Aside from correctly picking a Nelson Cruz-Prince Fielder Home Run Derby final, my biggest highlights from All-Star weekend were quotes from Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals and Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers in asserting their faith ahead of the sport they play. I can't find the exact quotes, but I'll try to paraphrase.
Due to his the amazing numbers he has put up with remarkable consistency since he entered the league, Albert Pujols has had the steroids/performance-enhancing drug cloud hover over him recently. These suspicions are, so far, completely unsubstantiated and unfair. There is nothing to suggest he has ever taken any kind of PED, with no real spikes or dips in production, like other players have had. When confronted with this issue just before the All-Star break, Pujols affirmed with great conviction that he had never taken any PEDs or steroids and that they (testers) are more than welcome to come to his house and test him whenever they want. He went on to say that it wouldn't be worth it to take drugs, anyways. Why risk jeopardizing his relationship with God? For what, to get better at the game? Not worth it whatsoever.
At the Home Run Derby on Monday, Josh Hamilton (Home Run Derby champion the previous year) was interviewed live by Erin Andrews of ESPN. She asked him, now that he got a chance to watch it from the sideline this year, what was his best memory from competing in it last year. His immediate response, without hesitation, was the fact that he got a chance to witness to millions of people worldwide, being able to share his relationship with and the good news of Jesus Christ. (Hamilton has a checkered past after being a #1 overall draft pick but falling into drug addiction but being able to recover and work his way back. It's a great story that you should look up if you haven't already.) Naturally, Andrews' first reaction was to steer away from that topic and try to get a baseball-related answer out of him. She brought up the fact that the Yankee Stadium crowd began chanting his name, and he said it was a "close second."
Obviously, neither of those specific comments made any headlines. Reporting in sports tries to stay as neutral on topics of religion as possible, but they were headlines for me. For two high profile athletes to be open with their faith in a very public way (in Hamilton's case, going out of his way to joyously spread the name of Jesus Christ) in a time when you are more likely to get condemned in the public eye than praised for it, I could not be prouder of my fellow Christians. Hopefully other athletes, including myself, can use these examples (in addition to other athletes like quarterbacks Kurt Warner and Jon Kitna) and witness with pride and confidence in the future.
Praise God.
