That Light at the Front of the Bus

 

I had a childhood friend named Jay Pettibone that I first met in Elementary school, who remained close until my father was promoted at work and we moved away for two years. When I returned, we landed in the eastside of town and I attended a different school then my old friend, though we did play sports against each other in school (in baseball and basketball). He contacted me after I moved to central California for my job, because he was playing Minor League Professional Baseball as a pitcher in the California League for the Visalia Oaks, a farm team for the Minnesota Twins franchise. My wife, son and I watched a couple of Jay’s games back then, but lost track of him as he moved to different minor league teams over the years. Though we were invited to and attended his wedding some years later in Southern California. Fast forward thirty years or so later and one day I receive a “Friend Request” on Facebook from him and we start meeting again for lunches to catch up on our lives, the world and the Christian faith. God wasn’t done with us yet.

 

Today, I’d like to share a Sewell Hall article titled "That Light at the Front of the Bus”, which appeared in Christianity Magazine in October 1987 about this priceless friend and brother in Christ that I still meet up with occasionally today. Hall writes: To most of us the life of a professional baseball player approaches the ultimate in glamor-the applause of the crowds, the money, the publicity. In reality, much of it can be pretty drab.

 

Kerry Keenan, a former pitcher and college coach, described it for me. Uncertainty is the name of the game, especially for rookies as they come on with a team, not knowing if it will be for one game, one season or one professional lifetime. (Do you buy a house, lease an apartment or check into a motel?) Then there are the long trips, often beginning after a late game and extending much of the night. And there is the spare time-too much of it-when there is nothing to do. All of these problems are compounded in the minor leagues where money is scarce, trips are on buses, and the towns are Little Rock, Jackson and Asheville rather than New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

 

Are there honest prospects for the gospel out there on the playing field? Could God use the hardships of a minor league to bring such souls to salvation? Let me tell you more of my conversation with Kerry.

 

Kerry was a nominal (in name only) Catholic, playing in the Texas League. At spring training in Plant City, Florida, a rookie pitcher by the name of Jay Pettibone reported in from California. When both Kerry and Jay were assigned to a new league and a team in Asheville, North Carolina, Jay ended up with no place to live, so Kerry's roommate persuaded him to let Jay room with them.

 

From the beginning, it was evident that Jay was different from the other guys," Kerry reports. "There was something about him that set him apart as being what a Christian should be; yet he did not act like he felt left out. He was one of us as a ballplayer and friend and teammate and he worked harder than most of the others. But he wouldn't join in any of the drinking or other things we were doing that we shouldn't have been into."

 

On a typical 12-hour bus ride from city to city through the night, some guys would have a card table set up back in a corner playing poker; some would be drinking in the back, while others were talking about their various interests. But up front, there would be a reading light on. I knew who it was. It was Jay, reading his pocket New Testament. I would see him up there and often go up and ask him questions."

 

Jay needed transportation to classes at Haywood Road church in Asheville, so Kerry, having nothing else to do, began taking him. Jay's faithful commitment and the teaching of Ken Williams deeply impressed Kerry and soon long hours of private. study began, with several other players involved. Before the season ended, Kerry and three others from the team had been baptized into Christ. The end of the season broke up the group.

 

Jay found himself in Orlando next season and his influence was soon being felt there. Fellow-players on the Orlando team were put in touch with Par Street church and with Rodney Miller and David Bradford. Several were baptized and at one point three of five starting pitchers were Christians. The story was similar in all of the cities where he played.

 

In the meantime, those whom Jay has influenced have gone "everywhere preaching the word." Of the four baptized in Asheville, two are still faithful. Both Kerry and Jim Shaeffer have coached at Florida College. Kerry, after three years there, went to spend a summer working with the small church meeting in rented office space in the East Hills section of his native Pittsburgh. Unable to break away from his feeling of responsibility to the church, he found secular employment and has remained there, filling a significant role in that small but growing congregation.

 

One interesting point should be made. When Kerry and Jay first met, Jay had been a Christian for only about a year. This meant that his own knowledge was limited. He knew enough to help contacts initially but, as Kerry observes, "More than anything, what taught me was what we saw in his life." His life truly adorned whatever biblical doctrine it was that he believed, so that his teammates were willing to study with such teachers as Ken Williams, Rodney Miller, David Bradford, Gary Ogden and others whom Jay recommended.

 

One thing that impresses non-Christian ball players is the reception Christians receive wherever they go. In circumstances that would otherwise be lonely, they find a family of brothers and sisters who quickly accept them. It was on such an occasion that I met Jay. He was in Minneapolis as a trial pitcher for the Twins and I was preaching in a meeting there. Jay attended two nights and made for himself a place in the hearts of that small congregation. And he was not lonely.

 

Yes, God can work together even the hardships of minor league baseball for the salvation of honest souls and for their edification as saints. All that is required is one light in their midst, "holding forth the Word of life" in deed as well as in doctrine. 

 

Bloom where you are planted for the Lord and let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven – even if it is at the front of the bus.

 

In Christ, Brian