That crispness you felt stepping out of your door this morning; the sudden shock of golds, burgundies and burnt siennas on your morning commute; the reluctance to rise with your alarm in the still present darkness of extending night can only mean one thing: it’s baseball playoff season.
Rolling now into the League Championship Series’, which started on the Lord’s Day, October 12, the relentless charge of October has already seen eight teams jettisoned from contention for the sport’s most desired prize, the World Series trophy.
That list includes baseball juggernauts like the Yankees (last season’s runners up to the Los Angeles Dodgers), Red Sox (winners of three World Series this century), and Phillies (runners up three years ago), as well as a quartet of the league’s most aged and venerated tribes: the Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians (yes, I said Indians, forget the Guardians nonsense), and Cincinnati Reds.
What remain, intriguingly enough, are three fresh challengers looking to put their agonizing histories to rest, taking on the aforementioned Dodgers, who are looking to repeat as baseball’s creme de la creme – a feat not accomplished in a quarter century, when the Yankees did it from 1998-2000.
All seems like typical sports stuff, right? How many ESPN and Fox Sports articles have you read that start with a similar bent? Well here is where we take a big right turn.
Game 5 of the ALDS between the visiting Detroit Tigers and the Seattle Mariners last Friday night – a game won by Seattle, catapulting the Mariners to baseball's final four – was notable for several reasons.
And somewhere in the mix of that five-hour marathon, FOX announcer Adam Amin made a comment in sheer admiration for what was unfolding: “October was made for the MLB postseason.”
With all due respect, and I have no inclination of Amin’s personal faith, that statement deserves an Author, a Creator – someONE made the month of October, that One being the One, True God. And to some degree, that God, the Father of Lights, who gives ALL good things for us to enjoy, gave us the great sport of baseball, and its postseason to enhance the enjoyment of October.
It became something noticeable in recent years, players openly and boldly proclaiming faith in Jesus Christ. I’m not talking about the softboiled nod to acknowledging God’s part in making such-and-such a tremendous athlete; but actual, vocal proclamation of the Lordship of Jesus.
What seemingly started in the latter part of the 2000’s with Tim Tebow kneeling in submission to Christ after every touchdown and writing Bible verses into his eye black; has morphed into a major movement.
NBA star Jonathan Isaac came into the spotlight with his pronouncement of faith in response to that league’s capitulation to the spirit of the age and Black Lives Matter following Covid and the “Summer of Love”. His Unitus sneakers pay homage to Christ.
The Unitus logo is a modern take on the Ark of the Covenant—a reminder that God once dwelled with us in an object, but now dwells within us through Christ. 🙌
— Unitus (@weareunitus) April 17, 2025
How does knowing God is with you change the way you live? Let us know below. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/SAtZQEihPP
In 2024, the Ohio State Buckeyes college football team – that went on to win a national title – became widely known for its evangelism and Christian faith that spread to nearly all players and staff.
And in baseball, 2023’s World Series Champion Texas Rangers became known for not only becoming the first Championship team in MLB to win all its road games in the playoffs, but for a simple message posted on their t-shirts worn under their jerseys: JESUS WON.
“There is a movement going to where people are seeking Christ, because God's changing hearts,” former MLB pitcher Dennis Sarfate told me in an interview early in the season. “And it's really, it's really cool to watch and to see that Jesus wins. And those Jesus Won shirts with Texas and now guys with the Diamondbacks are wearing them. It's encouraging.”
For the last five years, MLB has been known more for its capitulation to the culture than any kind of Christian ethos. Yes, MLB had a Covid bubble season, yes, it supported BLM in 2020 and allowed teams to cancel games, including the Seattle Mariners, in support of BLM protests.
And since 2020, June’s slate of games has been marred by “pride nights” celebrating sodomy and other abominations being hosted by 29 of 30 teams. The only team, interestingly enough, that has refused is the Texas Rangers. In 2021, they cheekily hosted a “Charley Pride” night, complete with a bobblehead of the former singer.
Despite MLB’s refusal to get rid of this month-long eyesore, the tide does seem to be turning, not just to sanity, but to Christian faith. Early returns for 2025 show a league-wide uptick in attendance, but pride nights were among the least-attended games in several cities.
Meanwhile, a team like the Mariners – a team hosted in pagan Seattle of all places – has become this season’s version of the Rangers, with starting pitcher Logan Gilbert sporting the Jesus Won message in Mariner’s blue.
Team manager Dan Wilson concluded the regular season game clinching Seattle’s first division title in 25 years with a prayer, and after winning the series against Detroit following the 5-hour 15-inning affair, FOX’s TV crew piped the Mariners’ prayer circle at mid-field into millions of homes nation wide.
“It's going to take this next generation of players, the younger guys, which you are seeing a lot of younger guys are faith based players; like a lot of these kids will say they're Christians,” Sarfate said. “There's faithful leaders in the community that love God and are standing on God's word that are influencing these people. But when you see celebrities coming to Christ, and you are seeing all this stuff, like there is a reformation going and I believe it's slow movement. God works. God strikes straight blows with crooked sticks.”
Whether there is a wide-spread revival afoot in pro and collegiate sports, or whether these are small, isolated incidents, you can decide. But there is no question the Lordship of Christ is on full display this October, a month He made, among other things, for playoff baseball.
