“Andy Phillips and the 800-pound Magilla Gorilla in the playroom?” writes Repoz, who passes along the following item from the Pensacola News Journal :
“I accepted Christ at 7 years old,” Phillips said. He said he was watching Walt Disney’s Scrooge McDuck on television and was inspired by the transformation Scrooge went through.
“That clicked for me,” he said.
He said that without God, he may have continued to play the way he did during his freshman year at the University of Alabama.
“I was absolutely the worst baseball player you had seen in your life,” he said. “I thought about hanging it up.”
He said that during the next summer, he prayed and read the Bible.
“I completely surrendered,” he said. “I said, ‘If you don’t want me to play, I will never play another game.’ “
From then on, his game was a success. But he insists he would give up his career for his religion.
“I would trade my uniform in tomorrow,” he said. “I would trade my rings — everything today if it meant changing my relationship with Christ.”
I’m sure Christ gives a crap, Andy. You’re probably not even in His top 30 right now, what with the Super Bowl coming up.
There are many athletes who have personal religious convictions and may have spoken of them with the Pensacola BBWAA or other individual. Interesting you & BTF thought this one so worthy. I wonder if press accounts mentioned how some kind of faith may have been helpful in Phillips’ coping with his wife’s long struggles with cancer.
you’ve got enough of an eagle eye Susan that surely you’re aware this is hardly the first time a ballplayer’s views on religion have been highlighted on CSTB (or BTF for that that matter). As far as the newsworthy nature of this one is concerned, I’ll confess that I’ll struggle to match the scintillating standards you have set with your own blog. But that said, if the Pensacola paper or any other outlet has a story about another another ballplayer who credits Scrooge McDuck for his enlightened ways, I would certainly consider it worth an entry.
It should go without saying that I have no interest in making light of Bethany Phillips’ cancer. Though while I suppose it is curious the PNJ found Phillips’ struggles between the lines a more relevant storyline, perhaps he didn’t want to discuss his wife’s chemotherapy?
I just wanted to say that I have met Andy, hung out with him for a weekend, and seen how he lives his life for others and for God. Just because y’all prefer shallow pro athletes, who are only in sports to make a buck and then die years later after leading shallow lives is kind of lame. Maybe you should appreciate “a good guy” and how his life is different because of his relationship with Christ.
“Just because y’all prefer shallow pro athletes, who are only in sports to make a buck and then die years later after leading shallow lives is kind of lame.”
thanks, Stephen. I’d never really thought of Arthur Ashe, Dikembe Mutumbo, Etan Thomas, Thierry Henry , Steve Nash or Bill Lee as shallow athletes just looking to get paid and laid, but I appreciate the head’s up. Tell Jesus I said hi.