{"id":882,"date":"2011-07-04T08:00:54","date_gmt":"2011-07-04T12:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/?p=882"},"modified":"2011-10-04T17:57:57","modified_gmt":"2011-10-04T21:57:57","slug":"the-inspirational-sports-report-lance-berkman-josh-hamilton-highlight-all-star-teams-ragan-wins-first-sprint-cup-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/the-inspirational-sports-report-lance-berkman-josh-hamilton-highlight-all-star-teams-ragan-wins-first-sprint-cup-race.html","title":{"rendered":"The Inspirational Sports Report: Lance Berkman, Josh Hamilton highlight All-Star teams; Ragan wins first Sprint Cup race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hit “Like” to share with your friends!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Happy Fourth of July to all the Inspiring Athletes readers out there! I trust you are having a blessed and safe holiday weekend with your friends and family. There was plenty of sports action last week but here are a couple of things that caught my eye:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lance Berkman and Josh Hamilton among All-Star Game starters<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Sunday, Major League Baseball announced the rosters for the 2011 All-Star Game in Phoenix, Ariz., and both include several notable Christian athletes headlined by National League starter Lance Berkman (St. Louis Cardinals) and American League starter Josh Hamilton (Texas Rangers).<\/p>\n

Others to make the July 12th classic include N.L., pitchers Cliff Lee (Philadelphia Phillies), Clayton Kershaw (Los Angeles Dodgers), Brian Wilson (San Francisco Giants) and Heath Bell (San Diego Padres); N.L., starting second baseman Rickie Weeks (Milwaukee Brewers); N.L., reserves Yadier Molina (St. Louis Cardinals), Troy Tulowitzki (Colorado Rockies), Matt Holliday (St. Louis Cardinals) and Carlos Beltran (New York Mets); A.L., starting first baseman Adrian Gonzalez; and A.L., pitcher Mariano Rivera (New York Yankees).<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for complete American and National League All-Star rosters.<\/p>\n

David Ragan snags first career Sprint Cup victory in Daytona<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roush-Fenway Racing driver David Ragan picked up his first career Sprint Cup victory at the Coke ZERO 400 in Daytona over the weekend. Driving in the #6 UPS Ford, Ragan held off a charging field amid two green-white-checkered starts.<\/p>\n

Ragan came into NASCAR’s elite level with high expectations after winning the 2007 Nationwide (then Busch) Series Rookie of the Year award. Throughout the four-and-a-half-year drought, the Unadilla, Georgia, native always kept the faith. For more on that story, click here<\/a> to read the Inspiring Athletes interview with Ragan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hit “Like” to share with your friends! Happy Fourth of July to all the Inspiring Athletes readers out there! I trust you are having a blessed and safe holiday weekend with your friends and family. There was plenty of sports action last week but here are a couple of things that caught my eye: Lance…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[383,3,388,4],"tags":[434,258,419,74,432,416,31,406,399,238,405,151,417,435,147,409,220,18,33,408,396,397,418,261,72,70,437,436,433,19,73,141,407,172],"class_list":["post-882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","category-christian-athletes","category-racing","category-sports-news","tag-adrian-gonzalez","tag-all-star-game","tag-american-league","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-brian-wilson","tag-carlos-beltran","tag-clayton-kershaw","tag-cliff-lee","tag-coke-zero-400","tag-colorado-rockies","tag-david-ragan","tag-daytona-500","tag-fourth-of-july","tag-heath-bell","tag-josh-hamilton","tag-july-4","tag-kyle-petty","tag-lance-berkman","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mariano-rivera","tag-mark-teixeira","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-national-league","tag-new-york-mets","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-rickie-weeks","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-texas-rangers","tag-trevor-bayne","tag-troy-tulowitzki","tag-yadier-molina"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Inspirational Sports Report: Lance Berkman, Josh Hamilton highlight All-Star teams; Ragan wins first Sprint Cup race - Inspiring Athletes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/the-inspirational-sports-report-lance-berkman-josh-hamilton-highlight-all-star-teams-ragan-wins-first-sprint-cup-race.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Inspirational Sports Report: Lance Berkman, Josh Hamilton highlight All-Star teams; Ragan wins first Sprint Cup race - Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hit “Like” to share with your friends! 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Happy Fourth of July to all the Inspiring Athletes readers out there! I trust you are having a blessed and safe holiday weekend with your friends and family. 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Chad\u2019s professional journey began at the University of Tulsa where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1993) while working extensively in athletic media relations and serving as a sports editor for The Collegian. Since then, he has written extensively for such publications as Relevant, CCM, Christian Retailing, New Man, Charisma, Today\u2019s Christian, Ministries Today, Breakaway, Brio, Sports Spectrum, Christian Single, Faith & Friends, Sharing the Victory and Gospel Today. He has authored, co-authored or ghost written and edited 13 books including Life in the Fairway (New Leaf Press), Glory of the Games (Cross Training), Wrestling with God (River Oak), Spiritual Journeys (Relevant) and the four-part Fellowship of Christian Athletes Core Value Series; Excellence, Teamwork, Serving and Integrity (Regal Books). Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":934,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions\/934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}