First baseman Wes Clarke of the Nashville Sounds was baptized by a teammate in a horse trough after their recent game against the Memphis Redbirds. The teammates both wore “Jesus Won” shirts during Clarke’s public display of faith in Jesus. The Sounds, the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers, won the game 4-1. Clarke, a 24-year-old drafted in the 40tth round of the 2018 MLB Amateur Draft out of Liberty Christian Academy in Lynchburg, VA, took to Instagram to commemorate the most important victory.
Clarke wrote, “Had the privilege of being baptized yesterday on the field by one of my good friends @brewerhicklen after our game. Thank you, Jesus, for this amazing moment in my life. I am incredibly blessed to be surrounded by so many supportive people. It was such a special night!” His baptizer, outfielder Brewer Hicklen, told the Christian sports media ministry Sports Spectrum that he had planned the baptism to be held after his club’s Faith and Family Night before team officials nixed the idea due to insufficient time to make arrangements. Officials then accepted his proposal for a baptism at a future date.
The baptism had been slated to feature another teammate, shortstop Vinny Capra, until Capra was promoted to the major leagues only days before the game. Hicklen, who hit a home run in the game, said the team rallied around Clarke in support of the momentous occasion. “We had a team meeting before the game, and I was like, ‘Hey guys, you may be a Christian, you may not; you may support what we’re doing, but you may not. But I think it’d be really cool if you guys were there to support Wes as a teammate,'” he said. “Everyone was like, ‘Yeah, man, we’re all about it.’ So everybody stuck around; it was pretty cool. We even had a couple of guys from the other team stick around.”
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Hicklen and around a dozen other teammates participate in a team Bible study currently exploring Ephesians and definitions of Christian manhood. Both as a team and individually, the players have used their platform as witnesses for Christ. Hicklen said, “The assistant GM [Doug Scopel] was like, ‘Man, I’ve been doing this for 25 years and have never seen this happen before.’ He was happy with it. The GM [Adam English] texted me after and was like, ‘Man, that was awesome.’ It was pretty cool. I had several fans email me. It was cool; it was a powerful moment.” When the time came, making the moment happen was easy enough. Hicklen told Sports Spectrum that the players filled a horse trough with water from the stadium grounds while half of all the fans stayed to watch.
The baptism was an answer to prayer for Hicklen, to whom God delivered the “eternal connections” among his teammates for which he had prayed six months earlier, he said. Clarke’s baptism comes after several other professional athletes, entertainers, and celebrities professed their faith to millions.
Comedian Russell Brand was baptized in April, calling it “an incredible, profound experience.” About two years after her much-scrutinized conversion to Christianity, television personality Kat Von D took the plunge last October. Former wrestler Hulk Hogan was baptized last December, describing it as the “greatest day of [his] life” and a “surrender” to Christ.