex than they need to be.

 FROM TRIHARDER:  Never won a world series.  He might have been perceived to be a "much greater" player had he played on either coast and received the coverage of a Willie Mays. A shortstop with 500+ home runs!====JACK:  Maybe his greatest days were when he played for the Kansas City Monarchs. ====TH:  In terms of records, there should be two eras for baseball (and other sports, but particularly baseball because it is so record oriented).  To have excluded an entire class of people from a sport and to include records that were set without participation of those people is basically using records from an inferior league.====JACK:  During the "Before Jackie Robinson Era," I wonder which league was the "major" league?====TH:  Great question.  It's too bad that no real records were kept.  I do love the legends. Cool Papa Bell was so fast he once hit a line drive through the pitcher's legs and it hit him in the ass as he was sliding into second base.====Now, that's fast.  Satchel Paige, in the major leagues, was an anachronism.  His "prime" was before he sat in the bullpen in a rocking chair.====TH  I wanted to write a book about the Negro Leagues.  I started to do research. A very paltry library; very few references.====JACK:  Everybody knows of Jackie Robinson, but have you heard of Lou Carinio and Lon Cherban?

 FROM BBC IN ILLINOIS:  Met him with my son a year ago in a skybox; Ernie's still a gracious gentleman.  Thanks for sharing his quote.====JACK:  I've only had the chance to admire him from a far, not from a skybox  .

 FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  It's easy to find someone to help lately.====JACK:  It's surprising how, so many in need will help one another.  That's a major untold story.

 FROM SB IN MICHIGAN:  Thank you for helping people daily with your “Winning Words.”====JACK:  We each do our thing.  God has a way of making your thing and mine work out.

 FROM AW IN ILLINOIS:  He is one of my favorites.    Good quote. Thanks.====JACK:  When he's introduced, the announcer will often say,  "Here he is, everybody's favorite, Mr. Cub."  He's truly someone who needs no more introduction than that====AW:  .Seems the coach came to Ron and Said...Pack up, we are going to play an exhibition game in Virgina.  Santo said: No Way. I don't have to go and I won't.
Coach  said ..yes you will. It is in your contract. Santo said, we shall see, and he refered to his attorney.   After a day, the Attourney called and said:  "Yes, Santo, there is a Virginia clause!".     (get the pun?)

 FROM FM IN WISCONSIN:  Thanks for the word today – I too always liked Ernie, and will attempt to heed your thoughts about looking for opportunities to help, not only in the approaching season of Christmas, but year around.====JACK:  Jesus, indeed, is new every day, so, in truth, every day is Christmas.

 FROM ME IN NEWPORT BEACH:  I agree.  He and Cal Ripken rank up there in my book.  I was at the game when Cal R broke Lou Gehrig's iron man record and later met him serendipitously in a hotel in Seattle where he was preparing to do a night ball game.  From my perspective, a very humble man, as, it appears is Ernie Banks.====JACK:  Sparky Anderson, when he was manger of the Detroit Tigers, used to attend a Catholic Church where the priest was a friend of mine.  He encouraged worshippers to let Sparky worship as an ordinary person.  He was truly a humble person and a regular church attender.

 FROM JE IN MICHIGAN:  This is so absolutely perfect for today. Today, a group of colleagues and I gave wrapped gifts and gift cards to a family with five children. Husband lost his job; they are now paying insurance for family of seven, plus house payment, gas, etc… She called me in desperation two weeks ago. I did our usual checks and balances and then called her back to ask her to send us the kids’ “wish” lists. We got everything. She was completely overwhelmed. I had Christmas ahead of time today as the mother came to pick up gifts and hugged each of us.====JACK:  One of the Christmas carols goes...."Love came down at Christmas."  You and your friends made that song come true for a family.

 FROM ML IN MICHIGAN:  My husband said you probably know the Ernie banks famous quote, "Let's play two!"====JACK:  Anybody who knows Ernie knows that quote.  He loved baseball so much that he didn't mind playing doubleheaders.  When you love your work, it's not work.

 FROM BLAZING OAKS:  Ah, memories! My mother's all time favorite player, and she was a die-hard Cub fan!  Christmas is certainly the time we help people. My Angel tree person was  a  3 yr. old. just delivered clothes and toys on her list today, including  "Princess Shoes"...:-) And our Neighborhood House, and the school across from  our church (a mitten, scarf and hat  tree in the Narthex) etcl. etc. Ernie is so right. "In the air  there's a feeling of Christmas"!====JACK:  Some people keep their good habits for a lifetime.  I wonder who it was that set the example for Ernie?

  FROM SBP IN FLORIDA:  Life IS about helping people! It requires taking care of yourself so that you can continue to be of help ....in many ways to others.  Baseball! My Dad and I used to go to "night" games at Browning Field...local teams. And we'd listen to the games on the radio....better than TV. Just a couple names come up at this point and I,m not certain...White Sox or Cubs....Gabby Hartnett, Bob Feller, Enos Slaughter???  I like "If"....hadn't thought about it for a long time. I'm wondering why I could find only one reference to Kipling,s "If" in Bartlett,s....and it was negative! ====JACK:  I posted "If" on the blog, so you don't have to rely on Bartlett for a judgment.  And, then...you have to know something about the context of the poem and why it was written.  Theb same goes for passages from the Bible.  BTW, "Gabby" was a nickname, because he talked so much.  Feller was called, Rapid Robert, because of his fastball.  Slaughter had the nickname of "Country" for a somewhat obvious reason.  Did you have a nickname?