A night at the ballpark took an unexpected turn when a baseballer was baptised on the field after a game in Nashville, Tennessee. Wes Clarke, a minor league player for the Nashville Sounds was baptised in front of a large crowd of cheering fans immediately after his team’s victory.
Wes’s teammate and brother-in-Christ Brewer Hicklen performed the ceremony in a large horse trough that was wheeled out and placed near home base. Both players changed out of their uniforms into JESUS WON T-shirts to mark the special occasion and Brewer gave a five minute Gospel presentation to the crowd, half of whom stayed for the ceremony.
Wes later posted on social media thanking Jesus for blessing him: “Had the privilege of being baptised 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!”
Wes described himself as a Man of God and a Christ Follower on his social media pages, listing the Bible reference for 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 which states, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Brewer Hicklen told Sports Spectrum he is part of a team Bible study that is focusing on Ephesians and studying what it means to be a Christian man. He had originally wanted the baptism to be held following the team’s Faith and Family Night, but Sounds officials said there was not enough time to organise a post-game baptism. Brewer then asked if it could be held after a future game. Sounds officials agreed it could. It was a night to remember for Brewer, who also hit a home run during his team’s win.
“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. Everyone was like: Yeah, man, we’re all about it. So everybody stuck around, it was pretty cool. We even had a couple guys from the other team stick around,” Brewer told Sports Spectrum.
The opposing catcher and home plate umpire both told him they thought the baptism was “cool’ and so did the Sounds managers with the GM saying: “Man, that was awesome.”
The Nashville Sounds are affiliated with the Milwaukee Brewers major league organisation. Brewer Hicklen had previous played with major league teams Kansas City Royals and Philadelphia Phillies before signing with the Brewers thanks to some divine direction: “I just asked God: Place me somewhere where You feel like I could have some influence and have some opportunity to make eternal connections with some teammates,” he said.
At his Bible group teammate Vinny Capra who was raised as a Catholic wanted to get baptised again, to show he had made the decision to place his identity in Christ. He got together with Brewer and Wes Clarke and they planned a double baptism before Vinny got called up to play for the Brewers. His baptism will be delayed until he can return to Nashville.
Photo: Instagram – Wes Clarke
