BayBears president honored with Baseball Chapel Award
BayBears president and chief operating officer Bill Shanahan received the prestigious Bowie Kuhn Award presented by Baseball Chapel, honoring a player or team that shows a great desire to keep faith in God in baseball.
The Bowie Kuhn Award was established in 1984 and has been named since for its first recipient. Kuhn was the fifth Commissioner of Major League Baseball and served from 1969-1984.
Baseball Chapel president Vince Nauss said that giving Shanahan the award was a good choice. "Bill has served on the Baseball Chapel advisory board to get a great chapel program started in minor league baseball and I know it's a great one in Mobile," Nauss said. "Bill has served as our Southern League representative for Baseball Chapel and he is a valuable member of our advisory board. Giving the award to him just seemed to fit."
Baseball Chapel was established by a group of players in the 1960s, which were setting up Sunday services in their hotels while on the road. In 1973, a Detroit sportswriter approached Kuhn, who was commissioner of baseball at that time, about organizing a chapel for every team in Major League Baseball. Chapel services began in the playoffs in 1974 and a year later, each team had its own chapel program. The chapel program began three years later at the minor league level, and Shanahan is proud to be a part of that long-standing tradition.
Baseball Chapel is an international ministry recognized by Major and Minor League Baseball and is responsible for the appointment and oversight of all team chapel leaders (over 500 throughout professional baseball). The ministry is directed toward players, coaches, managers and their wives, umpires, front office and ballpark staff.
Baseball Chapel's ministry extends throughout Major and Minor League Baseball, and reaches outside the United States serving leagues in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Japan. "I am quite humbled to receive this award. Baseball Chapel is a true blessing for all of us here at Hank Aaron Stadium including my wife Vicki and I, our players, coaches, umpires and front office staff here in Mobile," Shanahan said. "Our Baseball Chapel Leaders, Bobby Butler and Lorin Barr have done an outstanding job for our team, visiting teams as well as the umpires for years at Hank Aaron Stadium. In addition our outreach program for our players' wives is continuing to grow each season as well. Our purpose is to glorify Jesus Christ."
"I think the thing that separates Bill is the character he shows and his devotion to keeping the chapel program growing," Nauss said. "Baseball Chapel has grown to great numbers over the years because of people like Bill Shanahan."