Changes

==Baseball player to preacher==

==Baseball player to preacher==

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

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

His first career was as [[baseball]] player with the [[Chicago Cubs|Chicago White Stockings]] 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> He was a well-known and notable player (though not stellar), famous for his running speed in the outfield and as a basestealer. He was clocked rounding the bases in fourteen seconds, and in footraces he beat out both the fastest runner in a competing baseball league and a professional sprinter.<ref>Those races were reported in the ''Chicago Tribune,'' Aug. 21, 1885 and Nov. 9, 1885. The races are discussed in ''Sunday at the Ballpark: Billy Sunday's Professional Baseball Career 1883-1890'', by Wendy Knickerbocker, Scarecrow Press, 2000, p. 42-43, 45-47.</ref> 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.

His first career was as [[baseball]] player with the [[Chicago Cubs|Chicago White Stockings]] from 1883-7, the [[Pittsburgh Pirates|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> He was a well-known and notable player (though not stellar), famous for his running speed in the outfield and as a basestealer. He was clocked rounding the bases in fourteen seconds, and in footraces he beat out both the fastest runner in a competing baseball league and a professional sprinter.<ref>Those races were reported in the ''Chicago Tribune,'' Aug. 21, 1885 and Nov. 9, 1885. The races are discussed in ''Sunday at the Ballpark: Billy Sunday's Professional Baseball Career 1883-1890'', by Wendy Knickerbocker, Scarecrow Press, 2000, p. 42-43, 45-47.</ref> 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 the spring of 1891 Sunday resigned his Philadelphia Phillies contract of $3000 for 6-7 months of work for an $83/month job as "Secretary of the Religious Department" at the Chicago [[YMCA]]. Two years later he became an advance man for revivalist [[J. Wilbur Chapman]], and learned how to organize revival meetings. In January of 1896 he went out on his own and hosted his first revival meeting in Garner, [[Iowa]], and he was ordained as a [[Presbyterian]] minister in 1903.<ref name=cc>[http://www.christianchronicler.com/history1/fundamentalism_and_billy_sunday.html Fundamentalism and Billy Sunday], ''Billy Sunday Was His Real Name'', by William McLoughlin, University of Chicago Press, 1955, p. 8-11.</ref>

In the spring of 1891 Sunday resigned his Philadelphia Phillies contract of $3000 for 6-7 months of work for an $83/month job as "Secretary of the Religious Department" at the Chicago [[YMCA]]. Two years later he became an advance man for revivalist [[J. Wilbur Chapman]], and learned how to organize revival meetings. In January of 1896 he went out on his own and hosted his first revival meeting in Garner, [[Iowa]], and he was ordained as a [[Presbyterian]] minister in 1903.<ref name=cc>[http://www.christianchronicler.com/history1/fundamentalism_and_billy_sunday.html Fundamentalism and Billy Sunday], ''Billy Sunday Was His Real Name'', by William McLoughlin, University of Chicago Press, 1955, p. 8-11.</ref>

==Converts and financial success==

==Converts and financial success==

He was financially successful, a point which his critics noted. It was his practice to keep the proceeds of the last day of his campaigns. He published his results measured both by numbers of converts and by dollars in thank offerings. Through 1916, he made over twenty appearances in cities ranging in size from small ([[Erie, Pennsylvania]]; [[Canton, Ohio]]) to large ([[Boston]], [[Philadelphia]], New York), and claimed a total of over 600,000 converts and $680,000 in donations<ref name=nytobit>"Billy Sunday Dies, Evangelist was 71," ''The New York Times,'' November 7, 1935, p. 1. Totals calculated from numbers in article.</ref> (equivalent to about $13 million today).<ref name=westegg>[http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ The Inflation Calculator]</ref>. In 1920 [[Dun and Bradstreet]] estimated his worth at $1.4 million ($16 million today).

He was financially successful, a point which his critics noted. It was his practice to keep the proceeds of the last day of his campaigns. He published his results measured both by numbers of converts and by dollars in thank offerings. Through 1916, he made over twenty appearances in cities ranging in size from small ([[Erie, Pennsylvania]]; [[Canton, Ohio]]) to large ([[Boston]], [[Philadelphia]], [[New York City|New York]]), and claimed a total of over 600,000 converts and $680,000 in donations<ref name=nytobit>"Billy Sunday Dies, Evangelist was 71," ''The New York Times,'' November 7, 1935, p. 1. Totals calculated from numbers in article.</ref> (equivalent to about $13 million today).<ref name=westegg>[http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ The Inflation Calculator]</ref>. In 1920 [[Dun and Bradstreet]] estimated his worth at $1.4 million ($16 million today).

==Criticism==

==Criticism==