JACKSON, Tenn. — Cody Strait has traded red for blue, but his message is still about white — as in Christian purity.
After four years with the Cincinnati Reds organization, Strait, from Sour Lake, was traded to the Kansas City Royals' minor league affiliate in July. He left the Chattanooga Lookouts, the Reds' AA Southern League affiliate, for the Wilmington (Del.) Blue Rocks, the Royals' High-Advanced A team in the Carolina League.
Strait was drafted in 2004 after playing at Ranger Junior College and the University of Evansville.
Brad Glazier photo
While a sophomore at Ranger, he realized that to become the Christian he claimed to be, he had to step up to the plate.
“Up onto that point, I considered myself a good guy. I played the good-guy role. I went to church, but I didn't really live like a Christian,” said Strait, an outfielder who hands out autographed baseball cards with his testimony. “One of my teammates (pitcher Kelsey Cates) was living for the Lord. He showed me how a Christian should act.”
Wilmington Manager Darryl Kennedy said Strait has a reputation as a “very spiritual Christian young man. I haven't seen anything that would discredit him.”
Strait, the son of B.D. and Lynn Strait, grew up in a Christian home. He accepted Christ as his Savior when he was young and was baptized at Pine-wood Baptist Church in Sour Lake, near Beaumont.
Realizing later that he did not have an intimate relationship with Christ, he said his life revolved around himself.
“The decisions I made were based on my own desires. Although I seemed happy with the way my life was going, I knew something was missing,” he said.
“I had a choice to make. Was I going to continue to live for myself or would I start living the life God intended for me?'”
The answer was obvious to Brent Leffingwell, his coach at Ranger Junior College, who said Strait “lived by his example.”
“He's a true believer. He's a firm believer,” said Leffingwell, now athletic director at the college and Strait's brother-in-law. “He sets an example. Not many people can live it. People can say it but not live it.”
While getting to the major leagues is his ultimate goal, Strait, 25, has a goal of being a spiritual trailblazer with his teammates.
“I want to do something to try to set a good example, to be a spiritual role model,” he said.
Staying on the straight and narrow path in professional baseball requires discipline that he finds by studying the Bible, praying and through encouragement from his wife, Melissa. They are expecting their first child in December. He also attends chapel services.
“After a game, some guys go to a bar or out partying. I'm in my room talking to my wife. When you claim to be a Christian, everybody looks at you that much closer; they are trying to find faults with you,” he said.
When asked how someone would know Strait is a Christian, Chattanooga teammate Justin Turner took out Strait's baseball cap from his locker and pointed to the top of it. Strait had written “7 (his number) To God Be The Glory.”
“He is real positive,” Turner said. “He is always in a real good mood. He talks about his life.”
Shaun Cumberland, a Lookouts outfielder, added: “Everybody knows he's a firm believer. He is a good-hearted guy.”
Strait, who lives in Marble Falls, Texas, during the off-season, played in the Arizona Fall League in 2006.
Strait keeps his baseball cards in his pocket. A major league player usually sponsors a minor leaguer's supply, which are printed by an organization promoting Christianity.
“When I was young, I would go to a baseball game and hang onto every word those guys said. I know how it is with little kids, you look up to those guys,” he said.
“If I give them a baseball card with an autograph, they'll cherish it. They'll read the back of it and hang onto every word,” said Strait, who still treasures a broken bat autographed by a Cincinnati player he got when he was a youngster.
Strait also distributes baseball cards when he speaks to church youth groups. “I may bring 200 or 300 cards and speak to 20 kids and they'll all be gone.”
On his card is his favorite Scripture, Luke 9:24, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
“I stopped living for myself and started living for Christ. When I step on the field, I feel that I have nothing to lose because I have already lost my life for his sake.
“I've surrendered my desires to Christ and replaced them with his plan and desires for my life. I now have everything to gain because Christ has my best interests at heart.
“At the end of the day, no matter how I did or if everything is falling apart in my life, it's going to be great because I always have the Lord. My strength comes from the Lord.”
Bill Sorrell, a graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, is pastor of First Baptist Church in Whiteville, Tenn., and a freelance sports writer.