A Believe-It-To-See-It Person, New York Mets Pitcher Tug McGraw

Today is "Baseball Day," The "All Star Game" plays tonight in Saint Louis. All of us at www.saintsforsinners.com predict that the American League, will win the game, again. A week from today, we will celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the day America's Apollo 11, and its Lunar Lander arrived on the Moon with Neil Armstrong, and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins on board.

40 years ago, in 1969, a young Lefty Relief Pitcher for the New York Mets, Tug McGraw, was walking through an airport and stopped to look at a http://www.nytimes.com/ newspaper headline that proclaimed, "Men Walk on Moon. Astronauts Land on Plain, Collect Rocks, Plant Flag." The Mets were having a pitiful year and seemed incapable of winning. But Tug McGraw saw the headline and was inspired and said "If we can get a man on the moon, we can win the World Series."

According to the former Mets Pitcher, Tom Seaver, Tug was "very emotional about it." Yet he believed it, and eventually saw the New York Mets come from behind and win the 1969 World Series. They became known as the "Miracle Mets." Tug McGraw went on to have an illustrious pitching career with the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies. He even coined an optimistic mantra, "Ya Gotta Believe!" that later became the title of his autobiography. Obviously, Tug was a "believe-it-to-see it" person; he was a Maverick and did not kowtow to pessimism or hopelessness. After retiring as a player, Tug remained involved in baseball. In 2003, he was working with the Philadelphia Phillies spring-training program, near Tampa, Florida. He underwent surgery, paid for in large part, by his son the famous Country Singer and performer, Tim McGraw. Sadly, the cancer spread and Tug McGraw died in 2004. The Tug McGraw Foundation was created ( http://www.tugmcgraw.org/ ) with its Cancer Research Center established at Duke University and also with the dual goal of working to heighten the awareness of cancer and also help improve the quality of life of those afflicted. His son, Tim, ( http://www.timmcgraw.com/ ) serves as the Honorary Chair of the organization, and baseball analyst John Kruk, ( http://www.ballhype.com/ ) who will surely be watching the game tonight, serves on its Advisory Board. Sportswriter Alan Schwarz noted today that president Barack Obama, an admitted baseball nut, sometimes called the "Fanatic-in-Chief" will be in Saint Louis for the game and will meet with both teams. Schwarz asked some of the players selected to play in the All Star Game what sort of questions they might ask the president. Tampa Bay Rays First Baseman Carlos Pena said he would ask whether the president, "Are you a see-it-to-believe-it person or a believe-it-to-see-it person?" Ya gotta believe the president, like Tug McGraw, is a believe-it-to-see-it person, Carlos!