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[[image:BillySunday006.jpg|200px|thumb]]

'''Billy Sunday''' (full name: ''William Ashley Sunday'') (1862-1935) was a famous baseball player who became an even more famous revivalist minister. He set a baseball record by rounding the bases in fourteen seconds, and in 1891 he set another by stealing 90 bases in 116 games. That year, the Philadelphia Phillies offered Sunday $400/month, but he turned them down to accept an $83/month job as "Secretary of the Religious Department" at a YMCA. He hosted his first revival meeting in Iowa in 1897 and became an ordained Presbyterian minister in 1903.<ref name=billysundayorg>[http://billysunday.org/ Billy Sunday Remembered]: ran bases in 14 seconds. [http://billysunday.org/timeline.php3 Billy Sunday timeline]: birth-death dates, base-stealing, turned down Phillies for YMCA, first revival meeting in 1897, ordained 1903, 98,000 accepted Christ in 1917 New York campaign.</ref>

'''Billy Sunday''' (full name: ''William Ashley Sunday'') (1862-1935) was a famous baseball player who became a far more famous revivalist minister, a household word.

 

He played baseball with the Chicago White Sox from 1883-7, the Pittsburgh Alleghenies in 1888-90, and briefly with the Philadelphia Phillies.<ref>[http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/sundabi01.shtml Billy Sunday statistics], baseballreference.com</ref>. As a player he was notable (though not stellar). He set a baseball record by rounding the bases in fourteen seconds, and in 1891 he set another by stealing 90 bases in 116 games. That year, the Philadelphia Phillies offered Sunday $400/month, but he turned them down to accept an $83/month job as "Secretary of the Religious Department" at a YMCA. He hosted his first revival meeting in Iowa in 1897 and became an ordained Presbyterian minister in 1903.<ref name=billysundayorg>[http://billysunday.org/ Billy Sunday Remembered]: ran bases in 14 seconds. [http://billysunday.org/timeline.php3 Billy Sunday timeline]: birth-death dates, base-stealing, turned down Phillies for YMCA, first revival meeting in 1897, ordained 1903, 98,000 accepted Christ in 1917 New York campaign.</ref>

By 1914, he was a national celebrity, conducting campaigns in big cities which lasted many weeks and attracted tens of thousands of people.  In 1917, he conducted a ten-week campaign in New York in which 98,000 people accepted Christ.<ref name=billysundayorg/>. Gale's ''American Decades'' says that by 1920 he was the best-known evangelist in America.  

By 1914, he was a national celebrity, conducting campaigns in big cities which lasted many weeks and attracted tens of thousands of people.  In 1917, he conducted a ten-week campaign in New York in which 98,000 people accepted Christ.<ref name=billysundayorg/>. Gale's ''American Decades'' says that by 1920 he was the best-known evangelist in America.