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[[image:Billysundaycard.jpg|150px|thumb|left|Billy Sunday on a baseball card]]

[[image:Billysundaycard.jpg|150px|thumb|left|Billy Sunday on a baseball card]]

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 stole 96 bases in one season, a record second only to Ty Cobb's 98.<ref name=ames/> 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>

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 stole 96 bases in one season, a record second only to Ty Cobb's 98.<ref name=ames/> A hard drinker off the field, in 1886 he was literally picked out of the gutter, drunk, by workers at the Chicago's Pacific Garden Mission, was converted, and stopped drinking.

 

In 1891 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 became an advance man for revivalist J. Wilbur Chapman, and learned how to organize revival meetings.<ref name=cc>[http://www.christianchronicler.com/history1/fundamentalism_and_billy_sunday.html Fundamentalism and Billy Sunday], christianchronicler.com</ref> 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.