The Windsor Star from Windsor, Ontario, Canada • 30

a i A A -t 4 1 i5 1 '-U 4 WJ -y a i a 1 OUELLETTE AVENUE REST HOME Invites you to come and live with us or visit 1 to 4 p.m. Be close to Downtown and all activities Qgr 1 i The Windsor Star Saturday, August 29, 1981 830 OUELLETTE AVE. Phone 252-2066 Star photo by Tim McKenna REALTY (WINDSOR) LTD. BROKER Buying or Selling Put a professional on the job. Tim Campbell 948-8171 or 252-7935 ON THE M.V.

PELEE ISLANDER Uav your tor in Laammgtan or Kingsville and (limb aboard Ilia V. Polio Islander for a tool, refreshing cruiso across lake trio. Enioy a light meal at our canteen as we pass by the scenic lake Erie Isles. If it's the excitement of Cedar Point, the serenity of Polee Island or just a short cut to the United States, we'll taka you on the only ferry service between Ontario and Ohio. DAILY SCHEDULE dap.

Sandusky 1.30 a.m.; dep. Pelee D. 11:30 dip. leammgton (M-T-T-F) or Kingsville (W-S-Sl; dip. Pelee 0.

i m. EXTRA TRIP SATURDAY ONLY dep. Sandusky 9 a m- dep. Pelee 0 6 pm. Schedule Subject to Change For further information write or phono in the area code SI I400-265-56M er 724-21 PELEE ISLAND TRANSPORTATION Pile Island, Ont.

NOR 1M0 Praying during pre-game service are (from the left) Dave Tobik, Bill Fahey, John B. Wockenfuss, Lance Parrish and Dave Rozema 9' IS Tiors mm ale 3 MSm idfyds yl CHECK THE WINNING NUMBER FOR AUG. 28TH PROVINCIAL DRAW 4 0 0 9 6 5 5 WINS $500,000 009655 WINS $50,000 0965 5 WINS $1,000 9 6 5 5 WINS $100 6 5 5 WINS $25 WINS $10 DETROIT In one gloved hand, he has a spanking brand new silver pack of Skol chewing tobacco. In the other, he carries two baseball bats, which he places in a corner, and then sits down on a leatherette couch to be interviewed. This is John B.

Wockenfuss, the Detroit Tigers utility man, playing first base, designated hitter, catcher whatever Big, stolid, confident with a booming West Virginia twang that echoes through the cement block halls from where he sits in a room just beside the clubhouse. Hes ready for batting practice, and admits needing it. This year hasnt been good. But theres an air of confidence things will turn around for him. They have in the past, and he isnt at all hesitant or abashed in telling you why things got better for him, why he suddenly started playing better, hitting harder, and why his contracts with Detroit have improved beyond hat he had ever hoped.

THE REASON is religion. The curiy-haired, 32-year-old smiling ball player says in a rather pointed manner that, God turned things around for me. This manner of talk is typical for a born again Christian, but with Wockenfuss, there is a trace of sensibility, practicality to it all. He shrugs off any suggestion of fanaticism. Hes just an ordinary guy, believing in God, believing in the power of prayer.

Hes not out to convert the world and hes not I still go out there and cuss on the field when something goes wrong, but I dont get as riled anymore. John B. Wockenfuss TOTAL PRIZES AVAILABLE 60,000 TOTAL PRIZE VALUE AVAILABLE J1 ,533,000 pants and T-shirts. Some are in stocking feet, others wear spikes. i Another regular is Ernie Harwell, the Detroit play-by-play radio announcer for WJR, who earlier this month was inducted into the Cooperstown Hall of Fame.

The response from Harwell, who has acted as a kind of free-! lance chaplain for the Baseball Chapel, was anticipated. In his acceptance speech, he had said, I praise the Lord for showing me the way to Cooperstown. I know that all my strength and all my abilities come from Him. Wockenfuss introduces Painter and turns to him, as perhaps he might to an umpire and points, You got about 25 minutes! The services informality is unique, and has little resemblance to anything downtown. WHEN THE SPEAKER touches upon something with which the players identify, there are shouts of All right! and not the usual born-again Christian effusion of Praise Jesus! and Praise the Lord! Painter, holding a Bible, begins with an opening prayer, fol- lowed by a quick homily again, something which isnt overflowing with pent-up Bible thumpin fervor.

Rather, its down to earth, simple, pragmatic, straightforward. There is no collection at the service. The ball players contrib- ute on an annual basis. Following the service, theres a flurry of handshaking all around, and the players file out to get dressed for the game. Wockenfuss said the other players dont take much notice of these activities.

He doesnt try to preach to them I invite them to come to the chapel and Im open to talk to them, but i they have their life and they do what they want. Wockenfuss takes the attitude everyone has their own way of doing things. Some hang on to the things that make them feel better, or play better. For some its superstition and others hang on to religion. WITH WOCKENFUSS religion is a way of life.

I ts as he remembers that day in May. I praise the Lord for showing me the way to Cooperstown. I know that all my strength and all my abilities come from Him. Ernie Harwell NEXT WEEKLY DRAW SEPT. 4 Cash prizes up (o and including S1.000 may be redeemed at Ontario Branches of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (E 40 tion, joined the Baseball Chapel program about four years ago.

I WAS HAVING a bad year. I came up from the minors and I was floating on high. Baseball was everythin to me. It was my life, but I just couldnt get things together. I started playing badly.

I couldnt hit. I couldnt run, and 1 didnt get on well with management. The same happened the following year. I pitiful and I started getting these voids in my life, ya know As I say, for me, to live was basebail, and I started thinkin, then to die, whats that? Well I was dyin in baseball Wockenfuss explained that he didnt turn to drinking as so He said you can either be hot or cold for Christ You cant be lukewarm, otherwise Hell (Christ) spit you right out. John B.

Wockenfuss many ballplayers and athletes do, escaping to a bar and grill after a game for more than a few cold ones. It wasnt so much that, as a kind of emptiness that erupted and surfaced in anger and frustration. If Id go up to bat and strike out, Id come back to the dug out angrier than hell, cussing and punchin the walls and crashin my helmet down and if Id do something wrong on the field and the fans would start gettin at me, Id cuss them and tellem to get THEN A TEAMMATE asked him in 1 976 to accompany him to a chapel program. That started turning things around for him. He began reading the Bible.

But it really wasnt until training camp the next year that Wockenfuss made a commitment to the program. Like many born again Christians, Wockenfuss recalls the date. I accepted Christ May 8, 1977. Not a Road To Damascas kind of blinding light revelation, but dymnamic nonethless. The speaker that day made it very clear; You got two choices: either accept God or reject him.

You can have it both ways. He said you can either be hot or cold for Christ You cant be lukewarm, otherwise Hell (Christ) spit you right out. Four years later the scenario has become a comfortable and challenging routine for Wockenfuss. Sunday afternoon. The sun pouring down as thousands of fans file into the formidible structure of Tiger Stadium on Michigan Avenue.

WEARING AN orange T-shirt, Wockenfuss, deep in the coolness of the clubhouse quarters under the stands, excuses himself, saying, Ill be with ya in a minute Just go in there He disappears to search out his teammates those interested in attending the baseball chapel, and to find the preacher. In a few minutes, Wockenfuss reappears with the speaker, who has just finished a chapel service for the visiting team. The handful of ballplayers have gathered in this less than auspicious chapel, really a workout room with rubbing tables, athletic equipment, a garbage can and a sink. The speaker is Dennis Painter, a real estate salesman who works as a devotional speaker with Michigan football teams. This isnt such an unusual place for a service.

Painter remarked, Ive been in worst places. A week ago when the Blue Jays were here, we did the service in the shower room Ive also done them in a corner with a lot of noise around me and even in a small closet or storage room This is great." IN THE ROOM are some of the regulars Dave Rozema, Lance Parrish, Lynn Jones and Dave Tobik in various stages of dress, some in full uniform for todays game, others only in 3 NEW JEWELLERY from old hen we recreate your old jewellery, it's value is not only increased, but you get the pleasure of owning and wearing a beautiful new ring, necklace, bracelet, pendant, or other exciting pieces. At Beldore Jewellery, our expert designers can reset, restyle, and redesign those old and forgotten pieees for minimal cost. hy wait. Let us show you how to bring those pieces back to exciting new life now.

out to infect the entire ball team in Detroit or the American and National leagues with Jesus Christ. I still go out there and cuss on the field when something goes wrong, but I dont get as riled anymore. But theres room for religion in sports, and Wockenfuss, though he isnt proselytizing his way through locker rooms across the U.S., is making ball players know that something is available. HE LEADS THE Baseball Chapel program at Tiger Stadium as the spokesman for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Each Sunday, shortly after noon, in the backroom of Tiger Stadium or in whatever stadium theyre playing, just before the game, a group of players and sometimes business office staff, gather for 25 minutes.

Here they listen to a speaker, often a preacher, but sometimes a local celebrity, a journalist, a businessman, but in all cases, a believer like them. But Sundays arent the only days these ballplayers some Methodists, some Mormons, others Baptists get together for this kind of informal meeting. Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m., 1 0 to 1 5 members of the Tiger team meet for 45 minutes of Bible study. Wockenfuss, of Methodist background but not a strong tradi You got to live it That simple. Wockenfuss said his decision to become a Christian was pretty emphatic.

It isnt something confined to the baseball season like a lucky charm. In the off-season hes leading Sunday School classes at Methodist churches. Throughout the year, I do a lot of little league banquets and that kind of stuff, and I tell the kids like it is and 1 tell them, too, that theres a certain way of doing things on the field, how to conduct yourself, ya know, and I tell them there is only one team to be on thats Christs team. Wockenfuss said since he changed his attitude, My life really turned around I really started playin better and whereas before I had hassles at contract time oh, it was such a pain in the rear end now Id just go in there and ask them for something, and boom Id get it. Something was working in the Tigers favor that afternoon against the Texas Rangers.

At the top of the ninth, relief pitchers Dave Rozema and Dave Tobik held the Rangers at bay, and in the bottom of the ninth Lynn Jones hit a homerun to tie the score and begin the rally that ended with the Tigers winning 5-4. Who knows! i Play may arouse Israeli passions Special ToTheStar production of the nativity to be staged in a field near Bethlehem for a total cost of about 1 million. This passion play is totally out of the concept of anti-Semitism, said de Araujo, who stages a nativity drama each year at the Ellipse in Washington. I wanted to contribute to a healing. I wanted people to say, So whats wrong with this? De Araujos script passed Israels censorship board.

Officials doubt that the government could have formally banned the production since it will appear at a holy place and is therefore protected by the freedom of worship Israel has espoused. But many officials privately wish the project had never materialized. By nature, the passion play goes straight to the heart of the Christian-Jewish conflict, said Daniel Rossing, the director of the Christian communities department in the Ministry of Religious Affairs. It could be problematical even if the text is okay. A spokesman for Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem, who had apparently praised the project at its inception, said the mayor has nothing to do with this.

SOME OBSERVERS predict that Jewish groups will lodge formal protests once the production begins or even demonstrate against the play, which will run four nights a week through October. In an effort to avoid offending Jews, the plays director has not advertised in local newspapers. At the urging of the tourism ministry, he did not recruit Israeli actors. Press releases stress that no one group can be blamed for the death of Jesus. 5 De Araujo says the three-hour play, which he wrote, is based on the Gospels.

He uses music from Bachs St. Matthew Pas-j sion and the Verdi Requiem. In the most controversial the tormenting of Jesus on the cross, de Araujo depicted the! tormentors as a symbol of all human evil and not as Jews, he! said. I think its time to stop pointing fingers, he said iif3Ti intcr-J view. The true concept is that we all crucified Christ.

New York Times Service JERUSALEM Amid growing controversy, an American director is preparing a production of a passion play, the first to be staged in Israel for large audiences. Traditionally, Jews have viewed passion plays, which depict the last days in the life of Jesus, as anti-Semitic because they tend to blame Jews for the death of Jesus. The Passion Play of Oberammergau, in West Germany, staged at mostly 10-year intervals since 1643, was rewritten last year to remove anti-Semitic references. The Passion Play of Jerusalem, as it is called, is intended for Christian pilgrims. Francisco de Araujo, a Washington-based director and a conductor of the National Choral Society, is staging the production on the grounds of St.

Pierre in Gallican-tu, a church on the slopes of Mount Zion. FRANK PARSONS, a Baptist and tour operator from Birmingham, has financed the play and an accompanying It I Ouellette 258-1911 5X indsor 258-1945 6NmMBo4iMi.il i-r-0 JIB afflict.