This year brings the 50th anniversary of publication of perhaps the most-quoted story series about Christians in sports. Frank Deford—voted U.S. Sportswriter of the Year six times, and known generally for his 37 years of commentary on NPR’s Morning Edition—castigated in three consecutive issues of Sports Illustrated what he called “Sportianity”—“thanking God, paying Him off for getting them another big one in the W column.”
“Jesus, it seems, is coming across as the next best thing to a home-court advantage,” Deford wrote:
Athletes are being used to sell religion. They endorse Jesus much as they would a new sneaker or a graphite-shafted driver.
Game-day religion has become a sort of security blanket, something on the order of superstitions like not stepping on the foul lines or wearing the same tie when you are on a winning streak.
Well. It is true that postgame interviews more often feature winners rather than losers, so “Thank you, Jesus” comes off that way.
Yet many Christian managers and athletes I’ve interviewed over four decades are more reflective. One is Joe Espada, manager of the Houston Astros.
“I try to hold myself from asking for wins,” he told me on February 22, before his spring training home opener at Cacti Park of the Palm Beaches in Florida, “because I know the starting pitcher for the other team is a Christian and is praying for the same thing.”
Instead, Espada said he “prays for health, for peace, for wisdom. God is neutral. He knows who will win or lose, but it’s about getting closer to him. That’s what he wants from us. That’s what I focus on. Being loyal, faithful. His plan is better than mine.”
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“The outcome of the game is secondary,” Espada added. “I know Christ is my Savior.”
Low-slung Cacti Park features palm trees behind an outfield wall with advertising signs enticing all ages: Unlimited Auto Wash, Florida Atlantic MBA Sport Management, Cleveland Clinic. On a practice field nearby, an instructor with an iPad offered a seminar titled “Identify Your Barrel Zone” to a dozen hitters. In the Astros locker room, players could choose from eight types of sunflower seeds (up from one choice 30 years ago) including KC Style BBQ, Sweet Thai Chili, and Taco Tuesday.
And in his office, manager Espada spoke quietly about how he grew up in a Christian home in Puerto Rico, went to a Baptist school, and professed his own faith at age 14. He said his mother “always reminds me: ‘Pray before you take the field. Talk to Him.’” Espada never made the majors as a player but became the University of Mobile baseball coach and said, “There can’t be a testimony without a test. I’ve been tested, and I love sharing my testimony.”
That testimony includes losses as well as wins. When I asked about resilience, Espada said, “I’m an example. I learned about handling defeat, the everyday grind.” That’s useful when counseling players “who had high school success, they were All-American in college, but now they’re competing with other All-Americans.”
He said last year, when the Astros failed to reach the playoffs after eight straight years of success, “injuries tested my faith and my ability to communicate. … The biggest test is seeing 2025 not as a failure, but a test. You cannot let one moment, one season, define the future.”
Pressures have grown with omnipresent sports gambling: “I know there are gambling issues. I stay away from social media. I block it. I won’t listen.” One veteran pitcher, Lance McCullers, had great seasons but then fought injury and received death threats last year after losing a game. McCullers is also a Christian, and Espada said, “We both have a strong foundation. We go to Jesus. And I tell the writers and fans what Lance has meant to this team.”
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Espada said, “I have never gotten any death threats. I know stuff is being said. I have two kids, one in high school. They hear comments. I tell them, ‘This too will pass.’”
Then he went outside into the brilliant sunshine and answered questions from a half dozen baseball reporters about last season. Espada pounded his fist in a Rawlings glove while responding in English and Spanish and emphasizing his optimism about this year.
One reason is the arrival of Japanese star pitcher Tatsuya Imai. A Japanese reporter and film crew watched him warm up on February 21. The “word of the day” on the Astros locker room wall was tomodachi, which means “friend” and implies a personal relationship greater than that between coworkers (nakama) or acquaintances.
Imai did not pitch that day as the Astros lost to the Cardinals, 6-5, while families watched from the sloping wall behind left field. It’s spring training.
Marvin Olasky is editor in chief of Christianity Today.
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