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If you’re one of those people who has always wanted to ride your bicycle across the entire country, only you could never find a cause worthy enough…your search may finally be over.

Introducing the Ride:Well Tour:

The Ride:Well Tour is a bicycling expedition from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. to raise funds and awareness for Blood:Water Mission’s 1,000 Wells Project. The trip is open to anyone who is up for a challenge and desires to bring clean water to Africa.

The Bike Tour will start in L.A. in early June and and travel 3,150 miles to Washington, D.C. by the end of July. The cost is around $4000, so you might not want to spend that tax refund on that 1080p plasma after all.

You can get more info about the Ride:Well Tour here, more info on the Blood:Water Mission here, and you can apply for the ride here. (but hurry, there’s less than 12 hours left until registration is closed, and they’re only accepting 26 riders.)

UPDATE: according to this story, author Don Miller (Blue Like Jazz) will be one of the participants.

a few quick hitters for you while you mourn the parting of ways between ESPN and Sean Salisbury…

+ We are still looking for folks to play in our PFB Fantasy Baseball League. Just a few slots are left, so if you’re interested, send an email to –>prayersforblowoutsATgmailDOTcom.

+ CJ Mahaney writes on his blog regarding Andy Pettitte’s press conference from last week:

As I watched Pettitte, I noted how high-profile Christian athletes miss opportunities to present culture with a compelling alternative: someone who has been genuinely convicted of sin and confesses those specific sins. Instead, the norm for these athletes (who are professing Christians) is to conform to the evasive language so common when someone has been caught…Reading these explicit references to God, I find it difficult to reconcile Pettitte’s statements with Scripture. He is a professing Christian, yet when it comes to his admitted use of HGH, we hear posturing and ambiguous language.

+ Moderately Cerebral Bias calls into question Nike’s unholy approach to marketing LeBron James.

+ An interesting story about a 17-year old Jewish girl who skipped a 3-point contest in order to observe sabbath. The twist: her appendix probably would have burst had she competed in the contest. She ended up breaking her sabbath, not for the competition, but for the emergency appendectomy.

+ about 40 students attended the 10th annual Fellowship of Christian Athletes Xtreme Leadership Day in Marion, Ohio. Pastor J. Patrick Street, who organizes the event, has written a devotional book for athletes.

+ Vegas Watch posted some odds from BetUS that caught our attention. They are giving 1000:1 odds on “Jesus to appear as a living man on earth in 2008″. The maximum bet is $25 to win $25,000. The qualifier: “Has to be proven to be the Son of God”. How exactly do you prove that? I mean, Jesus did a slew of miracles and lots of people still wouldn’t believe. Probably not a bet I’ll be placing.

+ Some bets I might place if I was a betting man? How about over/unders on MLB win totals for 2008. I’d take Arizona OVER 86.5, the NY Yankees UNDER 94, the Rays OVER 72, Toronto UNDER 84, and Detroit UNDER 93.5 (sorry Aaron!).

On Sunday night I was watching the 2007 World Series of Poker on ESPN when I came across this amazing exchange.

At the final table of the Main Event, chip leader Jerry Yang bets 1 million with unsuited A-9. Poker Pro Lee Watkinson then raises All In (9 million) with an unsuited A-7.

If Jerry calls Lee’s bet and wins, Lee is out of the tournament. The camera cuts to Lee’s fiancee among the spectators, and that’s when we pick up the action:

Lee’s fiancee: “If he calls, he will double Lee up. No weapon formed against him shall prosper.”

Jerry Yang: “I Call!”

*crowd stands to their feet in anticipation*

Lee’s fiancee: “C’mon Father! In Jesus’ Name, no weapon formed against you shall prosper!”

Jerry Yang: “C’mon Lord. You know Your purpose for me.

*the flop comes 2-6-4 and the turn is a King. Neither player’s hand improves and Yang is still ahead*

Jerry Yang: “C’mon Lord. Have a purpose for me today.”

Lee’s fiancee: “C’mon, make him a believer. Make Lee a believer, Father.”

Narrator Norman Chad: “I’m not sure who the Lord is listening to, but Watkinson needs a 7 or he’s done.”

Jerry Yang: “Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, c’mon, let me win this one.”

*River card is a jack, and Yang wins the hand. Lee Watkinson is eliminated*

(you can watch the clip here, between the 0:45 and 2:20 mark of the video)

It’s crazy enough to see one person praying for a poker hand, but two? That’s as rare as a royal flush.

Jerry Yang, father of five and former part-time missionary, went on to win the Main Event, and a $8.25 Million dollar purse. He said he would give 10% of his winnings to 3 charities (Ronald McDonald House, Make a Wish Foundation, and Feed the Children).

In his post-win interview he said “(The day i left the refugee camp in Thailand) was the happiest day of my life. But my win today also means a lot to me, because I know that i can use this money to do a lot of good for other people out there.”

No word yet as to whether Lee became a believer or not.

If you got a chance to watch that exchange, what did you think of it?

*by the way, a “suckout” is a poker term that means “a strong poker hand that is beat by another player’s hand because they hit their draw”

a few quick hitters for you while those valentine’s day flowers began their slow death on your kitchen table…

+ If you were wondering what Mike Golic is fasting this year for lent (and you know you were), he’s giving up on making fun of Mike Greenberg, his partner in crime on the Mike & Mike Morning Show. This has led to the creation of a sound bite by their extremely talented producers Joaquin and Liam, that Greeny plays whenever he thinks Golic is breaking his fast with an insult or quip. The clip is of a jovial Satan saying “We’re making room for you down here, big guy! Muahahahahaha!” (Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of hell jokes, but that’s just me.) I will say though, I plan on tuning in on the Monday following Easter, because I expect Golic to unleash a few weeks worth of insults on his metrosexual cohort.

+ Wondering how that conversation went down between Clemens and Pettitte in which Pettitte misremembered what Roger said and attributed his HGH use to some old guys on TV? Joe Posnanski provides a transcript.

+ The NBA Slam Dunk Contest might, (and I emphasize “might”) actually be good this year. Last year Dwight Howard gave us the “All things through Christ” sticker near the top of the backboard. This year he wanted the NBA to raise the rim to 12 feet but they refused. He’ll be facing off against Gerald Green, Jamario Moon, and Rudy Gay in a contest that, for the first time ever, will feature fan voting to help determine a winner. The NBA All-Star Saturday night festivities will air on TNT from 8pm-11pm EST.

+ Thanks to Matt Doan over at Orange County Pastor for the gracious linkage he posted at his blog. That kind of love will earn you a spot on the “Friends of PFB” blogroll every time.

+ Any NASCAR fans in the house? The Daytona 500 is this Sunday, which is kinda like the PGA Tour opening up their season with The Masters. Always thought that was a cool twist; to open the season with your biggest event. My brother-in-law is the biggest NASCAR fan I know, and he’s barely a fan, so I’m admittedly a bit detached from the sport. But I do know that he hates Jimmie Johnson, so that’s the guy I root for every week. And by “root” I mean “I don’t watch any of the event, but I hope he wins”. Go 48!

+ Here at Prayers For Blowouts we will not endorse any one political candidate. (Probably because we have no idea who we are voting for at this point.) But if a story comes along that touches the intersection of sports and faith, we’re all over it like Dick Vitale on Duke. In that vein, we found this 2005 story on Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee very interesting. Most folks know that Huckabee is a Christian, but did you know that he used to have a size 50 waist before he started running?

+ If you’re still buzzing over the fact that Pitchers and Catchers reported to Spring Training this week, perhaps you’d be interested in joining our PFB Fantasy Baseball League? Since most of you diehards are already in your own Roto league, I was thinking of putting together a Head-to-Head league for us to compete in. If you’re interested, send an email to –>prayersforblowoutsATgmailDOTcom.

editor’s note: if you came to this page wondering if playing poker is a sin, might I suggest you read my post on that exact topic?

Is poker a sport? Honestly, I don’t know. They do put it on ESPN. But then again, they put “Who’s Now” on ESPN too, and that had as much to do with sports as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have to do with winning. Sport or not, it does involve competing, and if you know anything about the game of Poker, you know that it can make for some riveting television.

If you spent any time over the past 5 years watching televised poker, then you probably know who Daniel Negreanu is. He’s the quirky Canadian player who loves to talk at the table and has a knack for reading other players better than most. One thing you might not have known is that he is a Christian.

Aaron Todd, on his blog “Gaming Guru”, interviewed Negreanu in 2006, and said of Negreanu’s conversion:

A few months after they started dating, Negreanu’s wife Lori mentioned that she was a Christian and she felt it was important for Negreanu to explore his faith. He read A Case For Christ by Lee Strobel, and when he finished, he felt like there was “no option other than believing.”

Like he does at the table, when it came to the idea of a Christian making a living by playing poker, Negreanu had a lot to say:

“There is no reference anywhere in the Bible, not one scripture that says gambling is a sin or gambling is wrong,” Negreanu says. “There are sinful things that can come out of a love for money. If you have an addiction to money and a love of money, yeah, that’s sinful, but that doesn’t have anything to do with gambling per se. You can do that if you’re a businessman or a corporate man who is just hording his money and not sharing.

“The way I look at it, it’s not how you make your money — as long as you’re not doing anything to cheat people or hurt others — it’s what you do with it. Certainly I’m going to be at a poker table with people that shouldn’t be there — where gambling has become a problem. I think gambling only becomes sinful when it becomes a problem in your life and it impedes your walk with God or with your family. From my perspective, if I’m playing with these people that are going to lose their money anyway, I can turn (bad) money into (good) money.

“It’s no different than being a stock broker. How does one believe gambling is a sin and that playing the stock market isn’t? What is the difference? You’re making an investment on something you don’t really know what is going to happen with. You do your research, like you research a poker hand. You say ‘Well, I think this has expected value, I think I will make money with this hand.’ But you don’t always, sometimes you have some bad luck or you get the wrong read. When you research a business, you say ‘Well, I think this stock is going to go up,’ and make an investment in it. Sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down. Where is the difference?”

When BLUFF Magazine asked Negreanu if there were Christians who had a problem with his profession in November of 2006, he had this to say:

I think only the ignorant ones. My wife’s family are devoted conservatives to the point where she wasn’t even allowed to watch TV as a child, but they’re fine with me. They’re totally fine with what I do for a living. They understand that, you know, there is nothing in the Bible anywhere that says gambling is a sin. Nothing. I think a lot of people misunderstand gambling — OK, it’s essentially taking money from other people. Well, there isn’t a business in the world in which that doesn’t happen. When you win on the stock market, others lose. Any business deal you make, you’re going to take someone’s money. It’s what you do with that money that separates whether you’re healthy or unhealthy. If you hoard all that money for yourself, just to own a bigger home, well, I guess that might be wrong. But there’s nothing wrong with poker according to the Bible. But having said that, a lot of people misinterpret what it says and think that what I do is wrong. To those people, I just try to talk to them and explain to them. But some of them just won’t get it. But that’s OK. I’m not really a fan of conservatism anyway.

Of course, when you make your faith public, you open yourself up to criticism. When Negreanu blogged in April about the priorities in his life (1. God, 2. Family, 3. Health, 4. Poker, and 5. Stuff), some folks jumped on him, throwing scripture back in his face.

What do you think? Do you think Negreanu is wrong to make a living playing poker? If all of a sudden you realized you were an exceptional poker player, would your conscience be okay with you making a living doing it?

Show your cards in the comments…

Over the weekend Beliefnet.com posted their “Top 12 Evangelicals in Sports”. Who made the list? Read on to find out…

Joe Gibbs, who is no longer a two-sport athlete participant with his retirement from the Redskins. (The world feels more right with him back in NASCAR full time, doesn’t it?)

Mariano Rivera, who does a fine job juggling the seemingly oxymoronic roles of Christian and Yankee (sorry, couldn’t resist) and who has one of the strangest baseball cards ever, courtesy of 92 Bowman.

Derek Fisher, who’s known for being a sacrificial father more than anything else (as he should be.)

Shaun Alexander, who we learn in the story, was a virgin when he married his virgin wife. (Not sure that i ever want a detail so personal in any bio of mine.)

Allyson Felix, who we all know as…wait, who is Allyson Felix? (Answer: She runs really fast, she silvered in the 04 Olympics, and she should win some more hardware in Beijing this summer.)

Hunter Smith, who we’ve mentioned here before (Hey, he even left a comment to that post…how cool are we?)

Jake Peavy, who we’d love to have on our fantasy baseball team this year. (We’re involved in a complete redraft in a keeper league, so much preparation must be done between now and the draft.)

Tony Dungy, who needs to spend some time with Brett Favre teaching him the art of making timely off-season decisions.

Curt Schilling, who needs to spend some time with us, teaching us how to write thousands of words per blog post while holding down a day job.

Tim Tebow, who we mentioned on Friday, is apparently the champion of homeschoolers everywhere. (he’s got a bill named after him!)

Michael Waltrip, who isn’t the boogity! boogity! boogity! guy in case you were wondering. (that’s his older brother) .

Zach Johnson, the Joaquin Phoenix lookalike who beat Tiger Woods by 2 strokes at the 07 Masters. (1 of 3 career PGA Tour wins)

Did they leave anyone out? Offer up your additions and subtractions in the comments…

Perhaps you remember a couple of months ago when we mentioned Alex Legion’s mom, the woman who prophesied that her son’s Kentucky Wildcat basketball team would make the final four “providing they play together”?

Well, if you missed it last month, Alex announced he was leaving Kentucky, possibly for Michigan. Then he wasn’t so sure and considered going back to Kentucky. Then his mom wanted him to go to Notre Dame. Then Alex announced he was transferring to Illinois, probably so he could spend hours at a time staring at Bruce Weber’s orange sportcoat.

It’s easy to gloss over the details of this story and assume that Annette Legion is no prophet at all, but if you think about it, The Prophet Legion was actually right all along.

Originally we thought her “providing they play together” comment was a qualifier meant to hedge the bet of her prophecy. But now we see it for what it really was: her subtle way of telling us that Alex wouldn’t be playing with these guys all year, and that as a result, they would not make the Final Four. Of course, if Kentucky does make the Final Four without Alex, well, then we know she’s a fraud.

But at this point, I think she’s pretty safe on that one.

(h/t: Deadspin.com)

reader Aaron Lewis sent us this article in the Detroit News on prayer in Detroit sports. Thought it was a good read, so I’ll pass it along to you.

Prayer is a key Player

Merry Christmas everyone! Enjoy the great sports on TV, but enjoy the time spent with family and friends even more!

Bryan

I found this interview with Kurt and Brenda Warner on the CBN website.

It’s about 5 years old, but I thought his comments on post-game Jesus talk were very interesting:

When you stand up and say, ‘Thank You, Jesus,’ they think you are saying, ‘Thank You for being here. Thank You for moving my arm forward and making the ball go into that guy’s hands so that we could score a touchdown and win the game.’ But, in essence, it is a matter of thanking Him for the opportunity, thanking Him for being there in my life, for being the stronghold, for being the focus and the strength to accomplish all things, to accomplish anything, and to be where I am at, to have gone through everything I have gone through. It is a constant thing in my life. It is not just for something specific He did on the football field to help us win; it is for everything that He has done in my life up to that point and for everything He will continue to do in my life from here until eternity.

I like what Kurt is saying here, I like it a lot. I’m glad that when he thanks Jesus after a game, it’s not because he feels like Jesus helped him win. I like that there’s more to it than that. The problem is, since his lengthy explanation doesn’t accompany his comments in the post-game interview, in most cases people don’t realize what is behind his gratitude. Like he says himself, they think he is thanking God for helping him win the game.

I guess that’s the problem that i usually have with athletes thanking their creator after games. The sound bites about God that athletes stick into these interviews almost always feel forced and a little bit contrived. Not contrived in that they are being insincere, but contrived in that it seems like they were going to get in their sound bite regardless of what the question posed to them was.

Again, I’m not questioning the sincerity of the athlete’s spirituality at all, just the motive behind their unprompted confessions of faith. It’s as if they are doing it out of a sense of duty more than anything else. If the only reason you’re namedropping Jesus is because you’re on national television and you feel like you’re supposed to, then maybe you shouldn’t.

These spiritual sound bites leave a bad taste in so many people’s mouths because there’s usually no context for them when they are spoken. If the reporter specifically asks the athlete what role his or her faith played in the game, then I can understand a response about God. But in most cases the athletes will ignore the question that was asked of them so that they can get in their statement of faith while the cameras are still rolling. At best, it comes across as unrelated and unnecessary. At worse, it feels sneaky and deceptive.

Imagine doing this in other areas of your life? Your boss calls you in to her office to ask how you managed to save the firm’s biggest account and you respond, “First of all, I just want to give all the glory to God and my savior Jesus Christ,” before eventually answering her question. Or what if you responded to a neighbor looking for lawn care tips with, “I’d just like to thank my personal savior Jesus for being there with me as I applied that weed and feed.” If you spent a month doing this I can guarantee you that thirty days later you’d find yourself living like Jose Canseco: lonely and unemployed.

Most of us are careful to only introduce our faith into situations where our beliefs are being solicited or where there is proper context for the discussion to take place. I personally never look to throw random spiritual truths into conversations just because I can. Ambushing people with statements about my faith when they’re not expecting it has never really worked out well for me. If it has for you, then may I suggest you look into missions work? (No seriously, you should.) I’m not saying that God can’t use anything we say to change someone’s life, but I just don’t see a lot of fruit coming from this particular form of evangelizing. Other than the handful of Christians who get excited because someone famous just made a positive comment about God on national television, the post-game interview “Jesus Namedropping” usually does nothing more than aggravate those who are watching.

Like i said earlier, I appreciated hearing what is behind Kurt Warner’s post game spiritual thank you’s, but in my opinion they don’t come across that well on TV.

What do you all think? Should we encourage others to give Jesus praise as much as possible, no matter the context? Should athletes only mention their faith when asked about it? Would you like to see more or less positive mentions of Jesus’ name coming from athletes and celebrities? I would love to get a little discussion going on this.

One other thing…I thought it was interesting that Brenda Warner doesn’t just look like a marine with her short haircut, she actually was a marine corporal. Am i the only one who didn’t know that?

Monday Reset is a weekly feature that obviously runs on mondays, but only if we have time to bother with it. It contains no references to the writer’s strike, no commentary on Ron Paul or Paul Ron, and no thoughts on NBC’s green peacock logo.

THE CARNAGE OF YESTERWEEK - making sense of the last seven days

Last week we saw…

…Joe Torre return to the National League with the L.A. Dodgers. Does he realize that the double switches are going to seriously cut into his in-game napping?

…The NBA Season kick off with the new look Boston Celtics grabbing most of the headlines…and 2 early wins.

…6 Top-25 Teams lost on saturday, although 4 of those losses were to higher ranked opponents. (#2)BC and (#18)South Florida lost to unranked teams, setting up Ohio St./LSU/Oregon as the 1-2-3 BCS teams headed into the home stretch.

…Darren McFadden ran for 323 321 yards for Arkansas on saturday. With the Rams and Dolphins headed for the first pick in the draft, will they select him to back up their own studs or trade the pick away?

…Adrian “All Day” Peterson goes for 296 in one day. (not sure that i’m down with calling him the “Purple Jesus” as some have decided to do. Mostly for the blasphemy aspect, but also because in this day and age I don’t think any athlete should get a nickname based on the team he is on. What happens if he signed with the Jaguars in 4 years, does he become the Teal Jesus?)

…Antonio Cromartie goes for 109 in one play. seems like a 110-yard play should be possible, but i guess they’re saying 109 is the most you can ever get.

…The Eagles and Bengals might be worse than we thought. The Saints, Bucs, Packers, and Lions win again. The Jets and 49ers couldn’t even win Bud Bowl right now.

…Tony Romo signs a 6-yr, $67.5 million dollar contract in the same week he is reportedly seen hanging out with Britney Spears. Take the money and run, Tony.

…The Patriots stun the Colts with a 4th quarter comeback to win 24-20. On the field, Reggie Wayne dropped a key pass late in the game, while Brady hit Moss and Stallworth on huge late strikes…The pass interference calls seemed a little lopsided to most impartial observers…According to Belicheck, the radio between Brady and the coaching staff wasn’t working for most of the game on Sunday…Also, here’s some interesting audio evidence of a possible fake crowd noise glitch (I remember hearing this during the game and wondering what it was).

THE BIG THREE - if you only watch three things this week, make it these:

1. Ravens @ Steelers, MON, 8:30pm (ESPN) - The Ravens look to extend their streak of “ugly” games to 41 in a row.

2. (18) Auburn @ (10) Georgia - SAT, 3:30pm (CBS) … cats and dogs fighting between shrubs.

3. Colts at Chargers - SUN, 800pm (NBC) … Can Joe Addai run for 297 against Ted Cottrell’s defense?