From bat boy to major-league executive (reporting from Arlington, Texas): San Diego Padres’ vice president and assistant general manager Chad MacDonald devoted to his faith.
ARLINGTON, Texas — On his frequent trips to the San Diego Padres’ international baseball academy in the Dominican Republic, Chad MacDonald usually takes along an extra suitcase.
It’s not because MacDonald, the Padres’ vice president and assistant general manager of player personnel, has trouble packing lightly.
“He fills it with shoes and flip-flops and things because the kids down there are playing baseball barefooted in the sticks and rocks,” said Doug Peters, senior minister for the 600-member North Davis Church of Christ, the North Texas congregation where MacDonald is active when he’s not on the road.
MacDonald, 44, got his start as a batboy for his hometown Texas Rangers — who play not far from the North Davis church building — in the 1980s.
Now in his third season with the Padres and 22nd overall on a major-league payroll, the dedicated Christian characterizes his benevolence in Latin America as “no big deal.”
“That’s easy to do,” he told The Christian Chronicle. “I love my job, but I try to live out my faith, too. So when you see people in need, you’re there to help. I think that’s somewhere in the Bible.”
This story appears in the May 2014 print edition of The Christian Chronicle.
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