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.
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.)