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All Star pitcher anchored in Christ
Tim Ellsworth, Baptist Press
July 14, 2010
7 MIN READ TIME

All Star pitcher anchored in Christ

All Star pitcher anchored in Christ
Tim Ellsworth, Baptist Press
July 14, 2010

ANAHEIM, Calif. — One …

two … three …

As the pastor stepped to the

pulpit, a young Adam Wainwright began counting.

74 … 75 … 76 …

The preaching continued, and

so did the counting inside Wainwright’s head.

328 … 329 … 330 …

“As long as he kept talking,

I would keep counting,” said Wainwright, a member of the National League team,

the winner of Tuesday night’s All Star Game. “There were times when I got up

almost to 1,000, which is really embarrassing. I’m so competitive, and I was so

lost at the time, that going to church was a game. That was the only way that I

could make myself sit through it without complaining and whining and fussing,

was to make a game of it. So I made it a counting game.”

That competitive fire may

not have been appropriate for the setting, as Wainwright now ashamedly admits,

but it has served him well atop the mound. Over the past few years, the St.

Louis Cardinals’ Wainwright has become one of the game’s most dominant

pitchers. He won 19 games in 2009 and finished third in Cy Young balloting in

the National League.

So far in 2010, he’s second

in the league with 13 wins and a sparkling 2.11 ERA, good enough to earn his

first All-Star spot in the July 13 game at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif.

The National League ended

its losing streak to the American League with a 3-1 win in front of 45,408 at

Angel Stadium.

BP photo by Tim Ellsworth

Adam Wright, a member of the National League All Star team, has learned that Jesus will “love us the same” win or lose.

Wainwright, while not the

starting pitcher, performed well in the seventh inning, striking out Torii

Hunter. Hunter said the pitcher “was a bad card to draw” on MLB.com.

Hunter, a center fielder

with the L.A. Angels said Wainwright “threw nothing but curves and cutters.”

While Wainwright does

compete fiercely on the diamond, he now has a different attitude when it comes

to attending church and hearing the Bible preached.

He grew up in a

single-parent home in Brunswick, Ga., where his mom made sure he went to church

every Sunday. He heard the Word of God preached year after year, but it didn’t

sink in.

“I hated going to church,”

he said. “I didn’t let anybody know that, but it was the most boring thing in

the world to me.”

His counting games during

the sermon continued until middle school. He then started attending regular

Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings, primarily because of his friends and

the pretty girls who went.

“High school came, and I

started to get farther and farther removed from the Christian way,” Wainwright

said. “I grew up going to Vacation Bible School. I could tell you about the

Bible and all the parables and the stories and all that. But to me at the time,

it was really a history book and not something that was talking about a

messiah.”

The Atlanta Braves drafted

Wainwright in the first round of the 2000 amateur draft, and in rookie ball his

first roommate was Blaine Boyer, now a relief pitcher for the Arizona

Diamondbacks. In Boyer, Wainwright found someone who was a committed Christian

and who lived a godly lifestyle. Wainwright took notice, and began talking to

Boyer about why his life was different.

Boyer told Wainwright about

the change that Jesus Christ had made in him, and though Wainwright admits that

he was interested to hear Boyer’s story, he wasn’t willing to make that

commitment to Christ himself.

About that time agents began

calling Wainwright, offering their services. Wainwright was drawn to Steve

Hammond, an agent from a smaller firm, but someone that Wainwright thought was

a good fit for him. Hammond, also a Christian, signed Boyer as a client as

well, and the two of them began tag-teaming Wainwright in their witnessing to

him.

“They knew I had questions,”

Wainwright said. “I was coming to them all the time with questions about

eternity and how do you know you’re right, how do you know Christianity is the

way and not Buddhism or Islam or any of these other ones.”

The two convinced Wainwright

to attend a conference sponsored by Pro Athletes Outreach (PAO) in 2002. They

told him he could leave anytime if he didn’t like it.

“OK, fine, I’ll do it,”

Wainwright thought. “I might leave, but I’m going.”

The headline speaker for the

conference was Joe Stowell, former president of Moody Bible Institute and now

president of Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Mich. Wainwright remembers

hearing Stowell talk about the relationship side of Christianity. That was

something he never remembered hearing about before.

“The message had probably

been given to me a lot of times before, but my ears weren’t ready to hear it,”

Wainwright said. “At this particular time at PAO, my ears were finally ready to

listen.”

On the second day of the

conference, Wainwright repented of his sins and trusted in Jesus Christ for his

salvation.

A year later, the Braves

traded him to the Cardinals. He debuted with the team in 2005, and took over as

the team’s closer late in the 2006 season and during the playoffs. He struck

out Brandon Inge of the Detroit Tigers for the final out in the 2006 World

Series.

Wainwright moved into the

St. Louis rotation the following year and has been an anchor for the Cardinals

ever since. His success has allowed him to earn a healthy living, which he

acknowledges can be a potential pitfall for a Christian.

“Doing what we do, the

reality of the money that we’re able to make and the obstacles we’re faced with

— temptation-wise — are tremendous,” Wainwright said. “We’re given a platform

that’s unlike many others. We’re also given more temptation than probably most

others. The money side of it, Jesus said that it’s easier for a camel to pass

through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into heaven.”

That’s why Wainwright said

it’s important for him to stay focused on Christ as his ultimate meaning and

purpose in life.

“Without God, without Jesus

in our life, it’s always going to be empty,” he said. “We’re always going to be

striving to get to that next plateau, and then when we get to the top plateau,

there’s nothing there.

“With Jesus in our life, He

says no matter what we do, whether we fail or have the most success, He’s going

to love us the same. That message, to me, is so huge for this lifestyle we’re

in.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Ellsworth

is director of BPSports, the sports web site of Baptist Press, and director of

news and information at Union University in Jackson, Tenn.)