| Iron Men sprang from a need that was identified when our preacher was doing research for a Father's Day sermon in 2005. What he discovered is perhaps best illustrated by Dave Dravecky who makes the following observation: An alarmingly high percentage of today's baseball players have fathers who also played in the big leagues. |
| Ken Griffey Jr. is the only son ever to play with his father in a major league game. The Griffeys were inserted into the Seattle Mariner lineup on August 31, 1990 , thus becoming the first father-and-son teammate combination in major league history. What a mind-boggling accomplishment! |
| Close to 30 major leaguers these days have fathers who played in the bigs - an amazing statistic. With 30 teams carrying 25 players each , that creates a pool of 750 major league players . This means 4% of the planet's best baseball players had fathers who played major league baseball. |
| This is astronomically high when you consider that the odds of someone putting on a major league uniform and actually getting into a game situation has been estimated to be 1 in 25,000. |
| Yet one in every twenty-five players has a father who played. Check out some of the more well-known father-son combinations: |
| Ken Griffey Jr. and his father, Ken Griffey Sr. |
| Roberto and Sandy Alomar Jr. and their father, Sandy Alomar . |
| Barry Bonds and his father, Bobby Bonds. (The steroid free version) |
| Moises Alou and his father, Felipe Alou. (Moises was once managed by his dad at Montreal .) |
| Eduardo Perez and his father, Tony Perez. |
| Todd Stottlemyre and his father, Mel Stottlemyre. (presently a Yankee pitching coach.) |
| Todd Hundley and his father, Randy Hundley. |
| Bret and Aaron Boone and their father, Bob Boone. The Boones are actually the first three-generation family to play in the big leagues. Ray Boone, an American League catcher in the late 1940s and '50s who fathered Bob Boone, is the grandfather of Bret and Aaron Boone. |
| These amazing statistics point out something that has been confirmed over and over in American culture: A father has a great deal of influence over his children, perhaps more than he realizes. |
| Arenas & auditoriums are filled with men, yet our pews are nearly void of men. This is a symptom of the real problem... "Church" is often designed for women and children. Nothing wrong with thriving programs for the ladies in the Church, or a vibrant youth ministry program for the children... they are important. But, "What about the men?" |
Iron Men is a program exclusively designed to meet the needs of men. Featuring great themed events, Iron Men enjoy meeting other men who are struggling with the same life issues, have similar goals and want to strengthen their spiritual walk. We always have a great meal (the kind your Dr. wouldn't approve of.) |
 For info on our current event, click here . Future events include: |
| John Deere Tractor & equipment show. |
| Fishing workshop; Tying flies, tools, how to helps. |
| Football "Church bowl" event. |
| Much more than space allows. |
