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By Bobby Ross Jr. | Religion Unplugged
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers boast an estimated $243 million annual payroll.
The MLB team — presumed dead in the pennant race two weeks ago but suddenly resurrected — draws an average home crowd of nearly 30,000.
Mostly, the paying customers judge their baseball heroes on their performance — or lack thereof — on Globe Life Field’s synthetic turf.
That’s just the nature of big-time sports.
It’s easy, too, for players to gauge their individual self-worth based on whether they hit a home run or strike out. But a half-dozen Rangers players and a coach who spoke at the team’s Faith and Family Night this past weekend said they aspire to a higher calling — one focused on God.
“I always say the same thing: Baseball is what I do. It’s not who I am,” emphasized third base coach Tony Beasley, a devoted Christian who touted “God’s goodness and his grace” while battling cancer in 2016.
That doesn’t mean putting the swings and misses into proper perspective is easy.
It’s not — especially given the bright lights.
Related: A pitch to follow Jesus: Baseball fans embrace players’ faith testimonies
“I always kind of describe it as, you’re like a walking statistic … and that’s kind of tough,” said third baseman Josh Jung, a 2023 All-Star Game starter who struggled earlier this season and was demoted temporarily to the minor leagues.
Along with Beasley and Jung, five other players — Nathan Eovaldi, Cody Bradford, Evan Carter, Danny Coulombe and Jon Gray — talked about their spiritual journeys. A few others, including Wyatt Langford and Cody Freeman, came to support their teammates.
This column appears in the online magazine Religion Unplugged.
Photo courtesy of the Texas Rangers
Faith. Family. Fastballs. 