Remembering The Summer Of 1995: A collection of national and local news stories interplayed with personal stories about one of the great eras of Northeast Ohio's history

When I first began assembling this list back in January, I had no idea what was about to descend upon our country. I had no idea that a then mostly unknown virus would wrap it’s invisible hands around the world and cause it to come to a screeching halt in mid-March.I had no idea that the dawning of the Summer of 2020 would arrive Memorial Day weekend in Ohio and most of the country would still be on a semi stay at home order, and no Major League Baseball games would be taking place. Yet, here we are. On the precipice of a summer that will mark 25 years since the legendary Cleveland summer of 1995.

In the summer of 1995 I was eight years old and playing T-Ball in Parma’s Recreational Summer Little League. My sister was five and playing her first summer of T-Ball. Her games were in the morning and evening and my games were in the afternoon and evening. They somehow coordinated schedules for families so no two children had games at conflicting times.

I truly began to develop a love for morning hours that summer, as my sister had games at 9am, so I spent time outside in the earlier morning sunshine while accompanying my mother and sister to her games. I distinctly remember walking over to one of the empty ball fields in the Nike Park complex and sitting in the empty bleachers simply being thrilled to be outside and enjoying the warm summer sun when I saw a deer deep out in the outfield run across the grass. Back then, deer were a far rarer site in Parma than they are now.

Below begins a list by date of both historical news stories, and personal memories that I have, from that summer in Cleveland, Ohio. I hope you enjoy it and perhaps it jogs some memories of your own. Please share any stories you have from that summer in the comments section below. I would love to hear your stories!

May 28th- A Memorial Day Weekend storm blows through Bagley Rd in Berea. It rips the roof off of a section of Crest Apartments, and does heavy damage to the intersection of Eastland and Bagley Roads. No reports of any tornados touching down surface, but funnel cloud activity was in the area.

June 12- The Indians sellout streak of 455 straight games begins. It lasts until April 3rd of 2001.

June 13th- I attended my first ever Indians game with my parents and grandfather. The Indians beat the Orioles and Mike Mussina 11-0. Jim Thome and Albert Belle blasted home runs, while Dennis Martinez pitched a complete game. At the time, the game set the attendance record in the brief history of Jacob’s Field.

The OJ Simpson Trial runs from January 24th, and all summer (where the famous ‘glove incident’ happened on June 15th) until a ‘not guilty’ verdict reached October 3rd. The news coverage was a daily part of every cable news network.

The City of Cleveland has a ton of Ozone Action days due to several heat waves that slam the city hard (June 17th-June 21st, July 12th-July 17th, July 26th-August 4th, and August 11th-21st) This summer goes down as of the hottest summers in Cleveland history. I remember playing some afternoon T Ball games that umpires shortened to three instead of four innings because of the heat. Honestly, I wasn’t bothered by it too much. I drank water and dumped it in my hat periodically and was fine.

June 22nd- The still new collaboration between Major League Baseball and NBC and ABC known as “The Baseball Network” is dissolved due to both TV networks losing so much money in 1994 due to the MLB strike, and their desire to extend the six year deal an extra season into 2000, to make up for the strike. MLB refused to agree to that and thus the networks agreed that they would quit televising baseball after the 1995 World Series. Thus the 1995 MLB Playoffs and World Series would be one and only year these two networks had postseason coverage, and most were glad about that, as all playoff games started at the same time and were broadcast regionally, so for example in Cleveland, one could watch the Indians (yay!) but couldn’t see any of the other playoff games being played. The deal worked fine during the regular season, when a game either on Saturday night, Monday night or Friday night was aired on ABC or NBC, as most people just want to see their local team during the regular season, but to stick to that format for postseason play was proved to be a mistake.

June 23rd- Federal and state agents surround a home on Stratford Avenue around 7pm in Parma to question a man. The man answers the door in the company of a large dog and states he will comply with agents requests after securing his dog. He shuts the door and never comes back. Officers keep the house surrounded throughout the evening until it is determined the man is no longer in the house, having apparently slipped out the back door and crawled through a hole in the fence. Four years later the man, Michael R. Stedman is arrested in Bangkok by Thai police, having taken on a new alias of Duncan Robert Allen Smith, in connection with a two separate 1994 Cleveland crimes; a murder and an arson.

June 25th- Akron native cartoonist Tom Batiuk stirs local and national controversy when he portrays an attempted teen suicide in his comic strip “Funky Winkerbean.”

June 30th- Eddie Murray reaches the 3,000 hit plateau in a 4-1 Indians win in Minnesota. Many fans are downtown for the annual Cleveland Orchestra “Stars and Stripes Forever” performance, taking place the weekend before the Fourth of July, are watching the game on portable televisions or listening on transistor radios

July 1st- I witness a child get bit by a dog for the first time at my church’s Fourth of July weekend cookout. This caused me to develop a bit of a fear of dogs for the next couple of years, until I met other friends’ dogs who were friendly. Now I love dogs.

July 4th- Bob Ross, famous for his syndicated painting instructional program “The Joy Of Painting” passes away due to Lymphoma, an illness he had battled privately for a few years. Amazingly, Ross has become even more popular among Millennials today, who value his calm demeanor and love for nature in his artwork. Clips from “The Joy of Painting” episodes get millions of streams on YouTube each week.

July 5th- A Massive Thunderstorm hits town. Channel 19 loses it’s broadcast signal halfway through “Christie” episode, and the Indians 2-0 victory over the Texas Rangers is delayed twice by rain, and Jacob’s Field also suffers a power outage after a lightning strike near the stadium.

July 7th- The Wyndham Hotel opens to much fanfare in Playhouse Square on Euclid Avenue. The hotel still stands now 25 years later and is considered one of the finest in the city.

July 7th-9th- Steve Taylor headlined “Alternafest” a three day Christian alternative rock concert at Norwalk Alliance Church in Huron OH. Artists who performed included Steve Taylor, Starflyer 59, The 77’s, The Throes, The Prayer Chain, Sixpence None The Richer and Hoi Polloi. Boy I was I had been older than age eight and familiar with these artists back then. This had to be quite a festival! Sadly from what I can find, this was the first and last Alternafest.

July 9th- Vincent Drost, a Lakewood man who was a composer and musician, is stabbed and killed by five youths who were bored and looking for “something to do.” The horrific and senseless murder stirs fear in what was then, and still is now, considered to be a safe city. The teens responsible are all tried and found guilty of murder and manslaughter, and served time or a still serving time for their actions.

July 13th- The now famous and well documented midwest “Right Turn Derecho” slams NE Ohio out of the blue, coming off Lake Erie, wiping out power everywhere including my Parma home where it went out while my sister and I were watching an episode of the Three Stooges, (“Flat Foot Stooges”) I had recorded from Channel 55 the previous weekend. It also wiped out the Indians game versus Oakland downtown that night in the third inning of a 2-2 tie. This would be the only rainout in Cleveland that entire summer; though many games had long rain delays.

July 17th- On Bader Ave in Old Brooklyn, a home owned by William Cristwell explodes around 10:32am, damaging over 20 houses on the street. Cristwell survived despite suffering burns to over 90 percent of his body and spending months in the hospital. Investigations later pinpointed a gas leak in Cristwell’s home being the cause, and some still felt it was a suspicious explosion, perhaps intentionally set by the man himself, who had at the time recently suffered from depression. Cristwell was never charged with anything and eventually moved down to Florida to be near family.

August 1st-15th- Heather McLaughlin, a three year old on Cleveland’s West Side is murdered by the roommate and friend of her mother Misty McLaughlin, after she was put to bed on August 1st. After a two week long search, her body is found in a revine a mile from her home. The story captivated the local West Side community with many volunteers pitching in time to aid in the search.

August 9th- Jerry Garcia, leader of classic rock band The Grateful Dead dies from heart complications, ending the yearly run of touring the band had done since the 1960’s.

August 12th-26th- My first family car caravan road trip with my parents and grandparents to Colorado and back to Ohio takes place. We travelled to visit my Uncle, Aunt and cousin in the Denver area. It was a lot of fun, as I took turns riding in our family’s Dodge Caravan, and my grandparents Toyota, with my trusted cassette player next to me to listen to my favorite tunes on. We encountered a thunderstorm driving at night in Nebraska that featured some of the most majestic cloud to cloud lightning I have ever seen! It was epic! We would do this whole trip again in the same manner in 1998, and it also was fun, but there was nothing like this first one for me!

August 22nd- The first Wal-Mart in Cuyahoga County opens in Strongsville. Yes, you read that right! It is hard to believe that Wal-Mart really has only been the main Big Box store in America for the last 15 years or so.

August 31st- Miller’s Dining Room, the popular Lakewood family restaurant, burns down in the wee hours of the morning. The investigation seems to indicate a problem with the furnace in the basement of the building was the cause of the blaze. Sadly, the owners were never able to rebuild the restaurant, and apartments that were above, and the burned out building was eventually turn down, and an Auto Zone now sits on the site today.

September 1st- The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Opens and a full Labor Day weekend of rock concerts take place at Cleveland Municipal Stadium to commemorate the occasion including Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney and many others.

September 6th- Cal Ripken officially breaks Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak as he plays in his 2,131st straight baseball game. A sellout crowd at Camden Yards gives him a nearly 20 minute ovation after the top of the fifth inning when the game became official. Ripken reluctantly at the encouragement of his teammates took a victory lap around the ballparks periphery as Whitney Houston’s classic “One Moment In Time” player over the PA system. Many credit this as a major healing moment for players and fan relations still strained from the players strike that cancelled the 1994 playoffs and World Series, which had also bled over into wiping out 18 games of the 1995 season.

September 8th-Indians clinch first division in 41 years. The city celebrated jubilantly, and many home videos from folks who attended that night exist on YouTube.

Autumn then arrived, where the Indians marched to the World Series, the Browns opened what would become their final season in Cleveland before Art Model sold them to Baltimore, and I started third grade. That summer though was spectacular, and one that’s good fortune helped carry this town to the much finer reputation it has today.

Once again, any stories and memories you have from the summer or 1995 are ones I would love to hear! Maybe you were at one of the 12 walk off wins the Tribe had that year, or maybe you remember taking part in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame corranation celebration. Maybe you were a high school or college graduate that year or perhaps you got married over that amazing summer or remember some of the events I have listed. I would love to hear about it from your perspective! Any story is welcome! Share them if you are so inclined.

50 years ago today: A Victory American's Desperately Needed

Hard to believe that 50 years ago today, one of the coolest accomplishments in the history of our country took place. It was 1969 and it was a difficult time. The Vietnam War and the United State’s involvement in that war was extremely controversial. Anti War protests were everywhere and racial discrimination and bias was still extremely high. The country needed a source of hope, and a source of pride in winning something, anything really. 

Cue the space race with Russia! The Cold War was also still burning hot on paper in the 1960’s and as the US fought to keep up with the Russian space program. Russia was the first to put a man in outer space, and throughout the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, NASA sought to beat Russia to the bigger prize, landing a man safely on the moon and bringing him back to Earth in one piece. This had been the goal since John F. Kennedy stated so in 1962. Apollo 11 was the mission that would accomplish this feat as the three man crew of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins would make their names in history.

That Sunday, July 20th, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the lunar module, Eagle, on the surface of the moon. Michael Collins remained on the shuttle Columbia orbiting the moon. Initially Armstrong was supposed to rest and wait to make the historic walk, but naturally he was too excited to wait. So at 10:39pm EST, Armstrong opened the hatch and began to descend the ladder to the  moon. At 10:56pm he planted his foot on the powdered surface and said the famous words “that’s one small step for a man and one giant leap for mankind” 

Aldrin joined him down the surface at 11:15pm where they planted the US flag, took some pictures and ran some scientific tests and spoke with President Richard Nixon via Houston. Finally a great joy could be felt back home on the soil of America! We had beaten the Russians to the moon! A time when our nation so badly needed a win, so badly needed a sign of hope that better days would be ahead of us, the crew of Apollo 11 did all of that with the ‘giant leap’ by an American Astronaut. 

Neil Armstrong also made Ohioans everywhere proud, as he was from the small town of Wapakoneta in west central Ohio. While I wasn’t alive back in 1969, I have heard the stories of those who were, and the tremendous excitement and wonder his steps gave folks. I also have always loved the fact that we did explore outer space. As a Christian, I believe God wants us to explore the vastness of the universe so we can see and marvel at how big He is, and how small we are. While it had it’s share of controversy in the 1960’s as many felt we could spend millions of dollars in better ways, and they had some legitimate points, I maintain that those resources were still well spent, and the landing on the moon was exactly the source of hope that each American needed to see at that point in history. 

One lesser known fact, Buzz Aldrin, a quiet but strong Christian and elder in his church, took communion privately on the moon from a kit given to him by his pastor. He felt there was no better way to show his thanks to God, for the opportunity to take part in something so amazing! NASA had stated they didn’t want any religious affiliated words spoken since the Apollo 8 crew had read the first chapter of Genesis during their televised trip around the moon on their mission, so Aldrin honored that at the time, but wrote about this in his autobiography. 

Another lesser known fact with an Ohio connection is then up and coming English rock band Led Zeppelin performed a show at a small venue in Warrensville Heights called the Musicarnival that Sunday evening. Cleveland based blues band The James Gang opened for them. After the show, the band went into a small building located on the site grounds and watched the moon landing together, sharing in the wonder of the historic event!

In recent times, President Trump has quietly restarted the Space Program and wants to begin exploring the reaches of our galaxy, with rumors of a goal of a manned flight to Mars in 2033. I hope that I live to see the day that happens. For today though, let’s reflect on the joyous event of 50 years ago, and remember the three gentlemen who made history, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.

“This Is Us has a lot to teach us: Lessons on Fatherhood from fine fictional characters

In recent weeks, it has been nearly impossible to not come across an article or people at the office, at the store, or at your local church discussing perhaps what may go down as one of the most iconic television dramas of the decade, if not multiple decades. That program I am referring to is NBC”s “This Is Us.” When a program like this becomes so popular it is often it seems due to controversial and radical content that pushes boundaries. It also is generally on HBO or Showtime. The old adage of sex sells is often a large part of a program’s success nowadays, as well as a large amount of violence and foul language. 

That is why the success of “This Is Us” initially seems so surprising. Here is a program that while, yes, does have some sexual references and mildly suggestive scenes, though often in the context of marriage, doesn’t use excessive amounts of it to draw viewers in. No, this show uses a forgotten art at times nowadays, good old fashioned tight script writing. It also has developed some of the finest characters I have ever seen in a television series. Each character experiences growth and arcs nearly each episode. 

However, I dare to say, I think perhaps the biggest reason this show is so successful and so popular especially among those in my age group (18-40) is because it has given us something few other programs do nowadays, it gives us positive father role models. My generation has been said by many psychologists to be the least fathered generation in American history. Well known Christian author and speaker Donald Miller was even asked by former President Barack Obama to partner with a government funded non profit organization known as the Fatherhood Initiative, which works to find mentors for young men who don’t have a father in their life. Miller was deeply honored to do this, due to his lack of a father in his own life growing up. 

In “This Is Us” Jack Pearson, the patriarch of the Pearson family, is an incredibly committed family man who has raised three children, two of whom were his own biological children, and one adopted son, all born on the same day. Jack is an incredibly loving and protective man, but also a man who battles alcoholism throughout his life. He handles this struggle with humility and grace, but the writers don’t shy away from the constant struggle he has. However, we see in that struggle that small victories can happen each day, and that Jack is a still a fine, loving man, who as we have recently learned (SPOILER ALERT) ultimately died from complications while helping to save his family from a house fire back in 1998 as we see in the flashback sections of the series. He even went back into the inferno to save the family dog and some of their ‘important stuff’ like photo albums and home video tapes. Jack is self sacrificing and flat out selfless in how he loves and leads his family. 

His adopted son Randall, in the current timeline of the series, is also an incredibly committed family man, no doubt influenced strongly by his father. Randall loves his wife and two young daughters sacrificially and deeply, and also has stepped out this season to function as a foster father along with his wife Beth, to teenage children in need. It isn’t hard to see how much of an impact Jack’s strong family leadership had on young Randall growing up, and how he has taken the cue from his adopted father’s example and done his legacy proud. 

It is my firm belief that our culture right now needs a fresh infusion of strong husbands and fathers. It is my prayer that my fellow millennials and I will be able to stop the trend of divorce and irresponsibility that is currently plaguing our culture, and be those strong husbands and fathers. We can learn while watching “This Is Us” what that tangibly looks like, especially those who unlike me, didn’t have a strong paternal presence in their lives growing up. I was blessed to see this played out often growing up with my own father, and learned a lot from those times of observation and interaction. 

If you haven’t watched this show yet, I highly recommend you hop on Hulu and start streaming it from the first episode. You will be glad you did. Season two just wrapped a couple of weeks ago.  Both seasons are on Hulu in their entirety. I recommend a summer binge watching spree!

Unique Grief: Thoughts On What We Feel When A Musician We Never Knew Personally, Dies

I have been thinking about this topic for quite some time over the last few months. It started when the news broke back in May that Chris Cornell had committed suicide. Cornell was, for those who may not know, the lead guitarist and vocalist for both Soundgarden and Audioslave. He was an incredible guitarist, and solid lyricist, and one of the men who helped found the Seattle based grunge movement of the 90’s alongside Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Alice In Chains. The news sent off the usual waves of Facebook posts, Tweets and Instagram shares by so many expressing grief over the tragic sudden loss.

As the spring turned into summer we learned of another tragic suicide. This time it was Chester Bennington of LInkin Park who took his own life on July 20th. For the millennial generation, this  may be the first loss of a musician whose songs became popular during our high school and middle school years. Again a ton of shock and grief was expressed via social media, as the second musician death to suicide occurred within two months of each other. It raises awareness of just how dark the world becomes for so many, wealthy or poor, rich or famous, no matter one’s life circumstance.

As Autumn hit, news of the death of Tom Petty due to a massive heart attack, stunned the music world for a third time in six months. Petty was easily one of the most popular artists of the last four decades. His songs have become iconic, Americana influenced, stories of life and love. In his lifetime he, along with his band The Heartbreakers toured and performed thousands of concerts. In fact, he had just concluded the 40th anniversary tour of his band’s debut.

Loss has now become a theme in the music industry in 2017. It is a unique grief those of us who love these musicians, and the bands they fronted, feel. Not everyone feels it, and those of us who do probably don’t fully understand why either. As I attempted to explain to one of my close friends why so many of us feel a unique sadness about the passing of a beloved musician, I realized something that contributes to it. First off, death as a whole grieves us, period. Death was not a part of God’s original plan for humankind. Before sin entered the world, we were meant to live forever. Our heart’s still grieve when someone dies because of this.

However, it seems for musicians, we feel a specific loss that is slightly different than when an actor or an athlete passes. Here is my thought: musicians are blessed with a unique gift to write something amazing using a musical instrument, and often also compose poetry to go along with that music. They take that instrument and those words and create something with them that is unique and truly all their own. Then, they take that gift and record it onto magnetic tape, preserving not only for themselves, but for all of us to enjoy and be moved by in a unique way within our heart. They share their gift with us all. Most musicians then take their creation and play it in front of thousands of people night in and night out for weeks at a time, once again sharing their gift with anyone willing to listen. Writing music is a gift given to overall few, but selflessly shared with millions who come to appreciate it.

This is why our grief is unique when a musician dies. Our minds and hearts know this means that they have now ceased to be able to selflessly share their gift with us still living in this world.  That personal heart connection they offered us through their music is now silenced. No longer will we hear a new guitar lick from Chris Cornell. Never again will we hear a angsty lyric from Chester Bennington and find ourselves resonating with the uncertainty he too wrestles with in life. Tom Petty will never again go on tour to belt out “American Girl” or “Into the Great Wide Open” for us as an audience.

Thankfully, the audio journals and documentaries of their writings left behind in the form of albums are still here for us to enjoy. They were kind enough to share them with us, and preserve them so they will last after we too have passed onto the next world. Any musician could choose to keep their gifts and talents to themselves, but they don’t, they instead share them with us. Oh sure, one can argue that they get paid a lot of money to do so, and that is true, once they have become famous of course. However, it is important to remember every great musician and songwriter was once an unknown who took a risk of sharing their songs with us, risking rejection along the way. We recognize and appreciate those who take that risk, because we all know that deep down, taking a risk is a part of each of our lives, and we find inspiration in those who dare to take such risks, because it motivates and encourages us to have that kind of courage as well.

Loss is a part of life. Death is a part of life. Sadly it is a cycle that wasn’t, as I said earlier, initially originally in God’s plan. When anyone dies, our souls ache in varying degrees, depending of course on how close we were to the person. With musicians, we feel close to them because of the nature of their craft; music resonates in our hearts in a unique way. Therefore when one whose music we particularly enjoyed passes away, we feel it in our soul. So while we may not have known them personally as a friend, their songs touched a similar part of us that a friendship does, and we feel the now vacancy of that part of our soul and heart. Thus, I believe it is right to find a way to mourn that loss. Play their songs as you go about your day. Belt them out at the top of your lungs while driving in the car. Or maybe do the opposite, don’t listen to the songs for a while, and instead listen to other music of alive musicians while you heal. Whatever response you have, it isn’t wrong. So jam out to those tunes you love, or don’t for a while. But give yourself permission to grieve. Music is a gift. The musicians who give us the music are a blessing. Enjoy them while they are here, remember them when they are gone.

The Streak: When History Intersects Everyday Life: A Chronicle

These past three weeks have been historic for the Indians. A 22 game winning streak! Breaking last year’s record setting run of 14 straight victories, this team ran off a string of victories that was even more impressive, not just because they had won more games, but because in winning those games they so often were dominating the opposition. There weren’t a lot of one run or even two run victories. Many of the games were flat out slaughters. Seven of them were full out shoutouts. The Indians basically couldn’t not have hit or pitched any better than they did over the last three weeks.

Now, I will never forget this streak for the sheer baseball lover that I am. However, what I will also remember is the way my regular everyday life has run and intersected with this winning streak. Since the Indians last lost a game on August 23rd, I have sat outside in my church parking lot with friends watching a movie projected onto a giant inflatable screen, freezing our butts off due to the unseasonably cold August night as the Tribe won the second game of the streak. I attended the third game of the streak with my parents. As I completed my final day at my old job, the Indians were polishing off their eighth straight win while I tuned in on my small alarm clock office radio. That evening I hung out with one of my best friends, who though not a big sports fan, watched the second game of the double header with me, which was the Tribe’s ninth win in a row.  As they polished off win number 12 my parents and I hosted our annual Labor Day cookout for friends and family. The day of the record tying 14th win, was my first full time day at my new position. Win number 16 was spent in the presence of some fine folks from my church who invited me over last minute. For win number 18, one of the rare close one run victories, I hosted a watch party for 10 of my friends at my apartment as the Tribe kept the run going on the nationally televised Sunday Night Baseball game of the week. The nineteenth win, yet another shutout, was viewed from the home of one of my oldest and dearest friends, as we marveled at how this could be happening!

Win number 20 was enjoyed at home where my roommate joined me in viewing the second half, while number 21, as one of my favorite memories was a day game, that went on during a meeting I had with my boss where we checked the scores periodically on our smartphones. As the game headed to it’s final frames, I was actually doing an assessment with a client, who told me he had no problem with me having my radio on during our discussion, as he too wanted to hear the game!

One thing about life is, as Rick Warren once stated, we often have  ‘two trains running side by side. A train of great joy, and a train of great sorrow” The train of joy these past three weeks, by far has been this streak, but in the life of some very dear friends of mine, there has been a train of pretty great sorrow, for which I feel deep sorrow too. During what became the final win of the streak, a thrilling down to the last strike rally to tie and then later win number 22 in a row, I wasn’t watching, I was talking and attempting to bring comfort to a couple of those friends. My mom texted me with the joyous news, and I was thrilled, but also recognized that a person is always more important than a seeing a baseball game.

Anyways

This streak will forever be embedded in my life as the backdrop to what has been a remarkable personal three weeks in my life. It became a national story, racking up happy headline after happy headline, providing a brief interlude and break in the sad news of the hurricane wreckage and usual political unrest that peppers every news story nowadays. For a magical run that likely will never happen again in the history of the game, a baseball team from Cleveland Ohio played at a level of dominance that truly seemed other worldly, and they did it while maintaining a humbleness that is rarely seen in professional sports.

As the final out was made last night, resulting in the first Indians loss since August 23rd, the fans rose to their feet and cheered. It was an appropriate response to acknowledge the fact that this city understands that we all witnessed something during this run that only one other city in America can ever claim to have witnessed, and that was 101 years ago when the then New York Giants won 26 straight games, though that run featured a tie between wins 12 and 13. The especially cool thing though was that the players all came out of the dugout and took their hats off to the fans, thanking them for coming out and rallying behind them for three weeks! A truly awesome moment between fans and players, who are both excited and ramped up for October playoff baseball, which the Indians officially clinched a place in after win 22, and are looking to clinch the Central Division here before the weekend is out.

What a run! Cleveland is now more fired up and ready for the playoffs, and the team is poised to deliver! We certainly know that once the playoffs begin anything can happen, but boy the Indians look poised for another great run to the World Series!

This time we hope they can finish the deal, and I look forward to the way my life will intersect with the Indians playoff games. There will be watch parties to host, friends to spend time with, and life to be lived. What a great time to be living in Cleveland!

"In Choosing To Believe, the Unbelievable Truth" -A tribute, and reflection on a life

It is really hard for me to know where to begin this tribute. Mark Heard died 25 years ago today, August 16th, 1992. He had suffered two heart attacks within two weeks of each other that summer, the second of which left him in a coma that eventually ended his life. I discovered Mark Heard just under 10 years later, over 15 years ago, when I picked up the book “CCM’s 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music History” at my local library and began thumbing through it.

As I was nearing the end of my freshman  year of high school, I was in a definite dry spell within my faith. It was spring of 2002 and I began to realize that I was seeing a strange dichotomy between the real life we all live, with it’s trials, challenges, heartache and sadness, and the “Christianity” I was seeing being taught within the American Church of “accept Jesus as your savior, pray a prayer and be saved.” That seemed to be all that was being taught in one form or another in both the main church services and the youth group I was attending each week. Looking back now, we know this was the tail end of the what is now known as the ‘Seeker” movement in the Church, and an it is an era not looked back on fondly today.

As people my age are now leaving the Church in seemingly endless droves, we can look back at that time as being perhaps a contributing cause…..but I digress….

Anyways….

With all that swirling inside my head, I looked to my favorite medium, music, for consultation. Sadly the music I was hearing on Christian radio and saw being sold in Christian bookstores was, well, also lacking in an acknowledgement of the harder parts of life. I began to wonder if there was something wrong with me, that I was somehow feeling things that everyone else was immune to, or if nothing else, didn’t understand well enough to talk about.

Enter Mark Heard’s “Satellite Sky” album into my life, which I managed to borrow a cassette tape copy from a library in Illinois! (This was back when my local library had this cool option called “Interlibrary Loan” where they could get items from anywhere in America at no cost to you as the patron. Pretty awesome!)

I converted this long out of print cassette to mp3 files on my computer and pretty much listened to it non stop during the summer of 2002! Here was a man who wrote about the challenge of life and the “friction born of living” in a fallen world better than anyone I had ever heard, and to this point in life, never have heard again.

“Satellite Sky” was an album for a person who felt deep things, and longed to understand how those feelings should be channeled. Heard took on the struggles of realizing the world doesn’t understand that the presupposition of “in the beginning, God” packs such a powerful and meaningful message for our lives in his song “Orphans of God”

In “Long Way Down” he laments the fact that we have reached the point in America where the once glorious “purple mountain majesties” now have ‘ratings that are poor’ due to the depravity that has caused society to fall in darkness.

America, in Heard’s mind was slowly becoming a “Freight Train To Nowhere,” a place where ‘the wages of spend is debt.’

No one else had dared to speak these things, especially in the Church.

But there was also a deep understanding of the Good News of the Gospel, though with Heard it needn’t be spelled out directly.

In “Love Is So Blind” he champions a woman who ‘spends her evenings singing songs to infidels and thieves’ and ‘sees unselfishly’ at all times. A reminder to all of us that there are truly selfless people in the world.

In “Treasure Of The Broken Land” he wrote an ode to his father, who had died in December of 1991. In it he exudes the hope of every Christian who knows he will one day see a loved one who also knew Christ again in Heaven.

“Hammers & Nails” speaks of the love of Jesus that can ‘pierce me’ on a never failing basis.

Hopeless situations were expressed right alongside the ultimate Hope of the Gospel.

Needless to say from hearing this album I did all I could to track down everything Mark Heard have ever put out. This included happening on some cassette tape copies of albums in the discount bin of Christian Bookstore Outlets in Tennessee while on a family vacation, and admittedly a use of file sharing software on the computer, though I would eventually purchase all of his albums in one format or another.

I also read everything I could read on this man. I found books written about the history of Christian rock and Yahoo Groups, the start of social media back then, that exclusively had members who liked and appreciated Heard’s work.

Then the following summer a Mark Heard biography came out, alongside a CD of previously unreleased material!!!! That spring it was the only item on my birthday wish list. My parents were kind enough to pre-order if for me :-)

The CD was great! It featured unreleased material of Heard’s written and demoed during his three year album hiatus between 1987-1990.

The book was equally thrilling, as author Matthew Dickerson spoke with almost any artists he could find who had known and worked with Mark Heard during his lifetime, and painted a picture of a deeply feeling man, who loved deeply and sought to make the best art he possibly could to honor Jesus.

Mark Heard was heavily influenced by Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer, who’s L’Abri retreat center Heard visited multiple times in Switzerland. Schaeffer loved art, and taught that the Christian should strive to make the very best art possible, because it was a way of worshiping the God who had given the artistic talent. This was a philosophy that Mark Heard not only strove to implement in his own body of work, but challenged his friends to emulate as well.

Christian music veteran Randy Stonehill tells the story of the time he played an album’s worth of songs for Heard, only to be told by Heard that the songs weren’t good enough, and that Stonehill needed to strive for further levels of excellence in his songwriting. While shaken and a tad annoyed at the time, Stonehill recounts that he now looks back on that as one of the best things Heard could have said to him.

Heard’s belief that the Christian should create the best art to the best of his human ability did not endear him to radio folks. Sadly, as it has well been documented, Christian radio tends to gravitate towards the most cliche sounding, as many mentions of Jesus per minute as possible in a four minute song, format for the music they play. Mark Heard’s songs, that spoke of wrestling with the current reality of the world versus the eternal reality of Heaven did not have a place in a format such as that.

In the early 1980’s Heard did actually have a minor hit on Christian, ironically enough, with the song “The Pain That Plagues Creation” off of his 1983 acoustic album “Eye Of The Storm.” That album was made to appease Heard’s label Home Sweet Home Record’s owner Chris Christian, who asked Heard to make an album of acoustic songs to make him more marketable to Christian radio. Heard appeased him, but still used his incredible songwriting craft to speak what was on his heart, regardless of the sound.

Heard’s relationship with Home Sweet Home Records was always a bit strained, though to be fair Chris Christian never told Heard what he could and could not write when it came to lyrics.

During those years 1981-1986 Heard crafted some amazing songs about the world we live in and the comfort and challenge for us who do know Jesus (“Heart Of Hearts,” “We Believe So Well,” “All Is Not Lost”) and the pain and blindness of those who don’t (“Victims Of The Age,” “One Of The Dominoes,” “Heart On The Line”)

In 1987 Heard participated in an artist run subsidiary label of Word Records called “WHAT? Records” alongside other fringe artists like Tonio K., Dave Perkins, and T Bone Burnett. His lone album contribution was under the band pseudonym “Ideola” and the album was “Tribal Opera.” The sound was on par with 80’s synthesizer bands like The The and The Five Young Cannibals. The lyrics were solid, especially on “How To Grow Up Big And Strong” where Heard laments the disastrous effects of a culture that values aggression without love. The song would later be covered by both Rich Mullins and Olivia Newton John.

Then, WHAT Records folded and for three years, Heard had no label. He continued to write and produce work for other artists and shopped his own demos to record labels of all kinds, but none were interested.

So in 1990, alongside his friend Dan Russell, Heard formed his own label, and would begin recording a trilogy of albums (“Dry Bones Dance,” “Second Hand,” and “Satellite Sky”) that would boast the best and most honest songwriting ever put to magnetic tape.

Songs like “Rise From The Ruins,” “Dry Bones Dance,” and especially “Strong Hand Of Love” reminded us all of the hope we have in Christ, even if they didn’t mention Him by name. He is of course the “Strong hand of Love hidden in the shadows” through whom we will ‘rise from the ruins one day” and with whom we will one day live in a paradise “where the orphans sockle and the slaves go free”

“Nod Over Coffee” from “Second Hand” reminded us of the fact that time is constantly moving under ‘the curse of the second hand’ and that we need to make even the seemingly most mundane moments count.

“Another Good Lie,” “All Too Soon” and “It’s Not Your Fault” lamented the human condition of living in a fallen world, but were balanced by songs like “Look Over Your Shoulder” and “Love Is Not The Only Thing” where we were reminded of the fact that “it takes more than your passion and more than your pain, for the Rock of Forgiveness to melt in the rain” (“Look Over Your Shoulder”) and that “Love is not the only thing, but it’s the best thing” in this life.

As I said way back at the start, “Satellite Sky” was the best of the three, and is the album I contantly come back to for reassurance both that I am not going crazy at the world’s deep pain, and that God is faithful at the same time.

Perhaps the greatest reminder of that on the entire album comes down to the song I mentioned a while back, “Orphans of God” and particularly the lines that so many of us Christians walk around “unaware that the struggle is the blood of the proof, in choosing to believe the unbelievable Truth.”

What is that “unbelievable Truth” that our struggle in life reflects? My opinion, and I firmly believe Mark Heard’s was as well, is that by believing the fact that Jesus died and rose again to set us free from our bondage of sin, we will have a struggle in life. There will be times we doubt, and times we truly wonder if it is worth it. However, the fact that we struggle only reinforces the fact that Jesus is the way and truth and life (John 14:6). If it wasn’t true, and something we could hold to as a huge part of our presuppositional apologetics, there would be no struggle.

So my friends, as the apostle James once said “consider it joy my brothers, when you encounter trials of any kind” (James 1:2). That struggle is proof that you are making the choice to believe in the Gospel.

Mark Heard declared that choice over 25 years ago. He reminded us that our struggle is normal, our pain is temporary, and our joy can be sustainable. He modeled what it meant by ‘choosing to believe, the unbelievable truth.”

Happy 25th anniversary in Heaven Mr. Heard. May I one day get to tell you how much you have encouraged this ‘broken man’ in a ‘broken land.’

A Thousand Stars: A Short Time Capsule Piece

It was a typical hot summer night in New York City. The Mets were playing at Shea Stadium, hosting the Chicago Cubs. Lightning flashed in the distance, and then suddenly, darkness. All over New York’s five boroughs the lights went out. Lighting strikes had overloaded the power grids, plunging the entire city into darkness. It was just after 9:30pm. It was July 13th, 1977, exactly forty years ago tonight. Subway trains stalled. Elevators stopped. Thousands of folks were suddenly stranded!

What commenced over the next 25 hours as city workers strived to get the power back on, was sadly a night of looting and arson fires breaking out all over the city, as the mid-70’s economic downturn was fully coming to a head. Eventually folks were evacuated out of the subways, but then busses became over-crowded, and streets became unsafe because of the looters, so many sought shelter in hotels around the city, causing some to have to sleep in the lobbies on the floor once rooms filled up. There was even a tragic murder committed, of a young 17 year old fella living in Brooklyn. It was a murder that to this day, has never been solved. Much of that night was shrouded in mystery, but it is a night of famous American folklore.

Despite all the ugly taking place around the city, New Yorkers had a chance to see the the stars and Milky Way in a way they never had before. Once the clouds cleared from the electrical storm, the sky was ablaze with thousands of stars normally not visible due to New York’s high light pollution and normal factory pollution, which had ceased due to the lack of power. The beauty of that summer sky stood in stark contrast to the depravity taking place down below.

Much like with the Northeast Blackout of the summer of 2003, which was far more widespread and reached where I live here in Cleveland, OH (the stories of which I plan to recount next summer for the 15th anniversary), people were treated to a night of sky viewing that few people have the opportunity to do these days.

That lone magical part of the blackout story is what has drawn writers to occasionally work this story into their movies, television shows and books. It was author Brian Selznick’s 2011 novel “Wonderstruck” which works this famous date into it’s story line, that first clued me into doing some research into this famous New York City event, and why I choose to take a small moment to write about this date, to feed my history junkie side. It was the true night people saw ‘the lights go out on broadway” as Billy Joel once sang.

Hope you enjoyed this time capsule.

Here is a link to the New York Times online tribute to this event. Lots of great memories from folks who lived through this night of darkness.