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 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 base stealer. 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 base stealer. He was clocked rounding the bases in fourteen seconds, and in footraces he beat out both the fastest runner in amy mom got scared, and said, "You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air." I whistled for a cab and when it came near The license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror. If anything I could say that this cab was rare, but I thought, "Nah, forget it. Yo, holmes to Bel-Air!" I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8 and I yelled to the cabbie, "Yo holmes smell ya later!" Looked at my kingdom I was finally there, to sit on my throne as the prince of Bel-Air.  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>