Was shocked this morning at church at who Pastor Wayne invited up on stage with him.
Roe Skidmore.
You recognize that name?
Diehard fans of baseball MIGHT.
If you're not a diehard, you have no clue.
Roe is from Decatur and played for several professional baseball organizations.
It was fun to hear a little of his story today. He's a funny guy.
4 cool things about Roe:
-- he was born/raised in our church and still attends today
-- he had a dream as an 8 year old boy watching the Decatur Commodores to play professional baseball...... and he reached that dream
-- he is a great example of a family man
-- he is one of only a handful of major league players to have a career batting average of 1.000
The short story on his first hit:
When Skidmore stepped to the plate in the seventh inning for his first career at-bat, there were two outs and no runners on, and as luck would have it, he was facing a familiar foe. Cardinals starting pitcher Jerry Reuss would go on to win 220 games over 22 big league seasons, but at the time, he was a 21-year-old making his 19th major league start, and, more important, he was a pitcher Skidmore had faced in the minors.
Reuss hung a curveball and Skidmore smoked it into left field for a single, over the head of Joe Torre and, after a couple of bounces, into the glove of Lou Brock.
How cool is that!
Read more about Roe:
Out for now.......
Matt