by despotmj | Jul 13, 2011 | Sports
Amid the sweltering summer heat, Lipscomb’s campus is buzzing with freshman in attendance for advance, construction workers renovating Fanning and students trying to squeeze in a few hours towards graduation. With so much happening on campus, one cannot forget that Lipscomb University’s Dugan Field has a new tenant this summer, although they’re not wearing purple and gold. The tenant is the Nashville Outlaws, a baseball team which is playing all of their home games this summer on Lipscomb’s campus. The Outlaws are a member of the western division of the Prospect League, a 14 team, two-division league, which offers college players the opportunity to play summer baseball while transitioning from aluminum to wooden bats. The Outlaws previously played their home games at Vanderbilt, but moved to Lipscomb University this summer. When asked why the team decided to begin playing their three month season at Lipscomb, general manager Luke Collier said Lipscomb offered the team a much better location than what they had at Vanderbilt. “The team likes Lipscomb. People are friendly and help out,” said Collier. “Game turnouts have been around 100 people.” The turnout is much-appreciated by the Outlaws players and front office, as the team plays a rigorous 56-game summer season. The Nashville fans are certainly having an impact on the team, and as of July 11, the Outlaws are in second place in the western division, three and a half games behind the Quincy Gems. Many well-known Major League Baseball players have spent time in the Prospect League including Mike Schmidt, Kirby Puckett, Ryan Howard, Jonathan Papelbon and Joe Girardi. Two familiar faces from Nashville are...
by despotmj | Jul 3, 2011 | News Slider
As part of Lipscomb University’s Summer Celebration, many speakers were on Lipscomb’s campus this past week speaking on a variety of spiritual topics. Thursday morning, Hillsboro Church of Christ minister Daniel Hope spoke on the topic of forgiveness. Hope’s lesson began by mentioning a number of highly-publicized tragedies, and how those involved displayed great forgiveness after enduring very traumatizing events. He mentioned the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, and described the Pope’s forgiveness of the shooter just days after leaving the hospital. Hope also mentioned a deadly shooting within an Amish community in 2006, and how the community came together to setup a fund for the gunmen’s children. An act which provided a great deal of healing for the shooter’s devastated family. These acts of forgiveness are often times not displayed on a large-scale by Christians, but Hope reminded the audience that Jesus himself told Paul to forgive a transgressor 77 times before giving up on another. Hope’s lesson was one which dove into a number of questions relating to forgiveness which Christians can often struggle with. He tackled tough questions and provided a response that forgiveness is not about forgetting an act or the absence of hurt, but rather it is about forgiving an unpayable debt. “Forgiveness is a decision and journey,” Hope said. “It is a commitment to the process of ceasing to demand restitution.” Part of this decision and journey is that one must work to get to a point where they can get over bitterness. “One cannot take sin more lightly than God, because sin is a big deal, and we must not...
by despotmj | Jun 29, 2011 | News Slider, Sports
As June is coming to a close, many football fans are growing increasingly anxious to know when a new Collective Bargaining Agreement will be agreed on by the NFL Players Association and NFL owners. On March 11, at 11:59 p.m., the previous CBA expired, leaving fans to wonder if a new deal would be agreed on over the summer, or if a lengthy lockout would ensue. With the lockout nearly three months in place, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel, but one must also ask if that could be an oncoming train. The most pointed issues which must be resolved in order for a new CBA to be reached include how to divide the nearly $10 billion in revenues the NFL generates every year, while determining how to split the revenue in future seasons, as revenue is expected to reach $20 billion per season before 2020. Other issues include putting a rookie wage-scale in place to combat rookie deals which have reached $50 million in guaranteed money, better benefits for retired players and increasing the NFL season from 16 to 18 games. The NFL and NFLPA have met multiple times over the last few months, but have been highly criticized for making little progress. In recent weeks, hope has emerged that progress is being made at more than an anemic pace and many believe a deal could be reached by the end of July. That is a crucial date for NFL teams due to the fact that if a deal is reached by then little or no training camp would be missed, allowing for...
by despotmj | Jun 23, 2011 | News Slider
When the Franklin Theatre re-opened its doors on Friday, June 3, 3011, hundreds of people packed the downtown Franklin streets in order to celebrate the restoration of one of the greatest landmarks of community’s history. The original Franklin Theatre opened its doors in 1937, and at the time the price of admission was 10 cents for children and 25 cents for adults. Through the years the theatre was a tremendously popular staple of the downtown Franklin streets, as in several ways it set trends for an ever growing community. Some of these trends included becoming the first air-conditioned building, as well as housing the first public restrooms in 1938. This landmark set precedents in other areas of the community as well, as it did in 1940 when the theatre manager and city agreed to allow movies to be shown on Sundays, as long as they weren’t operating during church hours. Through the years the theatre gained more and more popularity, even after a name change to the Franklin Cinema, and in 2004, the Franklin Cinema hosted the world premiere of Peter Berg’s, Friday Night Lights, a popular film featuring local celebrity Tim McGraw. Again in 2005, the cinema held the world premiere of Elizabethtown. A movie packed with star power including Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. So when the theatre closed its doors in 2007, a great hole was left in the community which had grown accustomed to seeing modern films in a very nostalgic setting. “This place means so much to so many people,” said Lindsay George, Community Relations Director of the Franklin Theatre. “Everyone has a story...
by despotmj | Jun 17, 2011 | News Slider
Playing this past weekend at Belmont’s black-box theatre was John Patrick Shanley’s “Sailor’s Song”, a story which presents themes of love, regret and loss that can transcend even the most novice of theatre goers. “Sailor’s Song” was by the Actors Bridge Ensemble, a local theatre group which includes well-known Nashvillian Brent Maddox, as well as Lipscomb’s theatre professor Robyn Berg. Providing additional talent is Actors Equity Association member Bill Feehely, as well as Jessika Malone and Carrie Gerow. The production was a dark comedy which features a character named Rich (Maddox) visiting a small, coastal town to comfort his grieving Uncle John (Feehely), as his wife is about to pass away. While in town, Rich becomes involved in a love tangle with two sisters named Lucy (Berg) and Joan (Malone). As with any love triangle, there is a vast emotional difference between the two women involved. Lucy is a sensitive, caring woman, ready to help Rich find happiness, while her sister is a medium who finds her arm possessed by an unsettled soul which causes her to constantly write the ghost’s thoughts from beyond. Throughout the performance Rich is forced to examine the path of his life as he watches his Uncle John coping, yet seemingly unaffected by the passing of his wife. John is a foul-mouthed seasoned fisherman who seems disconnected from emotion due to his many years spent at seas, choosing rather to live in a life of what could have been. This provides a very palpable and heated relationship between John and Rich, as Rich is living in a life of what could be, rather than...
