Twenty-five years ago, I was in the stands cheering for my brother and the Texas Aggie baseball team against the University of Texas. The night before, the Longhorns snapped the top-ranked Aggies’ 39-game Olsen Field winning streak.
The score was tied 14-14 in the bottom of the ninth, and John Byington stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded. He smashed the first pitch for a walk-off grand slam, setting the stage for a dramatic deciding game. UT scored 3 runs in the top of the ninth to tie the nightcap at five, and Byington stepped up with two on and two out. He looked for a slider on the first pitch and got it. As he put it, “I really got that one. I really hit it really as good as I could hit a ball and it went to left-center and that was time to celebrate. After the first one we had another game to play so it was short-lived, but after doing it twice and being done for the day it was a great feeling to actually finish them off that second game and doing it that way.”
The Aggies went on to set a single-season record with 58 wins, and John Byington is forever remembered for one of the best days in Aggie Baseball history. Byington is still in baseball, set to start his seventh season as head coach for the McMurry University Warhawks in Abilene. He is a devout Christian and attends Beltway Park Baptist Church in Abilene, and he invited me to speak to his team and his coaching staff about leadership and character next week.
I’ll share some insights with his team, using Home Run: Learn God’s Game Plan for Life & Leadership by Kevin Myers with John Maxwell.
Click here to learn more about Home Run.
