Willie Mays – A Baseball Legend and a Great Man
Dear Editor: I can personally attest to the kindness shown to young baseball and softball players by Willie Mays.
In the fall of 1979, Mays was the main speaker at a baseball awards dinner sponsored by Regina AA, a Brooklyn-based sports organization.
After his post-dinner speech and a Q&A session, Mays could have easily left the dinner as an early pro-baseball speaker.
However, he insisted on staying for the trophy presentation. He proceeded to the stage, and as each team ascended the stairs, he called the coaches aside with a request.
As he awarded the trophies and shook hands with all the players, he asked the coaches for a quick comment on whatever each player did that season.
We told him who was a pitcher, catcher, etc. Willie did this for every team and every player.
The coaches were astounded that such a tremendous athlete would be so considerate and kind. He personalized a comment for each player from what the coaches had told him.
I will never forget Mays’ kindness. In my 60-plus years of following sports, nothing like this has happened before or since.
I know that Mays is now heaven’s center fielder. I can see him teaching young players and praising them for their accomplishments.
John T. Shea
Farmingdale, N.Y.
9-11 Plea Deal Revoked
Dear Editor: Sept. 11, 2001, is a day we will never forget.
Not only was it our son’s 23rd birthday, but it was the horrific day this country lost 2,977 people — 343 of which were New York firefighters.
As a result of that tragic loss by the Fire Department, our son was called that year to serve the city. And after 23 years, thank God, he is still with us and has risen to the rank of Battalion Chief.
How grateful we are for that, but we are devastated by the pathetic news that the 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-terrorists accepted a plea deal and avoided the death penalty.
The sentence and the years it took to reach closure for the families it took to reach closure is a travesty of justice.
Every year on Sept. 11, we religiously watch the ceremony and the reading of the names of all those lost souls. Our hearts still go out to all of them. How can the prosecutors abide by this decision in good conscience when this was an act of war, and the death penalty is warranted?
Where is the president? The silence is deafening!
Furthermore, to this day, many more are tragically ill and have passed away as a result of working on the cleanup or living and working in the area.
The idea that these three monsters still exist is terribly wrong and sends a powerful message to our enemies.
And beware, with the wide open border, with many unwanted migrants, some of whom are terrorists, the next attack is in the works.
God help us! Speak up America.
Thomas and Constance Dowd
Oakland Gardens
Editor’s note: Shortly after federal prosecutors announced the plea deal, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin abruptly revoked it.
Also the Catholic Church’s view is that “The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” – Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2267
Father Lauder’s Column
Dear Editor: Father Robert Lauder’s column and thoughts about death (The Tablet, Aug. 3-10) was compelling.
I was moved while reading it. I read it on Friday, Aug. 9 and noted the day’s Liturgical Responsorial Psalm: “It is I who deal death and give life” (Deut. 32:35).
So, it is Yahweh who sees both death and life as related, intimately. One receives life, indeed a share in the life of grace, God’s eternal life; when one gives to others than self, when as St. Paul states we die to self, we decrease so that Christ may increase within us.
That day in my reading was the celebration in honor of St. Teresa Bededicta of the Cross, formally known as Edith Stein. She gave up her life, a Holocaust martyr for Christ, that Christ might give her life. All of us are trying to put death, all deaths in proper contexts.
As Father Lauder writes so well, our goal is to accept all “deaths” as transitions to greater life in Christ. It’s well to remember that we belong to a supportive communion of saints, now and forever, and that our destiny when we have died ultimately, especially to ourselves, is to share in eternal life with our “brothers and sisters” in the life promised to us by Christ. This helps put “deaths” into context.
Michael Joseph Doughtery
Westbrook, CT
‘Lord, It Is Good to Give Thanks To You,’ Psalm 92
Dear Editor: Jose Iglesias’ pop single, “OMG,” is a big hit and the rallying cry for the Mets. Jose often responded, “Oh, my God,” when good things happened, and so he wrote his song.
I can identify with Jose. Throughout my day, I often find myself saying, after a medical report, a parking space, or lost keys, “Thank you, God.”
Brother Ed Kent, O.S.F.
Fresh Meadows