In the fourth grade, I discovered Topps baseball cards.
I’d chew the crunchy bubble gum inside each 20-cent pack and memorize the stats of all my favorite players.
I eventually sold my card collection, but I remain passionate about Major League Baseball.
In my teen years, my family moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and I fell in love with the Texas Rangers. As an adult, I’ve experienced America’s favorite pastime at 22 of the 30 big-league stadiums. In 2023, I enjoyed a game at the No. 1 ballpark on my bucket list: Wrigley Field in Chicago. I eventually hope to make it to all of them.
My work as a journalist has taken me inside clubhouses at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Calif., Comerica Park in Detroit, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, the old Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas, Minute Maid Park in Houston, National Park in Washington, D.C., and Progressive Field in Cleveland.
Read some of my baseball stories and columns below.
— Bobby
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• 2025 — A pitch to follow Jesus: Baseball fans embrace players’ faith testimonials
DETROIT — The preacher made his pitch like a pro.
Frank Tanana held a Bible in his left hand — the one he used to strike out 2,773 batters in a 21-season major league career — as he urged a pregame crowd of 3,074 fans to follow Jesus.
“I beg of you, today is the day of salvation,” Tanana told the throng clad in navy, orange and white Detroit Tigers attire. “If you don’t know Christ, won’t you give your life to Christ?”
On a recent 78-degree Saturday afternoon, a U.S. flag and the Tigers’ four World Series championship banners — from 1935, 1945, 1968 and 1984 — flapped in the Comerica Park breeze.
Butterflies fluttered amid the spectators gathered along the first-base line during an annual Christian outreach called Home Plate Detroit. A blue sky dotted with cottony white clouds framed the downtown skyline just beyond the outfield bleachers.
Tanana’s ballpark sermon capped an hour-long special program led by Tigers chaplain Jeff Totten and featuring testimonials by outfielder Kerry Carpenter, pitcher Tyler Holton, infielder/outfielder Zach McKinstry, shortstop Trey Sweeney and pitcher Will Vest.
RELATED: Reporting on baseball and faith: A religion writer combines two loves
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• 2025: Welcome back, Carter: Faith helps Texas Rangers’ ‘Little Savior’ overcome setbacks
ARLINGTON, Texas — “The Little Savior made everyone a believer.”
That’s how the Dallas Morning News characterized Evan Carter after he made his MLB debut in September 2023 — just 10 days after his 21st birthday — and helped the Texas Rangers win the World Series for the first time in the franchise’s 63-year history.
After such a meteoric rise, the left-handed hitting outfielder seemed destined for baseball stardom.
But Carter, still just 22, has faced multiple challenges the past two seasons, battling injuries and a temporary demotion to the minor leagues.
Carter — who famously wore a “Jesus Won” T-shirt to batting practice when he reached the big leagues in 2023 — talked to Religion Unplugged recently about his journey both as a ballplayer and a person of deep Christian faith.
“Baseball is what I do, but I try and not make it, as the cliché goes, who I am,” Carter said in a pregame interview at Globe Life Field. “Baseball is a really hard sport, and it can take a toll on you physically and mentally.”
His faith, he explained, means “just having something that you know is a bigger purpose than just playing on the ballfield, and I try to keep it in perspective.”
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Former Mets star Darryl Strawberry thanks Trump for pardon during sermon at Tulsa church
My @AP story from Tulsa, Okla. https://t.co/wBT3IncbLO
— Bobby Ross Jr. (@bobbyross) November 23, 2025
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• 2025 — Former Mets star Darryl Strawberry thanks Trump for pardon during Tulsa sermon
TULSA, Okla. — Former New York Mets great Darryl Strawberry praised Jesus and thanked President Donald Trump for pardoning his past tax evasion and drug charges as he preached Sunday at a Tulsa church.
Jackson Lahmeyer, founder of Pastors for Trump, welcomed the eight-time All-Star to the pulpit of Sheridan Church, where more than 400 worshippers cheered when Strawberry mentioned Trump’s decision earlier this month to issue the pardon.
“God just completely set me free when he gave me a pardon from President Donald J. Trump,” said the 1983 National League Rookie of the Year. “Other presidents had opportunities, but they didn’t do it.”
Strawberry hit 335 homers and had 1,000 RBIs and 221 stolen bases in 17 seasons with the Mets, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees.
For years, the four-time World Series champion battled legal, health and personal problems. He served 11 months in a Florida state prison for a 2002 probation violation.
Now 63, the retired outfielder credits his Christian faith for turning his life around and allowing him to remain sober for more than two decades.
“All glory to God because he found me in a pit and put me in a pulpit,” Strawberry said during his 45-minute sermon. The devil “should have killed me when he had a chance,” he joked.
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• 2025 — ‘New pope, new me’: Devout Catholic baseball star finds his hitting groove
ARLINGTON, Texas — After a slow start to his first season with the Texas Rangers, Jake Burger is crushing the ball again.
The secret to the 29-year-old slugger’s renewed success?
The devout Catholic ballplayer gives credit to a fellow Midwesterner: Pope Leo XIV.
Burger said he likes to think that Leo — formerly known as Cardinal Robert Prevost — saw him play during the corner infielder’s time with the Chicago White Sox from 2021 to 2023.
The future pope was shown on video attending the 2005 World Series, when the White Sox won their first championship in 88 years.
“It seems like he’s a baseball fan, and it’s just really cool to finally get an American in there,” Burger said of the Chicago-born clergyman’s May 8 election to lead the world’s estimated 1.4 billion Catholics. “Hopefully, he does some great things.”
In a dugout interview with Religion Unplugged, Burger said he’s always worn a rosary bead necklace — a symbol of prayer, faith and devotion in Catholicism — under his uniform.
But just since Leo’s election, Texas’ regular first baseman has started celebrating big hits in a new way: with the sign of the cross.
“I try to honor him in any way I can,” Burger said this week during a series against the Toronto Blue Jays. “For me, it was finding some really lighthearted stuff with faith involved — and try to bring that energy every single day from a strong faith background.”
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• 2023 — Keeping the faith: Texas Rangers win the World Series
ARLINGTON, Texas — I lived to see it.
The Texas Rangers just won the World Series.
Forty-one years after I first walked into the old Arlington Stadium and became a Rangers fan at age 14, my team achieved the ultimate baseball glory.
“He struck him out looking. It’s over! It’s over!” longtime Rangers radio play-by-play voice Eric Nadel proclaimed as Texas reliever Josh Sborz retired Arizona’s Ketel Marte to secure the 5-0 victory Wednesday night.
Texas took four out of five games in the best-of-seven Fall Classic.
“Rangers fans, you’re not dreaming!” Nadel declared. “The Rangers are the World Series champions! After 52 years in Texas and 63 years as a franchise, the wait is over!”
As I celebrate the Rangers taking me higher “to a place with golden streets,” I can’t help but draw parallels between baseball and the Christian life.
RELATED: Road to the World Series: My Top 10 Rangers games of 2023 and A baseball blessing in Cuba
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• 2023 — Jesus at the ballpark: Why MLB teams host faith nights
SAN DIEGO — At 8:15 p.m. on a recent Saturday, Texas Rangers catcher Mitch Garver swung and missed at an 86-mph slider from San Diego Padres closer Josh Hader.
Garver’s strikeout secured a 4-0 victory for the home team in front of 42,677 fans at Petco Park.
Three minutes later, an electric guitarist and keyboardist from The Rock Church — an evangelical megachurch in San Diego — stirred on the Gallagher Square stage behind center field.
The church’s pastor, Miles McPherson, sported a pinstriped Padres jersey as he grabbed a microphone.
“What’s up? What’s up? Y’all ready to worship the Lord?” said McPherson, a 1980s-era San Diego Chargers football player who developed a cocaine habit before dedicating his life to Jesus Christ during his NFL days.
About 3,000 men, women and children — almost all clad in Padres hats and attire — bought special tickets for the team’s annual Faith and Family Night.
On a 74-degree evening, in the shadow of statues honoring Padres greats Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman, attendees listened to praise music, heard testimonials from Padres and Rangers players and lifted their hands toward heaven in prayer.
“It’s very nice to be able to celebrate our faith in public without criticism,” said one of the fans, Nicole Soto, who is not related to Padres star Juan Soto.
Roughly 19 hours later — and 125 miles to the north — a similar scene played out at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
RELATED: For baseball star Clayton Kershaw and his wife, faith provides a foundation
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• 2023 — Thrill of Wrigleyville: Checking off the No. 1 ballpark on my bucket list
CHICAGO — I finally made it to Wrigleyville.
For a long time, I’ve dreamed of seeing a game at Wrigley Field — the iconic ballpark with ivy-covered outfield walls that opened in 1914.
I had experienced America’s favorite pastime at 19 of the 30 MLB stadiums, plus five former big-league fields (I’ll list all of them below). My family and I even posed outside Wrigley — the home of the Cubs since 1916 — during a 2006 trip to Chicago.
But I had never stepped inside the Friendly Confines or joined the crowd in singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the seventh-inning stretch. Timing and circumstances just never aligned.
In 2015, I ranked the remaining destinations on my baseball bucket list. Since then, I had made it to No. 2 PNC Park in Pittsburgh and No. 3 Comerica Park in Detroit. But No. 1 Wrigley remained elusive.
But when I learned my beloved Texas Rangers would be playing a weekend series at Wrigley this April, I hatched a plan. With my wife Tamie’s blessing, I decided to take my sons Brady and Keaton and my 4-year-old grandson, Bennett, on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to see the Rangers play the Cubs in Chicago.
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• 2022 — A heavenly day at the ballpark
ARLINGTON, Texas — In my family, births, weddings and baptisms count as major milestones. So does one’s first time to attend a Texas Rangers game.
I’ve followed Rangers baseball — through pulse-pounding wins and heart-wrenching losses — for 40 years.
While interning with the MacArthur Park Church of Christ in San Antonio in 2012, my oldest son, Brady, then a ministry major at Oklahoma Christian University, wrote a 91-page summer devotional guide for teens.
I still chuckle at the intro to his devo No. 60 on listening to God: “Don’t you hate it when you’re talking to someone, and you can tell they’re not listening? Some people are just naturally bad about this. It took me 18 years, but I learned to never ask my dad anything while the Rangers are on because he gets twice as into them as I do. Yes, that is actually possible.”
Suffice it to say that even before the most amazing thing happened (seriously, stay tuned for an incredible story!), I was excited about my 15-month-old granddaughter’s first Rangers game.
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• 2020 — Retired slugger and his wife are on a mission for God
FLORENCE, Ala. — Josh Willingham stayed up most of the night praying.
After going to the World Series with the Kansas City Royals in 2014, the 35-year-old slugger had a decision to make.
A difficult one.
The 11-year major-league veteran could play another season and hope to avoid the nagging injuries that had required multiple surgeries.
Or the free-agent left fielder could choose not to sign another contract. He could become a full-time father to his three young sons and start the next chapter in his life.
“I am a family-oriented guy, and my kids were getting older,” said Willingham, who with his wife, Ginger, shared the family’s story at Mars Hill Bible School, the couple’s alma mater. “And I was missing a lot of their lives.”
Josh told his agent that if he got an offer from the Atlanta Braves or St. Louis Cardinals — the teams closest to his northwest Alabama home — he’d consider it.
“As it turns out, I did get those offers,” he recalled during a benefit dinner held before the coronavirus pandemic forced social distancing.
The night before he had to decide, fellow Christians met at Josh’s house and joined the Florence native in seeking God’s direction.
“I can remember we were all praying about it,” he said. “I just really struggled with the decision. But my only prayer was, ‘Lord, I just want to be 100 percent (certain) and have no regrets.’
“And I haven’t. It’s been a good time,” added Josh, who ended his career with 195 home runs, 632 RBIs and an .823 on-base plus slugging percentage. “I’m still involved with baseball, just in a different way — teaching little youngsters.”
RELATED: My 10 favorite baseball stories featuring members of Churches of Christ
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• 2020 — At 84, retired major-leaguer Lindy McDaniel ‘Still Pitching for the Master’
When Joe Chesser was 9 years old, his family attended church with Lindy McDaniel, a young pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals.
One Sunday, Chesser brought a baseball to worship at the West End Church of Christ in Wellston, Mo., just outside St. Louis. The boy gave the ball to McDaniel, then 21 and in his second full season with the National League team.
The year was 1957.
“He had the entire St. Louis Cardinals team autograph it for me,” recalled Chesser, now 72 and an elder and preacher for the Fruitland Church of Christ in Jackson, Mo., about 100 miles south of St. Louis.
Chesser still has that baseball.
Some of the autographs have faded. But others remain visible, including Stan Musial, Hoyt Wilhelm, Alvin Dark, Wally Moon, Dick Schofield, “Vinegar Bend” Mizell and Von McDaniel, one of Lindy’s two pitcher brothers.
“To me, the most important thing about Lindy McDaniel was not his baseball career, although playing for the Cardinals, my favorite baseball team, is great,” said Chesser, who remembers watching McDaniel pitch at St. Louis’ old Sportsman’s Park. “What I admire most about Lindy is his love for the Lord and his desire to share the Good News with the lost.”
RELATED: COVID-19 claims Lindy McDaniel, retired major-league pitcher and longtime preacher
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• 2020 — Hall Of Famer Rod Carew talks faith, COVID-19 and, yes, baseball
In 19 seasons with the Minnesota Twins and Los Angeles Angels, Rod Carew racked up numbers that made him a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
From 1967 to 1985, Carew collected 3,053 hits, won seven American League batting titles and made 18 straight All-Star appearances.
But his new memoir, “One Tough Out: Fighting Off Life’s Curveballs,” ventures beyond the baseball diamond.
Co-written with Jaime Aron, the 324-page narrative uncovers Carew’s often-difficult, emotional personal journey — from growing up with an abusive father in Panama to losing a daughter to leukemia to undergoing his own life-saving heart and kidney transplant.
This stat is impossible to miss in Carew’s book: its 67 mentions of God.
“Rod’s faith is one of the threads that binds his whole, amazing life story,” said Aron, a senior writer for the American Heart Association and former Texas sports editor for The Associated Press.
In an interview with Religion Unplugged, Carew, 74, talked about his complicated faith, his effort to avoid COVID-19 and why he’s not a fan of baseball returning before there’s a coronavirus vaccine. The Q&A has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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• 2018 — He’s a major-league pitcher — and a plumber — whose faith helps keep him focused
ARLINGTON, Texas — It’s not hard to stay humble when you’re unclogging a toilet.
Or when you’re throwing gopher balls to Miracle League ballplayers swinging for the fences.
At least that’s how Detroit Tigers ace Michael Fulmer, who works part-time as a plumber in the offseason and serves as a mentor to adults with developmental disabilities, describes his approach to living out his Christian faith.
“It’s a way for me to stay levelheaded,” said the 25-year-old right-hander of his part-time gig with Cyrus Wright Plumbing in his home state of Oklahoma.
Fulmer has emerged as one of baseball’s top young pitchers, winning the American League Rookie of the Year award in 2016 and earning a spot on the AL All-Star team in 2017. He has a 3.46 ERA in 58 career starts, and his fastball regularly touches 97 mph.
If you’re not a baseball aficionado, simply consider this: Now in his third season, Fuller will earn $575,000 this year.
In a Religion News Service interview during the Tigers’ three-game series with the Texas Rangers earlier this week, Fulmer said his goal — win or lose — is “to preach the Lord’s name.”
As Fulmer stepped to the mound at Globe Life Park for his start Monday (May 7), he couldn’t help but notice a special group of fans in the right-field corner.
Wings, a Christian nonprofit, offers vocational, social and residential programs for adults with developmental disabilities. The organization, based in Edmond, Okla., chartered a bus for 43 members and parents to make the 450-mile round trip to see Fulmer — one of the ministry’s biggest supporters — pitch.
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• 2017 — Faith helped baseball coach Tony Beasley beat cancer
ARLINGTON, Texas — Tony Beasley never lost faith, even when he was diagnosed with cancer.
“It’s been an opportunity for me to be who I said I am,” said Beasley, the third base coach for the Texas Rangers. “My favorite verse is 2 Corinthians 5:7: ‘For we walk by faith, not by sight.’ To have an opportunity to actually live that out was a blessing.”
With a giant U.S. flag unfurled in the outfield grass and a sellout crowd of 48,350 standing to honor America, all attention centered on Beasley this week (April 3) as he returned full time to the game he loves after a year spent battling rectal cancer.
“An inspiration to us all” is how longtime Rangers public address announcer Chuck Morgan introduced the 50-year-old coach, who was invited to sing the national anthem on Opening Day.
“You can ask anybody in here just how big an impact Beasley has on everybody as far as his faith and his attitude — it’s just contagious,” outfielder Delino DeShields told a reporter in the Rangers’ clubhouse at Globe Life Park. “Even last year, he came in with a smile on his face and always had positive words.”
Under blue skies on a 76-degree night, Beasley offered a soulful rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” — and couldn’t help but reflect on his emotional journey of the past year.
“I actually closed my eyes when I sang, just to keep in rhythm with the beat and to block out the delay,” the coach said. “But it was an honor. It was a blessing.
“This time last year, I was undergoing chemotherapy,” added Beasley, who received his cancer diagnosis in January 2016, “and to be able to be back at full capacity, I just thank God for that.”
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• 2015 — Why Detroit Tigers pitcher Daniel Norris was baptized in his baseball uniform
DETROIT — The 16-year-old pitching phenom stepped into the baptistery wearing his high school baseball uniform.
Fresh dirt stains splotched his white uniform pants as Daniel Norris crept barefoot into the water to confess his faith in Jesus Christ and be immersed for the forgiveness of sins.
The hard-throwing lefty’s brother-in-law put his hand on Norris’ shoulder — just above the bright red No. 18 on his dark jersey top — and reflected on the significance of the choice.
“This is something that Daniel has been thinking about, and a lot of people have been praying about, for a long time,” Tim Haywood told a small group of family and friends at the Central Church of Christ, Norris’ home congregation in the East Tennessee mountain community of Johnson City. “In just a few moments, he’s not just going to be my brother-in-law anymore, but he’s going to be my brother.”
Norris, now 22 and a starting pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, made the decision to be baptized after a regional tournament win for his hometown Science Hill High School, where he also starred in football and basketball.
“We had just won, and obviously, the glory always goes to God,” Norris recalled in an interview with The Christian Chronicle. “For some reason, it just clicked. I said, ‘You know, right now is when I’m going to do it.’”
One of the major leagues’ top young pitching prospects — with a fastball in the mid-90s — Norris wore his uniform into the water not to show how much baseball meant to him but to acknowledge “God blessed me in my ability to play.
“I saw it as kind of a way to show God, ‘Hey, I see what you’re doing with baseball. This is an opportunity to give you glory,’” said Norris, who visited with the Chronicle in the home clubhouse at Detroit’s Comerica Park.
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• 2014 — From bat boy to major-league executive
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.”
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Photo: On assignment at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
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• 2013 — For Rockies reliever with 0.28 ERA, there’s a higher calling
LOS ANGELES — Rex Brothers portrays himself as “just a normal dude.”
Except that he’s standing in the visitors’ clubhouse at Dodger Stadium as he makes this claim — a few hours before pitching yet another scoreless inning for the Colorado Rockies.
“People look at me as an athlete, but I want people to look at me as a normal human being, too,” says Brothers, 25, a left-handed reliever who fires 97-mph fastballs.
A faithful Church of Christ member and former Lipscomb University star, Brothers stepped into Colorado’s closer role in late May after an injury to Rafael Betancourt. The Shelbyville, Tenn., resident has been a top prospect since the Rockies made him the 34th overall pick in baseball’s 2009 amateur draft.
He has compiled amazing numbers so far this season: He has thrown 31 straight scoreless outings covering 29 innings and boasts an ERA of 0.28.
“He’s a great talent,” said Rockies pitching coach Bo McLaughlin, a fellow former Lipscomb player. “From the time we got him, we knew that he was going to help us in the big leagues.”
More importantly, fellow Christians describe Brothers as a humble, down-to-earth disciple of Jesus who pursues a higher calling than baseball.
“He’s one of those kids that right now has everything going for him, but you would think he’s just another guy in the neighborhood,” said Jon David Schwartz, youth minister for the Chapel Hill Church of Christ, Brothers’ home congregation in Tennessee.
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Photo: With James A. Maxwell and his son, Brooks, at Safeco Field in Seattle.
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• 2011 — Play ball: Travels bring ballpark fun, fellowship
“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” — Rogers Hornsby
SEATTLE — Talk about an awesome time: A recent Friday night found me in the right-field bleachers at Safeco Field, sipping Diet Coke from a souvenir cup and watching my favorite team, the Texas Rangers, play the hometown Mariners.
James A. Maxwell, minister of the Holgate Church of Christ in Seattle, invited me to the game while I was in town working on a story.
Maxwell, whom I first met at the National Lectureship in Philadelphia last year, sported a brand-new Mariners cap. His 12-year-old son, Brooks, chowed down ballpark garlic fries as we enjoyed America’s favorite pastime.
With Seattle fans all around me, I wore a red Rangers shirt with All-Star outfielder Josh Hamilton’s No. 32 on the back. I cheered politely — but not too loudly — for defending American League champion Texas. (My team won!)
I have mentioned before that I love God, my family and baseball — mostly in that order. My time with The Christian Chronicle has provided amazing opportunities to embrace all three of those loves.
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Photo: On assignment at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.
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• 2010 — Boys of Summer: Josh Willingham’s faith, character praised
WASHINGTON — In an indoor batting cage at Nationals Park, Washington catcher Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez smashed line drive after line drive.
The sweet crack of wood (bat) striking cowhide (ball) reverberated through the Nationals’ clubhouse before a Friday night game with the Florida Marlins.
A few feet away, left fielder Josh Willingham — who bats fifth in the Washington lineup, just ahead of Rodriguez, a future Hall of Famer — awaited his turn at the plate.
Before stepping into the cage, though, Willingham, 31, took time to discuss his faith with The Christian Chronicle.
“It’s huge,” he said of his faith’s importance in his life.
Willingham grew up in Florence, Ala., at the Cross Point Church of Christ — formerly known as the Darby Drive congregation.
“One of the main things I remember, growing up in Florence at Darby Drive, is the church had a really good youth group,” said Willingham, who was baptized at age 12 after returning home from a youth rally. “That played a big hand in the faith I have now.”
He, his wife, Ginger, and their young sons, Rhett and Ryder, still attend the Cross Point church in the offseason.
Even as he lives his dream, Brothers is quick to downplay the significance of professional sports.
“God’s cutting me out and molding me to be what he wants me to be,” the pitcher says. “He can see that end result.”
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Photo: At Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif.
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• 2010 — Boys of summer: Brad Ziegler signs autographs with a favorite Scripture
ANAHEIM, Calif. — More than three hours before the start of a Friday night game against the Los Angeles Angels, Oakland A’s relief pitcher Brad Ziegler is hard at work.
Make that hard at play.
He’s immersed in the arcade version of “RBI Baseball” in the visitors’ clubhouse at Angel Stadium.
With a big smile, he apologizes for being late for an interview with The Christian Chronicle, but explains that he had to finish the game with teammate Jerry Blevins.
Two years after pitching a major-league record 39 consecutive scoreless innings to start his career, Ziegler, 30, still can’t get enough baseball — real or otherwise.
“Definitely,” he says, when asked if he’s a baseball fan as well as a player. “I love to watch games. They’re on in the locker room all the time.”
In fact, there’s a game on the television in the weight room where Ziegler is doing the interview. But he turns down the sound so he can focus on discussing his Christian faith.
“I don’t want to be kind of overbearing because I’ve seen how that can turn people off,” said Ziegler, a member of the East Grand Church of Christ in Springfield, Mo.
But when he signs autographs — unless it’s a team ball and space is an issue — he writes “1 John 5:5” by his name.
“I’ll have people ask me, ‘Well, what’s that mean? What’s that say?’” said Ziegler, whose father, Greg, a preacher, and his mother, Lisa, have served the Odessa Church of Christ in Missouri for 26 years. “I say, ‘Go look it up.’
“Hopefully, people will open up the Bible and see something profound that can touch their lives and make them want to dig a little deeper.”
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Photo: On assignment at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas.
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• 2010 — All-Star’s gift benefits Texas children’s home
ARLINGTON, Texas — “It was just a magical evening.”
For most of the sellout crowd of 46,179 fans who packed Rangers Ballpark on a recent Friday night, the most exciting moment came when Texas slugger Nelson Cruz led off the 13th inning with a game-winning home run.
For three little girls who live at Christ’s Haven for Children, though, the Rangers’ 6-5 win over the New York Yankees couldn’t compete with the pregame festivities.
As they awaited a ceremony before the first pitch, 10-year-old Vivi and sisters Ashley, 9, and Natalie, 11, played in the grass near the visiting team’s on-deck circle.
The girls — sporting brand-new, matching red Rangers’ caps with white T’s — giggled and exchanged high-fives with “Rangers Captain,” the Texas mascot.
Minutes later, the girls and Christ’s Haven development director Karen Yarbrough joined Michael Young, the Rangers’ All-Star third baseman, behind home plate.
The ballpark’s main scoreboard splashed the girls’ smiling faces across the big screen as the public-address announcer introduced them and Young leaned in to greet them.
The reason for the hoopla?
For the second straight year, Young was named the Rangers’ nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award presented by Chevrolet, which gives $7,500 to the charity of the player’s choice.
And for the second straight year, Young designated Christ’s Haven as the recipient of his donation. The children’s home in Keller, Texas, north of Fort Worth, is associated with Churches of Christ.
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Photo: Interviewing Bobby Murcer in 2007.
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• 2007 — After brain tumor, Bobby Murcer grateful for life
EDMOND, Okla. — New York Yankees legend Bobby Murcer, sporting a bald head after chemotherapy and radiation treatments, looked out the window and saw a whole new world.
“I see the beautiful, budding trees, and it reminds me of spring coming on,” said Murcer, a member of the Memorial Road Church of Christ in this Oklahoma City suburb.
In the past, said the 60-year-old Yankees broadcaster and five-time All-Star, he might have missed the bright blue sky on a sunny afternoon.
But not anymore — not since doctors diagnosed him four months ago with brain cancer.
Murcer said the diagnosis, delivered on Christmas Eve, came as a “total shock” to him and his wife, Kay. After months of headaches and fatigue, the Oklahoma City native had gone to the hospital for an MRI that Sunday morning.
Then Bobby and Kay, his bride of 40 years, sang and praised God at the Memorial Road church.
Kay grew up in the Church of Christ. Through her influence, Bobby was baptized in 1967.
Just before lunch that Sunday, the doctor called Murcer on his cell phone.
“He said, ‘Well, we got your MRI results back and you have a brain tumor,’” said Murcer, whose playing career ended in 1983.
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Photo: Interviewing Cecil Cooper at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
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• 2006 — Astros coach swings for the heavenly fences
HOUSTON — Bench coach Cecil Cooper’s time with the Houston Astros brought an unexpected blessing soon after he joined the team in 2005.
A few days into spring training, Cooper walked into a Sunday night service at the Kissimmee Church of Christ in Florida.
“I see the back of this guy’s head and I’m like, ‘That guy looks familiar,’” said Cooper, 56, a five-time All-Star during his 17-year playing career. “So, I walked down the aisle a little bit and peaked around and there was ‘Stretch’ Suba.”
Joseph Suba, the longtime Houston bullpen catcher and batting practice pitcher, had met Cooper the previous Friday.
But neither realized the other was a church member.
“Both of our eyes just opened up,” said Suba, who played at Oklahoma Christian in the 1970s. “He’s been an inspiration to me because we believe the same way.”
Likewise, Cooper said Suba has blessed him: “I thank God that I found someone that I can share with.”
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• 2004 — Major leagues’ only full-time chaplain a confidant for Astros
HOUSTON (AP) — When Houston Astros starting pitcher Pete Munro arrived at the ballpark on a recent Saturday, a white-haired man with an easy smile greeted him and slipped him a handwritten message.
A bit of advice for handling the Milwaukee Brewers that night?
Not exactly.
“I got a little Scripture for him,” said Gene Pemberton, the Astros’ chaplain. “He can stick it in his pocket and take it to the mound.”
As the major leagues’ only full-time chaplain, the 64-year-old Pemberton leads a regular Bible study for Astros players, comforts injured players at the hospital and helps with Sunday chapel services in the clubhouse.
Even more importantly, the Astros’ “spiritual coach” bonds with players and provides a supportive, reassuring presence in the grind of a 162-game regular season, said team owner Drayton McLane and players such as All-Star outfielder Lance Berkman.
“You’ve got 25 young men … who travel endlessly for six months out of the year. There’s just so much pressure,” said McLane, a prominent Texas Baptist who serves on the board of church-affiliated Baylor University. “Gene is there to help and assist wherever he can.”
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• 2003 — After 25 seasons, life as a baseball announcer still thrills Eric Nadel
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Thirty minutes before welcoming listeners to “the beautiful Ballpark in Arlington,” Eric Nadel and his partner, Vince Cotroneo, swing open the windows of the Texas Rangers’ air-conditioned radio booth overlooking home plate.
A brisk, 93-degree breeze rattles stat sheets and blows open the pages of the “Complete Baseball Record Book.”
And the sounds and smells of the ballpark rush in: the voices of the gap-toothed boys begging A-Rod and company for autographs; the sweet aroma of $1 Hot Dog Night; the wind-blown smoke from the fireworks that erupt after each Ranger home run.
“You don’t have the feel of the game if you don’t open the windows,” said Nadel, 52, in his 25th season calling games for a perennial cellar dweller that has won one playoff game in its history.
Nadel’s career with the Rangers has spanned six broadcast partners, 10 managers and roughly 4,000 games. He teamed with the late Mark Holtz for 13 seasons – a duo that endeared itself to a generation of Texas fans.
“More and more, I hear from people that grew up listening to me, usually to Mark Holtz and me,” Nadel said. “To know that in some way I provided a connection between them and the Rangers, it’s a wonderful feeling because it’s the same feeling I had growing up with the announcers for the Mets and Yankees.”
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Faith. Family. Fastballs. 