The Warrenville Cyclones - 1937

Pitcher "Red" Miles Stanford (back row center) was something of a sensation on the mound.  Between 1938 and 1940, he averaged 16 strike-outs per game.  Miles testified that a "divinely engineered shoulder injury" during spring tryouts (1940) with the Chicago White Sox derailed his career and drove him into a "despairing haze" and further into hard drinking and smoking.

Subsequently, he was pursued by a local pastor, by the name of Evan Welsh, who had his eye on the fallen sports star.  While his congregation prayed, Evan would seek to share the gospel with Miles.  Miles response was to blow smoke in pastor's face, to which Evan would respond, "I see you're not ready yet".