The Baltimore Orioles might have had only a middling season in 2023, but though their record wasn’t great one thing the players did was: a collection of the young men met for weekly Bible studies throughout the season, uniting and bonding with each other through sharing their Christian faith.
Mark Viviano of WJZ-TV Channel 13 Baltimore drew attention to the story on X (formerly Twitter), noting that he stumbled across the story by speaking to Oriols pitcher Tyler Wells, who he saw writing something in the dirt on the pitcher’s mound, and that conversation led to him learning about the team Bible study.
Viviano, posting about that on X, said, “Tyler Wells wrote in the dirt before pitching a game this season. I asked him about it. He said it was his tribute to a relative [with] a terminal illness. Wells went on to talk about faith, fellowship & Bible study shared by a sizable group of @Orioles players & their families.”
Continuing, Viviano noted in a second tweet that he learned, when speaking with other players, that the members of the team sharing their faith led to furthered brotherhood among them, saying, “As I spoke with more players, it was clear that their brotherhood in faith furthered their bond as teammates.”
36-year-old player Kyle Gibson, the oldest member of the Bible study, spoke about it to CBS, saying, “We do Bible studies once a week and have chapel on Sundays. It’s really cool to spend time and be in fellowship with those guys. Our faith gives us something to have a little unity over, gives us something to lean on whenever you’re going through hard times.”
Gibson added, “For me, it’s just a good reminder that I think there’s a lot expected of us because of where we’ve been. And for me, I believe that love started in the Bible and Jesus is love, and for me, I’m trying to love people no matter who they are.”
And while Gibson didn’t hype himself up, Wells noted that Gibson’s leadership of the younger men was hugely important, saying, “Kyle Gibson is a big influence. Adley Rutschman is a big influence. Austin Hays is a big influence. You have guys who aren’t afraid to talk about it.”
Similarly, another Orioles pitcher, Danny Coulombe, said, “A lot of guys prioritize that. Obviously for me, and most the guys, it is the most important thing in our life, even more than baseball. We’re Christians first and baseball players second.”
22-year-old Gunnar Henderson, the youngest member of the Bible study, said, “We do Bible studies once a week and have chapel on Sundays. It’s really cool to spend time and be in fellowship with those guys.” He added, “Be able to have guys you can lean on in that sense and be able to both have that love of Christ and be able just to coach each other and help each other along the way. It’s been really cool to have those guys that I can lean on, especially being in my first year.”
Featured image credit: By Bryan Green – https://www.flickr.com/photos/begreen90/49201616553/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=118325699
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