St. Paul – There are numerous ways ballplayers bond off the field throughout a 150-game season. Golf, team dinners, and the constant long road trips are just a few. But in the St. Paul Saints and Wichita Wind Surge clubhouses this year, a group of players took time out each week to meet for a Bible study.
The group consisted of Aaron Sabato, Noah Cardenas, Payton Eeles, Pierson Ohl, Trent Baker, Jarret Whorff, Kyler Fedko, and Walker Jenkins. While each player moved up through the organization at different paces this season, the core of the group kept meeting once a week outside their regular Sunday morning chapel to continue building friendships and bonds rooted in their faith.
“Those guys have been amazing and great towards me with my faith and just being around each other,” said Sabato. “So it’s awesome to see them also succeeding on the field. It’s been great.”
“I’ve been with that group of guys for all four years that I have been a Twin,” Ohl said. “Being able to relate to guys in baseball is one thing, but being able to relate to them in life and in your faith, it kind of creates relationships that don’t go anywhere, and it’s a really special group.”
Each player in this group comes from different parts of the country, and some were raised in different Christian denominations than others. Still, the Bible can bridge the gaps between different perspectives that each domination of Christianity has from the other. Through Bible study, they’ve built a foundation of faith with one another that has helped them grow as players and men, both on and off the field.
“You know, we want to get together just as players and also get through our studies,” said Eeles. “So we’ve been going through Romans and reading the letters of Paul, so His [Jesus’s] words have kind of had a good effect on us, realizing it’s much bigger than baseball.”
While baseball is their livelihood, these players have found that their time away from the field for this Bible study group has helped them realize there is more to life than just the game. It’s easy to get down when a hitter goes in a 2-for-30 slump, or a pitcher is in a bad stretch of outings where he allows four or five hits, and a few walks in every outing.
There have also been tragedies, like the Evergreen High School shooting in Colorado on Sept. 10, during the Saints’ last homestand. In those instances, their Bible study has been a way for them to come together in the clubhouse, pray for those impacted by the tragedy, and lean on one another to process such a horrific event.
“Those moments like that, there are just things that we can sometimes not explain,” Cardenas said. “I think that’s where the Bible study comes in with those guys and just having a relationship with them, and like, ‘Hey, let’s pray about this. Let’s get clarity.’
“Those situations are really tough, and to do those by yourself is really tough, and I think that’s what has really helped me with this organization is finding guys around you that just love Jesus.”
“I feel like I’ve had a down year, and I’m like, ‘Man, this kind of sucks,’” said Eeles. “But then I realize there’s more stuff than baseball in my life, and if I treat baseball as my god, it’s going to let me down. So getting into the Word and being together as just us guys has been really cool.”
Nobody can play the game of baseball forever, but a person’s faith and how they practice and engage in it with others are everlasting. That’s one lesson each man in this group wants to be sure they are carrying with themselves, no matter where they are, whether that’s at the ballpark or elsewhere in their public lives.
“I think we just push each other to be better in our lives, not only on the baseball field but off it, too,” said Jenkins. “We have to remind ourselves of that sometimes. It’s been a terrible week. I have not played the way I wanted to, that’s how I feel about it.
“But I still feel like I have my part in how I react and how I respond to fans, how I respond to teammates, how I am as a person both on and off the field. I think it has a bigger impact than anything I can do on that field ever. So, having those guys around me is just such an encouragement and a good reminder about, ‘Hey, remember where your roots are, remember you keep your head at.’ So it’s been great, man.”
And no matter where these players find themselves next season, whether it’s still within the Twins organization or elsewhere, they hope to come together again once a week in another long season and continue building their bonds of fellowship and faith both on and off the field.
“Just being around those guys, it’s a breath of fresh air,” said Ohl. “It’s just something special, and sometimes you take it for granted when you’re around other believers. I miss those guys a ton, and just being around them is phenomenal.”
