"Is God Speaking to the Yankees, and Their Fans?"

Today is exactly 80 years since a tearful LOU GEHRIG said Goodbye to baseball.  The "Iron Horse," having played in a then-record 2,130 consecutive games, was dying of what is now known as "Lou Gehrig's disease." Gehrig (above) later had a movie about him entitled "Pride of the Yankees."

Last week, there was a LOT of Yankee pride, much of it CARNAL pride, when the Yankees crushed the reigning World Champion Boston Red Sox in two straight contests.  The games were the first-ever played in London and therefore they created interest all around the world.  Yankee fans (not me) were elated to see our arch-rival Red Sox humiliated in those London games.

It seems so long ago now...the Yankees have come home to the States and, in movie theaters, the new "Spider-Man" movie features HIM leaving New York to battle in London.  And meanwhile, in the REAL world, a very strange Providence has befallen the Yankee team.  The top two broadcasters for the Yanks, one from the TV side and one from the RADIO side, have both SUDDENLY been laid aside.

On the TV part, MICHAEL KAY has suddenly revealed that he's taking a month off to have surgery on his vocal chords. Kay has been an EXTREME workaholic over many years, covering the Yankees in newspapers, radio and (most prominently), TELEVISION.  It is extremely rare for him to miss any time due to illness.  His voice HAS been acting up recently but he said he "had a cold" only last week.  Now, we know it's MORE than a cold.

On the radio side, JOHN STERLING has been "The Voice of the Yankees" for 30 years and has not missed a game during that stint!! But effective today, the 80th anniversary of Gehrig's speech, Sterling is taking over a week off because he "is not feeling well." True, John is "up in years" (he turns 81 today), but a Yankee radio broadcast WITHOUT him is stunning to us.  30 years is a long, long "streak"

These two used to be partners on the radio for Yankees broadcasts and now I can't help but wonder if God has made them partners in PROVIDENCE.  Gehrig (who died about two years after his famous speech on July 4th, 1939) was at least ABLE to have an audience when he spoke 80 years ago.  Sterling and Kaye CANNOT speak today, nor in the near future, for their beloved Yanks and all Yankee fans WILL feel it.  In a season where 20 different players have been injured yet we are STILL in first place (and this makes many Yankee fans PROUD instead of GRATEFUL), now our top two ANNOUNCERS have been sidelined.  When will "we" let go of our Yankee Pride, I wonder??  WHAT WILL IT TAKE until "we" can learn to ENJOY the team without IDOLIZING them??

Is God speaking to the Yankees through the sudden, simultaneous SILENCING of our top two announcers?? I wish both Michael and John SPEEDY recoveries and ESPECIALLY I do pray they will get SAVED because it's obvious that they are not YET saved.  And I'm not saying both of them are DYING, as GEHRIG was!!  I'm only asking a question: Is God speaking to the Yankees, and their fans, in this next period when, for the first time in 30 years, we WON'T be able to hear their top two announcers call the games?? And is the fact that this period starts TODAY when GEHRIG will be remembered again, a reminder of how brief this life is, and how eternity looms for all of us??