For Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright, backing Black teammates is a matter of Christian faith
It would be difficult, if not impossible, to name a figure in St. Louis sports in recent memory who has been more sure of themselves than Adam Wainwright. Oftentimes that can come across as ego, or perhaps even ignorance.
With Wainwright, it instead manifests as a singularity of purpose. He is driven by faith, unrelentingly, unabashedly, and is using that as a guidepost to navigate issues of social unrest which are now being confronted more broadly across baseball.
“I’ll tell you this — as a Christian man, my job first and foremost is to love my neighbor, and to love my teammates and to love my friends and my family the best way I know how,” Wainwright said Friday before the Cardinals’ opening day matchup with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“We had a big team meeting the other day, and Dexter (Fowler) and Willie (McGee) and Jack (Flaherty) spoke, just going over some of the things that they’ve felt their entire lives. And they looked at us and they said, ‘hey, it would really mean a lot to us if y’all would join us in this movement.’ And you don’t have to tell me anything else besides that. When my teammate looks at me and says he’s in need, he needs me to stand up for him, that’s great.”
Wainwright brought up his own faith, but the conversation was even more timely given the comments made by San Francisco Giants reliever Sam Coonrood, who graduated from Carrollton High School in Greene County and attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
As the rest of his teammates and coaching staff knelt along the foul line prior to the playing of the national anthem, Coonrod remained on his feet, holding the black length of cloth which was stretched between both teams. He was the only person on either team who did not kneel for that moment of reflection.
“I’m a Christian, like I said, and I just can’t get on board with a couple of things that I have read about Black Lives Matter,” Coonrod told reporters on Thursday night. “How they lean towards Marxism and they’ve said some negative things about the nuclear family.”
He added that his faith prevents him from kneeling “before anything besides God.”
Wainwright was asked about Coonrod’s comments. He says he feels no need to choose between his faith, patriotism and support for his Black teammates.
Wainwright chooses all three.
“Let me first tell you I’m very secure in my faith,” Wainwright said. “When I, as I plan to do, kneel with my teammates before the anthem, I’ll do so with a clear conscience. And I’ll rise and put my hand over my heart like I always do and look up at that flag with the greatest reverence I could possibly have for it.
“I’m tied for first with loving this country. I think it’s the greatest with probably millions of people who feel the same way. I had two grandfathers that fought in the war. I can do all of that, but I don’t need to do all that because I’m secure in my faith. And I’m secure in what the Lord is telling me.”
Far from critical, Wainwright was gracious. He said that he was sure Coonrod, as a Christian, felt support and love for Black people, and turned to the words of his friend Benjamin Watson, a former NFL tight end who has devoted himself to ministry since retiring from football.
“Nobody can tell you how to protest,” Wainwright said, citing Watson. “If anybody tells you how to protest or tells you that you need to protest a certain way, they’re missing the point.”
The Cardinals and Pirates had planned to echo the remembrances seen around baseball by kneeling for reflection prior to the national anthem and rising together for its playing. Instead, the pregame ceremonies became rushed and disjointed, and only a few players had the opportunity to kneel.
Pittsburgh outfielder Jarrod Dyson remained kneeling as the anthem played. Manager Derek Shelton moved to stand by his side as he did so.
Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty stood in the outfield, the only player not in complete uniform. Instead, he wore the black t-shirt which many of his teammates wore throughout pregame workouts. In wide letters, the shirt read “BLACK LIVES MATTER.”
Both Wainwright and Cardinals President of Operations John Mozeliak confirmed that they’d received a great deal of negative backlash, primarily via social media and email, about the club’s decision to make a statement in favor of racial justice. Neither was remotely repentant of the message.
Wainwright dismissed messages he received declaring he was a “fake Christian,” saying, “this has nothing to do with that for me, besides that’s the way I try to live my life every day. This is a grander thing that we’re going through right now. For me, it’s about the people. It’s not about any organization that might be doing good things, or people think they’re doing bad things, whatever. This is about people.
“I’m gonna quote Benjamin one more time, but I’ve heard people say that they don’t see color. Well that’s kinda crazy, because God created color. So he created us all differently. Why did he do that?
“Well, I don’t know why he did that. Could be easier if everyone looked the same. But I think there’s a reason there. We’re all supposed to embrace everybody’s differences and love them anyways. That’s what I think is supposed to happen.”
This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 8:20 PM.
