Rev Dan Polecheck

17 Inches by John Scolinos Over twenty years ago, in Nashville, Tennessee, during the first week of January, 1996, more than 4,000 baseball coaches descended upon the Opryland Hotel for the 52nd annual ABCA's convention. While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the lineup of speakers scheduled to present during the weekend. One name kept resurfacing, always with the same sentiment — “John Scolinos is here? Oh, man, worth every penny of my airfare.” Who is John Scolinos, I wondered. No matter; I was just happy to be there. In 1996, Coach Scolinos was 78 years old and five years retired from a college coaching career that began in 1948. He shuffled to the stage to an impressive standing ovation, wearing dark polyester pants, a light blue shirt, and a string around his neck from which home plate hung — a full-sized, stark-white home plate. Seriously, I wondered, who is this guy? After speaking for twenty-fiv...

The little boy put on his clothes for the cold and then told his father: "Ok dad I'm ready" His Dad, the pastor, said: "Ready for what?" "Dad, it's time to go outside and distribute our flyers." Dad replied: "Son, it's very cold outside and it's drizzling." The child looked surprised at his father and said: "But dad, people need to know about God even on rainy days." Dad replied, "Son, I'm not going outside in this weather." With despair, the child said: "Dad, can I go alone? Please!" His father waited for a moment and then said: "Son, you can go. Here's the flyers, be careful." "Thank you dad!" And with this, the son went out into the rain. The 11-Year-old walked all the streets of the village, handing out the flyers to the people he saw. After 2 hours walking in the rain and cold and with his last flyer in his hand, he stopped at a corner to see if he saw some...